Want a Lathe

[Beekeeper]

I do not have very much room to put one. Have a 2 car garage with 2 cars in it as well as all the rest of the junk one accumilates over the years. You know gun safe,reloading junk, casting stuff ,fishing gear, extra freezer for game "you know man junk". Was thinking about one of the all in one ,Lathe , drill press , mills offered at Harbor Freight.
It ain't much but would make gadgets and screws I guess.
Only other answer is to send ideas to family member who owns a machine shop and hope he understands my giberish.
I would appreciate anyones input (good or bad ) one this as well as anyones recomendations.

survivalists Dad

[bigdog454]

Get a used Atlas, or Logan. There are some others that I am not familiar with that would be good. These are bench lathes and will not take up too much room and if in decent condition will be accurate and do a good job for you. I'm not sold on the harbor freight lathe, I feel they are cheap!

[deltaenterprizes]

Three in one is not a good lathe or a good mill.Don't waste your money.

[Catshooter]

You might go to Sherline.com and see what they have to offer you.

The only limitation with Sherline is part size. Many don't like them as you can't get a barrel through the head stock, but I use the hell out of mine.

I like that they are American made, have all the accessories/tooling in the world and the guy who owns them has a wonderful attitude. As an example, about the only part they don't make is the cast motor bracket. A while back some came in that weren't square and Sherline didn't notice it right away. So of course Sherline will fix it free if you send it to them, or he'll tell you (on their web site) how to do it.

They use standard American screws/threads for all their stuff unless the part has to have a special pitch.

They are not heavy duty tools. They are very compact though, and just as accurate as you are.

I love mine.


Cat

[HeavyMetal]

I'll suggest moving closer, or moving in , with the family member that owns a machine shop!

They logic here is that he has all the extra man junk your gonna buy any way, why not subsidize his investment and share the "digs"?

If you can get this one past SWMBO A. your set! and B. You are a way better man than me!

[Gussy]

I hope you know that what ever the lathe costs and space taken, the tooling and extras are twice as much!!!!!!!!

Try to find a used one WITH tooling. I do NOT exaggerate the extra costs.
Gus

[deltaenterprizes]

I hope you know that what ever the lathe costs and space taken, the tooling and extras are twice as much!!!!!!!!

Try to find a used one WITH tooling. I do NOT exaggerate the extra costs.
Gus

Truer words were never written(spoken?)!!!!!!

[PatMarlin]

Yep-

I just spent near 2/3's on tooling this week of what my Logan cost me.. :mrgreen:

One thing I can say about the HF 3in1 that sits on my mobile shop bench is it got me into machine work and has come in very handy for tasks that are not real precision, but would have been very difficult without a lathe or mill.

Bought it on sale some years back for $400.

To that end it was worth it.

[PatMarlin]

HF is very compact. Pic shows it sitting on the bench back on the right.

You could get a much better quality 3 in 1.

[Buckshot]

.............Get seperate machines, for sure. There are some fairly competant 3 in 1 machines out there, but I'm danged if I'd tear down a milling setup to use the lathe, then have to re-setup the mill to continue on, or vise-versa. Sure some planning ahead will eliminate some of that, but not all. Accurate setup is the name of the game, and regardless the machine, setup will be the ultimate reason your project is crap or a good deal. You could spend considerable time doing a setup for a 15 minute job, and having to tear it down KNOWING I had to set it all up again later would about kill the deal for me.

You can get a 7x10 lathe for somewhere around $500 or a 9x18" machine for maybe $900 and the 9" would be my minimum. Then later you can get a mill-drill or even a smaller square column milling machine. In the meantime outfits offer mill vices for simple light milling on the lathe. Both are benchtop machines so have no footprint on the floor (Assuming you have rigid sturdy benches).

.................Buckshot

[Houndog]

Listen to Buckshot, He knows what He's talking about! I started with a 6" Atlas lathe and a mill-drill and found out Fast that I needed bigger equipment. I wound up with a 12X36 gear head lathe and a 9X49 mill. I'll second tooling costing more than the machine! The thing about it is after you get a lathe and a mill you wonder how you ever got along without them.

[Marvin S]

Beware of the old atlas flat bed lathes, these where not flame or induction hardened and are most likely worn out in the area you use them most.Google buying a used lathe and visit practicalmachinist.com. I finally ended up with a 14x46 clausing for home use. Maybe there is a trade school close to you that you could go to evening class and use the machines there.

[trevj]

My advice is to steer clear of the 3-in-1 machines until you have enough experience to tell how many compromises there are built in to them.

You can do good work on them, but you will need a sense of humor, patience, and a better than fair knowledge of setups and alternate ways to run a job, to really get much use out of one.
They are pretty good machines for sheet metal spinning, as they have a tall center height, but they tend to be too fast for threading, esp for someone not familiar with the process, and confident.

