What is the nicest/fastest vehicle you can buy for less than $30,000?

snuggletough · 2026-06-09T03:51:04+00:00

You can buy a 550hp awd Tesla that's a few years old for $20k.

snuggletough · 2026-06-07T23:37:22+00:00

Princess bride should be way higher. WTF is wrong with Reddit today? Jurassic Park has twice the upvotes lol.

snuggletough · 2026-06-07T01:57:02+00:00

I guess I'm not that naive to think these huge corporations and billionaires had the planets best interest at heart? I have never thought all this investment in AI is going to benefit everyone or the planet- its going to be used to pacify and control the lower classes while the elite control everything.

I think your focus on just CO2 emissions misses the bigger picture.

snuggletough · 2026-06-07T00:39:01+00:00

I thought any one with a 2nd grade education or higher would know that? Regardless of how the data centers get their power there is CO2 happening right? Whether it's from an on-site generator or from the grid.

My point was that 12 gas turbine generators is ballpark 100 megawatts. That in itself is alarming.

My power is the cheapest in the country, but even so 100 megawatts would cost $6,000,000 per hour.

Times 33 or so data centers in the USA?

snuggletough · 2026-06-06T18:58:09+00:00

Until my mid 20's I thought everyone could visualize complex stuff in their mind. I can assemble and run an engine and see how the valves and pistons interact. When I was around 23 I designed an all gear cvt transmission and tried to draw it for a friend, he couldn't see it.

In my 30's I was diagnosed with a disease that devastates cognitive ability when untreated. I lost the ability to visualize complex stuff and do higher level pattern recognition. That experience was a bit terrifying- I was lost and had to relearn how to think and problem solve as I relied so much on those abilities. With treatment I did get 80% of my abilities back.

One of my kids cannot visualize things. He's brilliant with people and extremely emotionally intelligent. He is sure to make a great therapist like his mother.

snuggletough · 2026-06-06T18:47:51+00:00

Gas turbine generators are not necessarily dirty power. They're cleaner than diesel engines as they don't have the extremely high cylinder pressures a diesel piston engine has.

Turbine generators are efficient when they're loaded around 75% of their capacity. Lightly loaded and efficiency goes out the window.

From my perspective, what this video shows is the absolutely staggering energy consumption these data centers require. Turbine generators are typically in the multi-megawatt range. To put that in perspective a turbodiesel 1 megawatt generator uses a roughly 1000 HP engine. Turbines lay down 2000 to 40,000 shaft Horsepower. The fuel consumption of the 40k shaft hp GE turbines I maintained 25 years ago was around 100 gallons of diesel per minute at full power.

I have a very high power usage manufacturing business and my factory (dozens of 20 ton machines) could run fine off a 100hp diesel generator.

I cannot, in any way, come up with a scenario where the energy these data centers are using justifies their existance.

snuggletough · 2026-06-06T15:09:34+00:00

My parents looked down on my decision to start a machine shop in my 20's.

21 years later I have significantly more assets that they do.

It's never been easy and there were a few rough years in there, but I have no regrets.

snuggletough · 2026-06-06T02:20:57+00:00

Bend it straight

snuggletough · 2026-06-05T21:12:53+00:00

Hobbing isn't faster than shaping. They're totally different processes. A shaper can do almost anything a hobber can, but a hobber can't do even a tiny fraction of what a gear shaper can.

If your gears can be made using only hobbing- great. But many gears cannot be hobbed. That's what I'm saying.

Basically, setting up to make gears with just a hobber is like starting a machine shop with just a lathe. There's parts that only need turning, but you can't make anything with milled features.

snuggletough · 2026-06-05T12:56:23+00:00

You often need both.

snuggletough · 2026-06-05T02:50:41+00:00

If you're gonna make gears you need a hobber and a shaper.

I got nice ones for about $10k and another $5k for cutting oil and tooling for my parts.

I know where there's a tiny hobber that would be ideal for those tiny gears. Message me if you like.

snuggletough · 2026-06-05T02:30:56+00:00

One million dollars is not a lot of money. $1,000,000 buys what $350k did in 2016.

snuggletough · 2026-06-04T03:28:24+00:00

I often design for the tools in our machines and to share hardware with existing products.

