I've had my Taig micro lathe for a few weeks now and have managed to get a couple little projects completed with it, and so far I really like it. My only problem was when I got it it was just a bit smaller than I'd expected and hoped(sadly there's not anything available between the size of my taig and an import 7x18 which is right where I'd want to be). This isn't a problem so much as an inconvenience as I have access to my great grandfather's old 9" southbend currently setup in my fathers garage. I do not have access to a larger milling machine so I will need to make sure I get something big enough for whatever I might work on. My uses will be highly varied, and no machine that I can fit will do everything I want unfortunately.
For starters I have a 2'x4' workbench which will house my mill and my taig lathe(takes up 12"x18"). So my mill will need to fit in the ~30 inches of width remaining. Other than that I will be making parts and pieces for a number of hobbies so versatility will be highly important.
On to the comparison:
The price point for both mills comes out to pretty much the same after shipping(depending how much LMS actually charges for shipping)
The LMS wins on:
Tooling for R8 availability seems higher than the ER-16?
Larger collet options for R8(3/4" vs 3/8")
Larger Z and X axis travel
Larger Table size
The Taig wins on:
Y axis(though its pretty close)
Build quaility
20 TPI leadscrews
Undecided: RPM on the LMS is 100-2500 while Taig has 525-5200. Which is more useful for cutting aluminum and steel?
Unsure if I really care to deal with the speed control on the lms seems really easy to not get the speed I need, also repeatability of speed.
I'm a bit stuck. I've liked the quality I've seen so far from Taig, and have heard a lot of horror stories about the quality on imports. Other than that I'm leaning towards the LMS setup. I'm not in a hurry, but I'm looking for some opinions from those who have used one or both extensively.
Poll