[Railgun]

I mentioned the size issue ealier but perhaps you missed it.

If you have the room and you KNOW you'll be into the machine work as a long term hobby then it's false economy to buy machines that are too small. You'll end up frustrated with them and find ways to avoid using them where if they were a little larger and more capable you'd find that they are easier to use.

ESPECIALLY with milling machines where you often need room for the tooling. When it comes to tooling the vise is the least of your worries as far as working room goes. Try adding in a rotary table that may well have a 3 or 4 jaw chuck mounted to it or a 5C collet holder. The stack height of such a setup is often around the 5 to 6 inch high area even with smaller pieces. Then you still need room for your workpiece and cutter and cutter holder if you're not using a collet or similar style of low extension cutter holder.

In fact I'd say that it's more important to have a bigger mill than it is a bigger lathe.

The machines Kidney recomended are as small as I'd recomend. The lathe is actually a nice hobby size. The mill is OK but I sure would not suggest anything smaller at all.