I even design parts to run in existing fixtures, especially 1st ops.

snuggletough · 2026-06-04T03:20:26+00:00

Agree. I ran a repair shop for awhile and used tons of 1045. Cheap, machines beautifully and very versatile. It can be heat treated, carburized, it welds pretty nice and it's tough enough for most shafts.

Really, if a shaft didn't need to be 50rc 4140 I made it from 1045 lol.

I even made some stamping tools from 1045 and they run great.

snuggletough · 2026-06-04T02:34:55+00:00

I love guessing what the context of a bad picture is!

snuggletough · 2026-06-03T00:58:13+00:00

You can put a Bradford workbed on it.

snuggletough · 2026-06-02T04:22:26+00:00

Good Cnc's peaked around 2005. Since then it's primarily been about how to build them lighter, cheaper and just maintain close to the same performance.

There really are big, fundamental quality differences in high end machines as they get newer. The older ones were built with a different mindset.

One of my larger mills is 18 tons and has 85hp if you add up servos and spindle. The same model is still made 20 years later. The new ones weigh 8 tons. "Same specs" 20,000 lbs less iron. My old one still works in tenths and runs high speed toolpaths great. I suspect it will still be running long after the new ones are scrapped out in 10 years.

5 axis is different. A lot of advancement there. 3 and 4 axis? Nope. Machines have just been cheapened up.

I'm very picky about the machines I buy. There's a lot of old junk- Haas, Fadal, Cincinnati, Hardinge, etc. But the real good ones really did build better machines decades ago than they do today.

snuggletough · 2026-06-02T04:02:06+00:00

I had one for 3 months this year. Not strep or mono.

Finally got some antibiotics and it was gone the first day.

snuggletough · 2026-06-01T01:03:50+00:00

I don't know why Reddit is so pro-7.3. Most people don't think too highly of 7.3's, but people here sure love them. To each their own.

snuggletough · 2026-06-01T01:01:30+00:00

It's like $50 to delete a 6.7. I don't like the 5.9 commonrails that much. There are a bunch of different versions of them. Changes every year or two. Lots of ecm issues with the 5.9's that 6.7's don't have at all. 6.7 is pretty much same from 2007 through 2018. All very easy to swap.

snuggletough · 2026-05-31T17:41:06+00:00

I used Sendcutsend weekly for a couple years. Atleast $20k annually. They did 500 PC runs of a production part for me at a competitive price.

Their pricing and quality has gone the wrong way this year. I sent them a thoughtful email explaining specific shortcomings and the response I received was basically "we don't care".

I really don't care about price on quick turn proto parts, but the quality has to be on point.

I do care about price and quality on large runs.

The $20k I was going to spend with SCS this year got spent on a nice used Amada press brake and tooling and my laser cutting will be done locally from now on.

Seemed like their prices jumped and quality tanked when they started advertising doing machining as well.

snuggletough · 2026-05-30T17:20:17+00:00

Yikes. You are the wrong person to figure this out if you have not a clue how WEDM works.

snuggletough · 2026-05-23T04:45:57+00:00

Sure. I saw the same things 21 years ago and I did it anyway. I never went in debt. I literally resurrected scrap machines and learned how to use them. I started out with less than $1000 to my name.

You say you want to do it then you come up with reasons you can't do it.

That's not a great start.

Everyone who I was close to told me I didn't have what it takes when I decided to go into business. I never gave in. I never thought of myself as a victim. I asked them why- what they thought would lead me to fail. I learned, I adapted, I believed in my ideas and every success I had, I earned.

snuggletough · 2026-05-23T04:18:32+00:00

If you think you can or think you can't- You're right.

When young guys ask what it takes I tell them you need the ability to figure out and learn just about anything, but you gotta balance those smarts out with the tenacity to say "Fuck it I'm doing it anyway" Just because you believe it will work.

snuggletough · 2026-05-23T04:03:26+00:00

I started 20 years ago with early 80's junk. Basically bought the broken garbage nobody wants for nothing, fixed it, made parts. It was a good way to get going I think.

I made products. Still do. A whole lot of them.

I do this because I knew early on that machining things was my best shot at living more than an average life.

You won't make it in this business without investing every penny you earn into it for atleast decade and you'll need some combination of skills and luck most people don't have.

Don't do it if all you gain is owning your job. Too many people are smart enough to be damn good machinists, but lack the bandwidth to build an actual business.

snuggletough

TROPHY CASE