I'd be curious to hear more about your shop. What kind of work are you doing? What are your machines, tooling, work-holding, metrology, etc?
Mostly hobby/hobby gunsmithing at home. I have a couple welders, I've been welding at work for years. I'm trying to set up a home fab shop that is midway between crappy hobby junk, and $20k worth of production machines.
I have what's left of the Harbor Freight version of the Sieg X2 mini-mill. I bought it thinking "oh, I'll have fun upgrading it". Then took it apart for two years. It's been given a bigger table, Air-shock and extended Z axis travel, bigger motor, Belt drive conversion, custom fabbed stiffened column with positive tram adjustments, custom fabbed pedistal to hold electronics, mach tach tachometer, custom spindle light, and am putting the finishing touches on the three-axis DRO. And probably some other stuff. I should have just bought a bigger mill.
I just bought and set up
this Asian lathe. That's what the light is for. It seems pretty capable so far. I've turned some test pieces and the magnet ring for the mill's tach. I like it. It's not as solid as the big Jet at work, but it runs very well in it's envelope.
After those two are set how I like them I'm aiming for a CNC engraver/router. Then I can fab my gun projects, make supressors, engrave my own NFA stuff and the like. I have an 80% G19 in a couple boxes that I want to do a bunch of slide milling on as my next project. I also got hooked on a YouTube channel called Clickspring, so eventually I really want to make a clock. It looks really fun.
Tooling, I run carbide inserts on indexable tool holders in the lathe. Your basic CNxx rhombus inserts. I have different nose and relief angles for ferrous vs. non-ferrous. I'd have to go look at them to get the letters. I have HSS parting blades, and a couple pieces of HSS that I picked up along the way I can grind if I need to, but I haven't had to yet. On the mill HSS Ti-Ni endmills and collets. I decided against endmill holders because the collets hold the end-mill up closer to the spindle and that helps both Z-axis working room and rigidity. 2 and 4 flute in the common sizes. I have a dovetail cutter in a box somewhere for Novak front sight cuts, but I haven't gotten around to using it yet.
Workholding, I've got a three and four jaw chuck for the lathe. A 4" machinists vise and one of those Asian t-nut universal hold down kits for the mill. I want to get square and hex collet blocks. I have a good set of R8 collets for the mill and am thinking about a 5c set for holding round work on both machines. I'm keeping my eye out for a good price on a rotary table. I need about a 6" one.
Metrology, I started where everyone does; with a Harbor Freight digital caliper. I learned my lesson on some wasted hours of work, and 100 45ACP reloads that wouldn't chamber despite measuring OK. sigh. So I've haunted pawnshops and e-bay sales and have a Mitutoyo digital caliper, and a couple Mitutoyo mics. I have an old Starrett dial indicator, as well as the HF dial I bought first. I am still rocking my Asian DTI but it actually does OK for indicating runout and tram. The DRO setup I'm installing is so I can ignore backlash on the mill. With patience I get mics and dial indicators under $40. Just be aware of fake "name brand" digital measuring stuff. It is all over E-bay.
