If you are thinking of getting into CNC milling, think of the Sherline product as a learning tool, because its weak motor means you won't get any project finished until Americans start going to church again, and letting it influence their lives. I need to mill a 3" wide piece of 6061 aluminum doown to 2.686". I wrote a snmall specific application to mill any piece of aluminum to a specific height. I can remove 0.01" layers at a time, at 3 in/min. On a big mill, you could take off much bigger layers than that. The temptation to buy bigger gets stronger and stronger. Sherline's lathes seem to have enough power, but the same motor on the lathe seems underpowered.
I am learning a number of tricks. When actually milling, feed 3 in/min. On the return stroke across a milled surface or when moving an axis without any milling, use 100 in/min.
UPDATE: For some reason 10 in/min at 0.01" is working well, leaving a perfectly smooth, almost mirrored surface.
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