The combo machines are not worthless, they do have their place, but you would be well better served if you bought dedicated machines. Go
here and search for 3-in-1, smithy, there has been a lot of discussion about this topic. Like Willyswanter said, your best bet is to look for used American made lathe and milling machines. Keep an eye out in the local classifieds, thats how I picked up an old Sheldon Lathe for $400. Bridgeport is definitely a name to look for in milling machines, For lathes I would look for Atlas, Clausing, South Bend, Monarch($$$), Hardinge, Sheldon. Craftsman used to put out a nice lathe made by Atlas, I see these all the time on ebay. For a lathe, figure out what you might want to do with it, if you would like to cut threads, a quick change gear box is a nice feature. Tooling gets expensive, so if you find a lathe with a good amount of tooling with it, for a price you can afford, take a closer look, you might find a bargain. I got really lucky when I got mine, I knew almost nothing about lathes, except that I wanted one. Folks who see it can't believe I got it for only $400. It came with very little tooling, though. I've easily spent $1000 on ebay tooling it up over the last four years, and I still don't have all the stuff I want. Also, try estate sales and auctions, but do some research on what to look for first. The HSM site I linked to at the beginning of the post is to machine tools, what this site is to Chevy trucks, TONS of searchable info, and a LOT of extremely knowledgeable folks. They welcome stupid questions of all kinds and are always willing to help out a newbie. /forums/images/graemlins/thumb.gif
And check the same site for drill press info, I think this was discussed pretty recently. A jet model was mentioned, I believe...
