Dithering continues, but revised.

Still pondering a junior milling machine.

Given my reluctance, at this point, to deal with logistics (curbside freight deliveries and such), I think it's pretty much down to Sherline via the Brown Truck of Happiness.  Besides which, Sherline products are made in the U.S. of A.  Well, California.  Which hasn't officially seceded yet.

Now, for immediate purposes, even the bottom-of-the-line Sherline mill would get the job done.  But... for long-term utility?  Springing for a NexGen model makes a lot of sense.  With the factory DRO.

But then I get into the revised dither.  Manual mill with factory DRO?  Or... maybe... go for the CNC setup?

Mind you, what I really want in a CNC mill is something with enough power and rigidity to carve precision jewelry out of nasty tough work-hardening alloys, which puts us solidly back in freight-truck-delivery territory, if not hiring-industrial-riggers.  But there's probably enough mundane stuff I'll want to make out of ordinary sensible materials... so... a Sherline CNC is still worth considering.

I'd thought I'd commit to the NexGen-with-factory-DRO configuration this morning, but now I'm back to not-quite-decided.  Such is life.

Update:  Went for the manual mill with DRO, not the CNC.  A CNC setup can wait, and maybe I'll roll my own in the fullness of time.  Also ordered various accessories that I expect to need.  And, hmph.  I omitted to add a 3-jaw chuck for the rotary table... but methinks I may have a Sherline chuck (no, I don't recall why I would have one) in one of the boxes.

This being 2020, of course there was a complication.  This is arguably capital equipment (no, I don't plan on telling the IRS that, unless I find myself using it for actual business), so it ought rightly to go on the business credit card, right?  Oops!  Address verification failed.  I take a closer look at my account, and, whaddya know, that account is still showing the Palo Alto address.  I thought I'd updated all the accounts with that bank, but apparently not.  Oh, well.  I used a different card, and will have to sort out the address change later.

Looks like it'll be a coupla weeks before it arrives, which gives me time to build a workbench for it (and various other power tools) to sit upon.  Got a suitably large and sturdy slab of plywood and some 2x4s, plus screws and glue and paint and even some vinyl trim strip to put around the edge.

Comments

[Rob]

You have a fork lift... well a tractor that can lift things with forks... so why not?

[Eric Wilner]

I'm still not comfortable with toting heavy objects up the driveway, then maneuvering around to the garage, with the loader. The driveway is kinda uneven.
Then there's interacting with delivery drivers in Pestilent times (I'm not in the really-at-risk demographic, but my father is). And the uncertainties of weather... I think I hold off on heavy stuff until next year, once we get the barn converted to a proper workshop and the driveway fixed. And then I'll go for bigger equipment than I could reasonably stuff in the garage at this point.