electrical engineer retiring in a couple of months

[Colin Barron]

Work out how much space you wish to use and look at old machines of that size, then find one which needs a rebuild. A rebuild is much easier than starting from scratch and more likely to give a usefiul accurate machine.

[Neale]

That might well be true with vertical mills, but is it also true with routers? My impression is that commercially there is a big jump from the cheap Chinese machines to the much larger/heavier commercial machines, so not as much choice for the home user. On the other hand, there is a bigger turnover of ex-industrial/college/school mills ripe for conversion. Not saying you're wrong, just curious.

[Colin Barron]

What you say is true of milling machines and lathes. Small light machines are expensive compared to larger better quality machines. The downside of the school machines is they can only make small parts. There are some small industrial machines but as you say few and far between. Have a look on Gumtree and machinery auctions/ dealers. The electrical retrofit gear from China is as cheap as chips but read through the forum at other peoples posts to find out what is good.