It all depends on what you need to do with it, Ed. I have a '70s era no-name Taiwanese 13x40 lathe that I found on Craig's List being sold by a company that was going out of business. So far it's done everything I needed it to do, but the big plus was the huge amount of tooling and the DROs that came with it. I learned with my mill, that only came with one end mill and a vise, that tooling can cost more than the machine! The mill is a Lagun FT-1 with a 9x42 table, also set up with a pair of DROs. Lots of way wear and backlash in the drive screws, but it's easily worked around with the DROs. It came from a hobbyist that had upgraded to a very nice Bridgeport. Both my machines have 3 phase motors, and a rotary phase converter powers them. I found a used Baldor 7 HP 3 phase motor on Craig's List and a custom configured controller from American Rotary/Gentec, who were great to work with. The motor was $75 and it was another $450 for the controller and load center, not cheap but it opened a whole new world of opportunities for other 3 phase tools.
It also depends on how much space you have. The lathe and the mill take up about a third of a single car garage space, and believe me, once they're set up and leveled, you don't wanna have to move 'em again.:shocked:
With all the repairs I've been able to make using parts or tools made on the lathe and mill, I've probably paid for both tools and the phase converter stuff. But then most of my power tools came to me as Craig's List orphans that needed a lot of TLC, and I ride/drive older vehicles on which a person can actually do their own repairs.
Back to the Clausing, I wasn't familiar with one, and found an interesting thread that discusses pros and cons:
Opinions on Clausing 8520 Knee Mill?
Hope this helps!