I see South Bend 9 Inch lathes for sale fairly often, under a grand, pretty well tooled up.

There are lots of bigger machines available, for about the same price range, if you have the space, and have the means to transport them. The ones that are too big for the average guy to move, usually sell for less, due to lack of demand.

If you are planning on doing any barrel work, watch for a spindle bore that is at least 1 3/8 inches. That will allow most blanks to fit through, but as importantly, will allow you to fit a 5C collet closer to the spindle (5C collets are about the cheapest, and most available size, too)
That would put you looking for a South Bend Heavy 10, or thereabouts. Lots of barrel work has been done on smaller, long bed lathes, too, working with a steady rest.

The Atlas lathes have their fans, but I am not one of them. Too much die cast zinc to rot away.

If new parts support is important, look at a new Chinese lathe (which MAY have parts available) or a Logan (still in business, after 70 or so years). Clausing, and the Colchester lathes that they imported and sold, are mostly good machines, too. There are several dealers in used parts, and almost anything can be made, so for the most part, parts support should not be an issue.

In the smaller stuff,, the Chinese have the market wrapped up. Decent value for the money, but shop carefully, as some outfits will charge a lot more than others for the same goods. Take a look at the Varmint Al's Mini Lathe pages, and LittleMachineshop.com, as well as mini-lathe.com.

Sherline stuff is pretty, well put together, and they have a WHACKLOAD of accessories available. For a price. The Taig lathe is a little less polished in the presentation, but is a decent working tool. Both are small enough to fire under a bench or into a cupboard if that is the way you need to store them.

If you don't already know about it, there is a website in the UK that covers a lot of the "hobby" sized machines www.lathes.co.uk . A really handy site, when you are looking at an advert for a brand name you don't recognize.

Get a copy of the South Bend book How to Run A Lathe. Best $10 you can spend. Atlas has a similar book, as did Hercus and Boxford, both companies that built licensed clones of South Bend products.

At the end of the day, I know a lot of guys that have a 9 Inch South Bend, and a Chinese or Taiwan made, RF-30 style mill-drill, as their machine tools, and they all figure that they are set as well as anyone. Eventually, you can figure on spending a bunch on tooling, but you gotta watch that, too, or you end up spending a bunch on stuff you never needed.

Cheers
Trev

[KCSO]

I have had a number of different lathes and combo units and my old standby is a South Bend 9". It will do 99% of anything I need done and I have yet to see a China lathe that will cut as nice a thread. My biggest probllem with the combo units is that noe of then are suitable for threading and every time I am set up to mill I need the lathe and vice versa. The only problem with shopping for a used lathe is you nneed some expirience to be able to judge what you are gettinng. If you are plumb new you need to take a friend along who knows lathes.

[PatMarlin]

Great info.

Well if there is one I thing I know...

"I you don't know Rosarita, you don't know beans" ..:mrgreen:

Tell ya what since you live down south you have it made. I would watch:

http://stores.ebay.com/Reliable-Tool-Store

Then you can go down there and inspect the machine. I've seen some screamin' deals on lathes and tooling too sell on that auction including small south bends last week.

There are tons of machines in S Cal.

I picked up my 11" Logan, which is a fine lathe brand for $1200 off of Craigs list. I think I lucked out as the prior owner had completely restored the lathe including all new bearings, and having the bed professionally redone with hard chrome and turcite.

Don't ask me what turcite is, but it sounds and is good ..:mrgreen:

[PatMarlin]

Here's a link to give you an idea of what to look for on buying a used lathe or mill:

http://www.mermac.com/index.html

[trevj]

Mermc used to be a great place to buy machinery, when he was still dealing.

The "In Praise of Klunkers" article should be required reading. Some fellas spend too much time looking for "perfect" instead of "suitable for the needs".

Cheers
Trev

[PatMarlin]

Thanks for reminding me to read that Trev.

I'm in the market for a manual vertical mill as we speak. I of course want to get the best machine I can afford, but one that is accurate enough to do gun related- mold work etc.

I've seen some real nice ones, and some beat ones, so I'm learning.

Hopefully I can find a good deal on a few notches above the klunker well under $2000.

[trevj]

Yeah.

It pays to get edjemucated early on in the process, otherwise you end up edjumacated and out a lot of money!:P

You're in a pretty good place to be looking for machines. Watch Craigslist, and figure out the difference between a good and bad deal as best you can.

The Practicalmachinist site has some pretty good info, too, if you are not familiar with it. If you do the usenet thing, check out rec.crafts.metalworking. There are usually a few guys there with leads on good equipment, sometimes for not too much money.

Cheers
Trev