Shopmaster, worth it?

[Stepside]

Today was great. great students, great progress. Its like getting paid to play or being a talent scout for a house of ill repute.
Time being what they are and being politically correct being necessary I have eliminated all the really good "shop teacher"humor from my teaching.--well most of it anyway.
I have some students that show up at 6:00AM because they want the knowledge and the skills. I actually use a lot of info gleaned from this site.
Thanks
Pete

[OutlawSmithy]

I considered the ShopMaster ElDorado along with the Smithy Granite 1220 and they are pretty much neck & neck with a couple of exceptions. 1. is that the state of Nevada has no record of licensing for ShopMaster, nor does the BBB. And 2. is the YELLOW color! I don't think I could deal with looking at that yellow thing day after day. So, I bought a the Smithy as my first machine and I'm happy with it, but, I'm not a "die-hard" machinist either, just a home hobbyist.

[Mueller]

I have an older Shoptask (17-20) but it's close enough to the Eldo, IMHO

It's a love/hate relationship with my machine. Due to the size and how it was built there are comprimises for it. I had the chance to purchase a bridgport knock off on Monday for $750 with a DRO, but I really like the size of my 3.n.1 and it does work well for the projects that I have taken on.

I've changed mine over to ballscrews and have done other changes to improve it.
(CNC conversion will be finished this weekend)

Try to find one local to look at, even if you have to go a few hundred miles away, it might be worth it to see how you like it. Had I done this, I probebly would not have bought mine, but now I am very happy with it. Supposedly the Eldo's are an improvement.

I would get the quadralift option if they do not come standard, too me this is the mills weakpoint with the poor mill head design. I was going to make one of my own design, but I ended up purchaseing the quad. option today since I would be up and running that much quicker.