I would like to say

Even though I have not been here very long I would like to say how I have enjoyed reading a lot of the posts.

There are certainly a lot of very knowledgeable people here that One day I will pick your brains when I am ready to take the plunge and buy some machines,( still saving for them and the pot is getting bigger)

Some of the posts I do have to look things up not knowing what they relate too.

As per the title I would like to say thank you all for a great forum

Dont spend too much time saving,time passes quickly and life is too short. By the time you have saved enough to buy all you want,you may be too old to use them,so just buy something and get stuck in.

Who knows,you might even get to like it !!

+ ! for that larry ! As one gets older the realization that lifetime is not infinite becomes ever more obvious so the sooner one gets started the better is my view. '' Action this day '' is one of my tenets .

Derek, it's not really necessary to buy machinery before you start the hobby, why not choose your starting project, study the drawings and research the processes and see what you can do with just the hand tools that you already have to get the show on the road, because machines by themselves are of limited use, it is often the tooling and accessories that release their potential and quite possibly will cost you more than the machine itself. Most model projects have some sheet metal and/or barstock which you could start first and hone your sawing and filing skills which are needed just as much as turning skills, maybe more so.

Trevor.

Make that another +1 Trevor. And I agree with the remainder of the post. However I think a lot of us have built our kit up over a good number of years and probably in the end the tooling for any given machine costs a lot more than the machine itself. I started my "workshop" over 35 years ago with only a relatively cheap bench drilling machine which was not sold on until 2016. Tooling and machines were bought as I needed them hence spreading the cost over a longish period. Clearly a lathe came next but bought secondhand that was also with me until 2016. Tooling after the simple cutting tools at the beginning was built up over all those years.

I have had to cut down but those items of a larger size were sold to fund my set up of all handleable bench top machinery along with the tooling. My feeling is don't jump and just try to buy everything because everyone talks about it, get started simply, gain a bit of experience, build up as you go along, buy sensibly and wisely as you need it. Don't be afraid of failures either. Tubal Cain (Tom Walshaw) in his books particularly those for beginners, staaes that on some parts even highly skilled professionals make a couple of an item because they expect some parts to fail or not be completed successfully.

Also its a great stress reliever and therapeutic to nip out to the workshop after a bad day or the appearance of "The Black Dog" and make a great pile of swarf for no other reason than to make a pile of swarf with your lathe (or mill later).

Best of luck Derek, answers are here if you ask. Most of all enjoy this hobby.

regards

Ian

Thank you guys know the score when it comes to buying starting tools as I have already brought some and some I already owned from my plant mechanic days.

I already have a pillar drill which I use for both wood and metal as well as two bandsaws one I will dedicate for metal and the larger will be for wood. I know that the accessories can soon add up as that is the same as woodturning which I run two lathes with 4 chucks as well as different jaw sets for them.

I plan to have one end of the workshop dedicated for wood and the other metal and the machines that I can safely use with both without cross contamination in the middle.

To prevent wood shavings from the wood lathes will be screened off with a shower curtain as the shavings from them tend to fly everywhere.

As for the wood dust I will have two dust extractors set up only one running at a time.