I have 15+ years of professional design experience using Autocad, Solidworks, Autodesk Inventor, and other software. It's been several years now, but I do have some experience with CNC programming. Unfortunately, I haven't spent much time actually building things, at least not using metal. I've decided to start putting a home machine shop together to remedy this.
I am a hobby furniture maker and I'm exploring lathe options that would be suitable for both wood and metal. I could plan for two lathes, but my workshop is less than 600sq feet and already contains some tools and equipment such as a welder, workbench, wood storage, tools storage, bandsaw, and dust collection system. I plan to spend a couple of weeks browsing the forums, and I will likely have additional questions to post on this subject.
I'm not certain about which sort of projects I would like to concentrate on. I often find that my furniture designs are limited to existing hardware options and it would be nice to have the ability to build hardware to match the design, and not the other way around. I also occasionally have a need for custom tools or jigs. Other projects that interest me are clocks, telegraph keys, antique radio tuning mechanisms, flutes, and uilleann bagpipes.
I am a hobby furniture maker and I'm exploring lathe options that would be suitable for both wood and metal. I could plan for two lathes, but my workshop is less than 600sq feet and already contains some tools and equipment such as a welder, workbench, wood storage, tools storage, bandsaw, and dust collection system. I plan to spend a couple of weeks browsing the forums, and I will likely have additional questions to post on this subject.
I'm not certain about which sort of projects I would like to concentrate on. I often find that my furniture designs are limited to existing hardware options and it would be nice to have the ability to build hardware to match the design, and not the other way around. I also occasionally have a need for custom tools or jigs. Other projects that interest me are clocks, telegraph keys, antique radio tuning mechanisms, flutes, and uilleann bagpipes.