Mini metalwork lathe

[Steve Maskery]

My mate Brian has been on about getting a metalwork lathe for ages, but now has a rather more urgent need for one.

Plus it'll mean I have access to metalturning

He hasn't got loads of space, but has seen a mini lathe, benchtop jobbie. Unfortunately I can't get him to tell me where he has seen this! So my q is:

Does anyone here have any experience of these little machines? Are they little Davids or a waste of money? Any recs or warnings?

Thanks
Steve

 

[woodbloke]

Steve - suggest you give Newt a PM to ask him, I was in his w'shop on Monday and has a very good metalwork setup and is a mine of really good info on all things to do with metal - Rob

 

[dymas]

Steve

The majority of the mini lathes sold in the UK now are made in China and range from ah so to ah soles. I looked at a quite a few different makes which all seemed to come from the same factory albeit with different colours/badges and wildly different prices. I was very dissappointed at the finish, overall quality and true running and decided to research for a second hand Emco, small Myford or similar.

In the end I landed on my feet and managed to find a Record ML210 and ML360 which were brand new and had been sat on a dealers shelf for years ( when I saw the original price label I could understand why....crikey tools have come down in price over the years).

These lathes were made in Japan by Toyo and are a delight to use. If you can get one of either snap it up pronto. I use them for fun but several books have been written on clock making using these lathes. They are way too good for what I use them for but I am a sucker for precision tools and suffer dreadfully from severe Festoolitis rash.

As to little Davids it all depends on what you want to turn and the dimensions. There is an excellent web site www.lathes.co.uk
which is full of info, advice and lathes for sale and which I hope will be of interest.

Regards

 

[CHJ]

Steve, as has been said a lot of the smaller lathes come from the same stable, differing paint jobs, differing corners cut dependant on stockists/brand label specs.

Most of those originating from China could be considered by most as a kit of bits, requiring owner fettling to bring them up to scratch, having said that it depends on what they are needed for and how accurate you need to be.

I have one of the 9x20 clones See my links for some info. relating to this pattern machine.

One thing to check whichever make or model is whether it is imperial or metric, a lot of them are supplied in either dependant on market (Aus/USA/EU) it's not uncommon to have both versions in same location due to import route.

Some may be mixture of both, metric scales/imperial leadscrew or visa-versa can be a pain if you need screwcutting.

PM sent as well.

 

[jasonB]

As has been said by the others the mini lathes are all from the same factory, usually Sieg and they are made to a price.

You need to find out what sort of accuracy is needed, the chinese ones will do it with some tweaking but for how long will they hold their accuracy?

I currently have a 25yr old Emco 8.6 that would cost several thousand pounds now and is built to a far better standard, Heres some of what I have done on it

If you need a better quality small lathe then the American Sherline, or UK Cowells lathes are worth looking at, if its larger work then a secondhand Colchester, Myford or Harrison are all solid machines.

If He does go with the Mini Lathe then this is a good site for how to get the best out of it. There is also an e-bay seller who does them cheaper than Axminster.

Jason

 

[Steve Maskery]

Thank you all, I'll pass on your helpful remarks.

Cheers
Steve (who has had a lousy morning and it's not yet 9 o'clock... )

 

[Anonymous]

Steve,

if you want a new tool there is no reason to use the 'my mate Brian :wink:' speech with us. Save that for swmbo.

Dave

 

[Waka]

Steve,

if you want a new tool there is no reason to use the 'my mate Brian :wink:' speech with us. Save that for swmbo.

Dave

I don't think Festool do a metalwork lathe :wink: :wink:

 

[Newbie_Neil]

Steve, if you want a new tool there is no reason to use the 'my mate Brian :wink:' speech with us. Save that for swmbo.

ROTFL. :lol: :lol:

Cheers
Neil

 

[DomValente]

I know where there is a Myford Super 7 going for sale local to me. If you're interested can find out how much they want.

Dom