I would agree with you that Enco is not anywhere near the quality of a
Bridgeport. The only reason I even mentioned it was that for a weekend
racer the equipment they sell is more than good enough and in a lot of
cases it will come out cheaper than even a used Bridgeport. Also the bench
mills that they sell will do lot (although not as much as a Bridgeport) and
they can be put down into a basement with relative ease. Whereas a
Bridgeport is seriously heavy and if the workshop is in the basement you
would be hard pressed to get a real mill down there. If you are willing to
be patient and are educated, for price of what you would pay for a new
Chinese made Enco you could probably pick up a used Made in the USA
Bridgeport that would last you for the rest of your life. That would rely
on a bit of luck and patience however. Machine shops do seem to be one of
those businesses that go out of business on a regular basis however so
there alwasy seems to be used machinery floating around out there.
Jim Wilson
CP Wannabe
At 10:56 PM 7/18/00 , Stephen Bernard wrote:
>> tools for 20 years now. If you buy a good piece of equipment you
>> will use
>> it for a long time and your money will be better spent than buying
>> one of
>> the $1500 or so 3 in 1 tools and then finding out you are
>> dissatisfied with
>> it and selling it for half of what you paid for it. If you are
>> looking for
>> machine tools I would suggest Enco - most of their stuff is Chinese
>> made
>> but for around $900 I believe you can get a benchtop mill that will
>> do a
>> pretty decent job. The other thing to take into account is a lot of
>
>My father was in the machine trade his entire life.
>Owned his own corporation and he disliked Enco.
>Better bet is to find someone locally who REALLY knows
>the equipment and buy a decent used Bridgeport.
>The ways might have to be ground tho.
>As far as a drill press there are a lot of really nice used ones
>on the market.
>"All in One" machines can't do anything well.
>There is a company that does make a small miller that my dad
>really likes, very acurate and affordable. I could get the name
>if the original poster is interested.
>Myself I only have about 14 years in the Machine trade.
>My dad has almost 40 years.
>Good equipment is always a good investment and can usually
>be sold for pretty close to what was paid for it.
>
>Steve Bernard
>Red '99 Miata (B-Stock)
>NER Region (Novice Class)
>mailto:Solo-2@juno.com
>
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