When to make vs. buy ?

[RichColvin]

Steven Nicholson recently posted about a kiln he's made.

I built it. I made a blog on how I built the kiln, follow the link.

And Filip Winiewicz posted on Sawmill Creek about possibly building his own lathe (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?255889-m25x2-accessories-for-diy-lathe).


I am building my own Rose Engine Ornamental Lathe. And my reasoning is that these are way more expensive when new ($5,000 to $100,000) and I want to tailor it to an art form I want to pursue. But even here I'm using my old Delta midi lathe as the base. Also, I am truly enjoying the project. Won't be beautiful when I'm done though (like a MADE lathe).


This got me thinking, so the question I'm posing to the group is : how do you decide when to buy a tool vs building your ownt?

Kind regards,
Rich

 

[Brian McInturff]

Time, money, and know how.
First - do I have the time to build(or would I rather turn).
2nd - do I have the "Spare" money to buy?
3rd - do I have the know how to build it or will I waste a lot more time through a "learning curve".
For me, that's where I'm at this point in time. Once I retire then I'll have to reevaluate...lol

 

[john lucas]

Gosh that's a tough one. I build a lot of things and most of the time it's just for the satisfaction of building it. I am a really lousy machinist but learned to use hand tools to very tight tolerances when I learned camera repair. So for me it's often just a chance to practice my skills and hopefully improve.

 

[hockenbery]

That is a tough one. Somewhere around 2000. Four people in my club adopted vacuum systems within Months of each other.

Two people built their vacuum pumps and bought drum chucks from Oneway

Two people bought their pumps and plumbing kits and made their chucks from wood and PVC.

I think it came down to the comfort zones for making vs buying.
I bought my pump and plumbing.

 

[William Rogers]

Money, ease of making, need, and capability to make a functional tool.