Metal working lathe

[Trevsf1]

Anyone recommend a good small scale lathe for train work,

Cheers

 

[jasonB]

What gauge trains? Gauge 1 is small, 7 1/4 big

 

[Keith 66]

Buy the biggest machine that you can afford, Myfords have a good reputation for modelmaking but good ones are expensive, also they have a piddling small hole up the spindle which is a royal pain if you want to turn any decent size bar, effectively they are always too small for the job.
A Boxford is not much bigger and can do a whole lot more. If you want a real quality big machine there are a lot of Harrison 140's about & the earlier L5 is a good machine too. Whatever you buy dont get suckered into buying a machine with little tooling unless its very cheap. Most dealers strip machines of bits so they can double their money selling the bits on again! Lots on the market due to colleges & schools shutting workshops so its a buyers market.
And i havent mentioned chinese machines they can be good but not for me!

 

[antarmike]

Colchester student, chipmaster or Bantam?

 

[dickm]

Have a look on Homeworkshop.com. Usually quite a lot of choice on there. For most amateurs in the UK, with their huge user-base and (in spite of RDG tools!) the availability of spares, Myford ML or Super 7s are possibly the best answer, unless you are building 1/4 scale locos! Take your time to get a good one seconhand, and if it's not abused, you can hand it on to the next generation when you shuffle off

 

[Webby]

Colchester student, chipmaster or Bantam?

AAAAhhh my apprentice bliss in the 60s loved all these machines .....wish i had one now



Dave:O)

 

[antarmike]

I have a Mascot 1600 at work and a Mastiff 1400 with DRO in my home workshop. I like Colchester lathes. I also have a Kerry 1340 for smaller stuff.

 

[dickm]

It's an interesting one, isn't it? On the one hand, Myfords are everywhere and they fit into a reasonable space but because of the name, everyone wants one and the price "per unit of capacity" is probably high. Colchesters, Boxfords etc. are more capable, but take up more space, so less feasible for most amateurs, but prices "per unit of capacity" tend to be lower, given the potential performance.

You pays your money and you takes your choice..........

 

[DTR]

The popularity of Myfords means that spares are readily available. I'm not sure if that is the case for other manufacturers

 

[jasonB]

The other advantage of the myford and to some degree the far eastern lathes over the ex industrial machines is that they have a decent cross slide with tee slotted ways. This allows the lathe to be used for milling with the aid of a vertical slide if you don't have a mill and large items to be held directly on teh cross slide for flycutting or using a between centres boring bar.

With about 10" capacity in the gap they should be capable of any loco driving wheels upto 7.25" G which is the largest dia part likely to be encountered.

J

 

[Keith 66]

Having owned a myford super 7 i would make the following comments, i used it mostly for air rifle work, although a good lathe its inability to take anything bigger than 9/16 up the spindle limited it severly, parting off was not really possible as the cross slide assembly etc was simply too flexible despite all gibs being adjusted on the tight side. Ok for small parts but thats it. They are modelmakers machines & as such tend to be very expensive.
The Boxfords from the CUD upwards are far more substantial with not much bigger overall footprint than the Myford.
As for far eastern machines. The college where i work recently disposed of a Bantam & replaced it with a Warco. I stripped & rebuilt the remaining Bantam & found there was less wear & slop on the 40 year old machine than the new one that had replaced its sister. There is simply no comparison.
The only problem you will have is parts for older machines like Colchesters or Harrisons are eye wateringly expensive. But then a good machine well looked after shouldnt need any!
There are a lot of ex industry machines out there that are clapped out, but on the bright side there are a lot of ex education machines out there that will have had an easy existence for most of their lives.

 

[antarmike]

There is absolutely no problem obtaining spares for Colchester lathes.

The Student has a 40mm bore spindle, the Chipmaster 35mm. Bantam 2000 is 32mm . Colt is 35mm .

Myfords only sell because it is what model engineers use , and what model engineers buy. They buy them as a result of Myford marketing without reference to how good or bad they actually are. Myford sell them as the only lathe for a model engineer, and there are books and articles about them everywhere. I fail to understand why a model engineer should make this choice since as pointed out the spindle bore prevents entering much work. If you flood the market with adverts for the Myford then you start to get sales, however bad the lathe actually is.

If you are determined to own a Myford, then there is the Myford super 7 plus "Big bore" that had an inch bore spindle instead of the tiny 3/4" bore, but in my opinion you are seriously low on specification , even then.

I ran Model Engineering Classes at two different colleges, and many of my students has Myfords, but came to our courses to use the Colchesters and the Harrisons because they where out of capacity on the Myford and a bigger lathe was needed. Hardly any of my students could have completed their models if they had not got access to something bigger than a Myford.

 

[dannykaye]

I have an axminster bv20 chinese import in need of tlc that I can no longer find room for that I would sell for around £150. It has a quick change toolpost and a 4 jaw chuck that you could have too

 

[brianhabby]

I've recently acquired a SABEL which I'm pleased with. It needed a fair bit of cleaning but doing so has taught me a lot about it being a complete novice.

These things are out there if you bide your time. I would suggest you don't rush your choice and you'll eventually find the right machine for you at the right price.

regards

Brian