looking for thoughts on small lathes

[rmatchell]

I am looking into buying a small bench top lathe for working on all the projects that I cant get done at work. I looked at all that Harbor Freight had to offer then went to amazon and checked out the grizzly. What thoughts do you guys have on these lathes, or on others in the 700ish range. Im leaning on buying from amazon because I get about 50 a month in gift cards from swagbucks and such.

[deltaenterprizes]

Grizzly has better quality than HF and you can get parts from Grizzly.
Don't expect the rigidity of a bigger lathe.

[elk hunter]

Many of the import mini lathes have plastic gears and no quick change. Some don't have a power feed. So, do look at the specifications carefully so you know what you are getting before you buy. There are thousand of older US made 6" lathes out there looking for new homes, but again look carefully before you buy.

[rmatchell]

The plastic gears are what worries me most. I also wondered if the smaller cheaper lathes are really made all that differently made, so how much difference is there between a 500 and a 700 dollar lathe.

[jmorris]

My thoughts are, no matter how big your lathe is you will find a need for a larger one. My first lathe was a bench top style Craftsman/Atlas, that lasted about 6 months, it's now down at our farm as a "just in case". A 12 x 40 would be as small as I would want to go.

[KCSO]

Go look at the Little Machine Shop before you buy. They have the parts on hand and their stuuf is better quality than HF or Grizzly. If you can afford it the extra moey spent is well worth it. I bought a Grizzly once and by the time I shelled the plastic gears and replaced them from LMS with metal i would have been money ahead starting out right. You also need to shop Craig's List and such, I got a South Bend 9x36 (18" between centers) for $300.00 by shopping around.

[beezapilot]

Be a little patient. In my opinion buying something a bit older, made in the USA will pay off. Often a used lathe will come with tooling. Parts are oftentimes easier to come by than you might think for some of the older stuff. I've an old Atlas that I picked up off of Craigslist for $200, not variable speed, but came with a complete set of gears to change out. The seller was a nice guy and threw in 3 five gallon buckets of tooling, tools, center punches, drill bits, chucks, collets... etc.

This is a great forum with links to get manuals, parts lists etc for older metal working machines,

http://www.owwm.org/viewforum.php?f=77&sid=e9f59324681e4a74cab64c87e05cb023

[Char-Gar]

When these threads come up, lovers of large floor lathes jump in and say that is what you need. I bought my only lathe about 12 years ago and it has been perfect for my needs. It is the ultimate reloading shop tool and I need nothing larger. I bought a 1947 vintage Logan 9X18. It is a change gear lathe, but I can live with that. I have plenty of patience and can change gears and make multiple passes to remove stock. It gives me great accuracy and is all I need, and I don't plan to buy a larger floor lathe.

Like guns and shoes, there is no one size fits all in lathes. A fellows personality, patience, time availability and work habits all figure into what he needs in a lathe.

[bangerjim]

If you can find an older SouthBend you will be much better off than HF or Grizz! The ways are hardened and ground. And the parts just fit better! USA made!

My SB is from a high school shop and was made back in 1968 per the s/n in the bed.

It is still just as good today as it was back then!!!!!!! Dead on accuracy, virtually ZERO wear-out (remember this was from a shop class!).

I have one of those toy HF 7x12's in my back yard shop. It is OK for messing around but is very noisy even with the plastic gears. I would hate to hear it with LMS metal replacements. OMG!

HF and others love those gear head tools. Sounds powerful in print but......they suck. Belt drives are quite and powerful. And if something "happens" (a jam), the belt slips.....not "a gear strips"!!!!!

My SB purrs like a kitten......even on power feeds.

And with the 1HP 220 3 phase VFD I added, I can control the speed down to 1 RPS at full power.

Recommendation: Get a bigger unit than you think you need...you will always be thankful.

banger

[rmatchell]

I just found a unimat-sl on craigslist for 250. Are they solid enough?

[KCSO]

Unimats are obsolete and you will have to adapt parts from Sherline, the Unimat is for little stuff like miniture steam engines ect and wouldn't bea whole lot of gun stuff you could do on them. The three jaw chucks for them are not good for holding anything tight. These are about like the old Atlas 6" hat was made by... and was at best a hobby toy for brass turning.

[rmatchell]

The biggest thing I want to do right now is to be able to start making some dies. I have used the equipment at work in the past but right now they are in sad shape, havent been maintained in 15 plus years. I would also like to try my hand at cutting a mold or two as well.

[Any Cal.]

The dies would need a boring bar or reamer, or would need a shopmade reamer, heat treated. Also whatever stock you choose to use, measuring tools. May be less expensive just to buy the molds and dies...

Not that I have room to talk, I am waiting on the endmill to help mill the reamer I have to heat-treat to modify the mold... A $40 mold will have $1k worth of equipment and an amateur at the wheel trying to keep me from selling it and buying a $90 custom... I have the potential to save $50 or lose $40 now that I have money and space tied up in the lathe.:-)

[Any Cal.]

All the Unimat stuff is tiny and expensive. If you have to buy any parts you will wish you had bought something else. That being said, if it is all there, you could probably buy it and play with it before selling it at a small profit.

[rmatchell]

I agree that buying the dies and molds would be cheaper but where is the fun in that. I take more pride in showing somebody somthing I made than somthing I bought.

[rmatchell]

I was able to track down a craftsman lathe on craigslist no idea what he wants to trade for it yet but looks like its in good shape just needs a good cleaning.

9070190702

[Any Cal.]

I have the same one but very slightly newer. That one looks pretty rough... The set of change gears cost $169 on Ebay, the 3 jaw about $120. The fact that it has some of the handles are a bonus, usually the compound handle is broken. It looks like a standard bearing model, can't tell if it is 8 or 16 speed from the pic.

I wouldn't give more than $200 for that, it needs a lot of help. You can get a lot of parts on the bay, but they add up to the cost of a new lathe pretty quick. Somebody else will know more about cleaning that one up or how much it is possible.

[rmatchell]

it has all the change gears and a face plate with it not in the picture

[rmatchell]

907039070490705

[Any Cal.]

That's better! Still looks rough, but hard to tell without being there. Mine was in a little nicer shape, and at $300 for mine, I came out OK but not great. I *think* that the extra length and lower backgears gives a little more capability than most 7x chinese lathes.

Lots of info here...http://www.lathes.co.uk/atlas6inch/

Search "Atlas 618" on Google and Ebay for parts and info.

[rmatchell]

I went today to look at it and I was surprised. Its got 10-15 years of dirt and grime but was tight just waiting to be cleaned and put to work. I will say it was smaller than I thought.

[wyattjames]

I have a southbend heavy ten and a grizzly 9x18 the south bend is my favorite to run cause the quick change gear box and power cross feed .the grizzly is a great little lathe there is a group for them in yahoo and they have pretty much found out all he cons and have come up with ways to improve the machine IE add more rigidity ect, but if your like me you will want a bigger lathe just trying to save up and step up to a 15 swing gearhead .though if you can find an old atlas or south bend ect I think you will be at a better starting point then a Chinese lathe till you go to the 14 inch machines.

[375RUGER]

I just got a Grizzly 10x22 and couldn't be happier with it. Buying it I knew full well I will be upgrading later, and plan on it, but right now this is what I could afford and have room for and is a good size for what I have planned. I really wouldn't want anything smaller. I don't mind the change gears because I'm not trying to make a living with it.
I looked for older lathes around here but everything cost more than the Grizzly and needed work or weren't fully functional, and didn't have 4 jaw chucks, etc. etc.