Some further questions:
1. what do you do for drills larger than that 1/2" (13 mm)?
Silver & Demming, Hole saws. boring operations, core drills & etc.
2. what do you have for cutting keyways?
Well if I can, throw the part in my back pack and take it into work. That isn't going to last for long as retirement is near. I probalby should do something for my lathe, tooling wise for that need.
3. what do you have for cutting woodruff keys (are you ever doing that)?
Woodruff cutters. However to be honest is is probably better to design around them.
4. mill tooling - - - just a small shell cutter (carbide inserts)?
or do you have a couple three different sizes?
Right now my shop is limited to a 9x20 lathe, drill press, band saw, welder and some wood working tools. So no mill at home, however at work we have a simple collection of tools / tooling. End mills of various sizes, fly cutter, one small shell mill, not actulaly a huge collection. This is a maintenance shop not a "machine shop". In the end you can accomplish a lot of you are willing to fabricate the required support tooling.
I am not just fabricating models that fit in a 150 mm cube (6").
Working of projects that are more like a 2 m cube (6').
I don't think I will ever be equipped to work on stuff that is that large that isn't a weldment / fabrication. It would be nice to have a full size mill, huge lathe and so forth but that is big budget stuff.
Haven't got a mill yet - - am thinking a ram type but would like to get something with a 30 or 40 taper rather than the R-8 - - - that seems to not be so prevalent.
TIA
If you are looking to go beyond a Bridgeport type mill, probably the best bet in a manual machine would be something like a
Kearney & Trecker Model 3H Universal Mill. Or maybe something even larger. I wouldn't dismiss a Bridgeport style mill though, they fill a very nice niche in the manual machine shop. I guess it comes down to why you think you need a 40 taper. If t is due to the desire to do heavier work, the stiffness of a universal mill may be worth it.
