I'm in the process of equipping my shop. One tool I have yearned for a long time is a verticle mill. I have looked out on the net for used equipment on E-Bay (there are no deals there really) and have found some fairly nice prices on some equipment from offshore (China and Australia). JET comes to mind quickly as I can get a new one for a bit over $6K.

Anyway, my first question is about those 3 in 1 machinist shops. Sure, it would be nice to have something compact and can do everything, milling, drilling, and lathe, however, just how good are these machines? I looking for something that can accurately go down to .001" granularity so can these types of machinery do that? I also want to be able to have a CNC interface so the equipment must be both manual and robotic.

Second of all I want a surface grinder. With making parts with the above I would also want to be able to dress it nicely. I even have polishing equipment and now anodizing equipment to make that custom look. Anyway, are there any surface grinders that are particularly bad or good?

Other than that I have looked at some used engine build equipment and that stuff is expensive! I will still have to enlist the services of a complete machine shop to do the decking, bore honing, etc.

Does anyone know of some used mandrel pipe bending equipment? I found some new stuff for around $7K so I would figure used stuff sould be in that or lower price range.

Any other suggestions on eqipment that is useful? I have the welding stuff, band saws, sheet metal brakes and benders, etc. I have a chassis dyno available and I am thinking of an engine dyno. It would be nice to have an engine completely broke in and dialed in when you put it in the car. Anyway, any suggestions you may have is welcome.

Thanks in advance.