Ditto - my first "vertical" milling was done in a lathe because that was all I had. I progressed to a built-from-a-part-machined-kit vertical mill which was much better but still very bendy compared to the Bridgeport I used in evening classes. I now have a Chinese vertical mill which is wonderful compared to what went before. But all three machines had something that a typical 2.2kw spindle doesn't have - slow speed. With cutter speeds in the 500-1000rpm range, I could minimise resonance, keep up chip size, etc, without overloading the machine. These water-cooled spindles are great things but they just don't go slowly enough for some things. That's why I have plans to CNC-convert the mill, once the new router is built.