Re: METAL LATHE

RM-MN

Member
First off, decide what you want to do with the lathe. If you intend to machine large parts, a large lathe will be needed. If you want to just do a little hobby machining in soft metals a little one will suffice.

Larger lathes will be able to handle deeper cuts in harder material because they are more mass and stiffer. Usually they have larger motors to handle the deeper cuts.

Don't be swayed by people who tell you that you have to have a massive lathe. You are a beginner. When you got your first pair of shoes you didn't get the $200 boots most likely as you didn't need them but as you grew into what you are now you replaced those first shoes. You can do that with a lathe too. You may pay more that way. Consider that as the tuition payment.

I have a 10X24 lathe in my garage and can make some impressive parts with that but I also bought a Harbor Freight 7X14 to be a hobby lathe. As I use it I learn techniques that transfer to the larger lathe which improves my use of that. With the cheap little lathe, the tool sharpness is critical. I can keep my parts that I make with that within .001 inches, close enough for my intents but I need a really sharp too for that.
 
I was taught to run a lathe in high school and did pretty good with it. Then 40 years later I buy myself a old Dunlap lathe and discovered I forgot everything I ever knew.
 
What RM said. You also need to decide on a new, probably china import, or used, old, probably US made and better quality IF IT IS IN GOOD CONDITION. Hanging out on the
Homeshop Machinist general forum for a while or the Practical Machinist antique forum might be of interest to you too. And while not as well known as South Bend a Logan
is considered an equal and may be less money than a "name brand".
 
I should have mentioned that you can probably get some lathe know how books from Brownells, the gunsmith supply co. Used to be you could get a lot of such books from Lindsay Publications, but they are gone. I don't know if anyone has picked up any of their reprints of old books on mechanical stuff. Does anyone know about this?
 
(quoted from post at 20:28:10 01/22/17) Those are all made in china.

Pretty much everything cast is; too expensive to cast and machine in this country. You have to have something with a great profit margin, like cars and trucks, too do all that domestically.

Plus when you're target market is the Home Shop Machinist, price is all important; too much and they don't buy. The commercial guys can write off close to 50% of the cost thru depreciation and other tax dodges. HSM can't, so he pays full boat.

I have a lot of Chinese tools, as well as the South Bend and B'port; they all work good enough for me. YMMV
 
You will get much more for your money buying used industrial than new home shop duty.

Watch for shops closing, Craigs list, Ebay. Try to find something in reasonably good condition, watch for evidence of being "crashed" like bent spindle, sheared gears, etc. Try to find one still under power so you can put it through the motions. Get as big as you have floor space for.

Look for a package deal with tooling, such as drill chuck, live center, tool post, assorted cutters and boring bars. All that stuff is expensive, quickly adds up.

Anything decent will likely be 3 phase power. Try to find something 240 volt, then you can add an inverter to make it work on single phase 220v.
 
You can make small parts on a large lathe but its real hard to make large parts on a small lathe. I would get a larger lathe then what I think I would need.
 

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