Thread: Lathe buying advice.

Originally Posted by POD

I have a major birthday approaching and my wife is keen to buy me a metal lathe; I have a pretty well-equipped workshop and have made no secret over the past few years of how much I would like to add a lathe to it.
As my actual experience with using lathes is very limited, I would appreciate some advice from those with experience in what would be useful in a general home/hobbyist/small acreage workshop. Also a few questions about unfamiliar terms I've come across when looking on the interweb at second-hand lathes.
-If a lathe is described as a 'capstan lathe', does this machine also have the normal toolpost and crossfeed etc of a normal lathe, in addition to the capstan arrangement? Yes.
-What is meant by the term 'centre lathe'? Is this the proper term for the familiar general metal turning lathe? A centre lathe is what you are familiar with when you think of a lathe, ie. work can be held between centres.
-What is a 'collet lathe'? This lathe will not have a chuck, instead it will have interchangeable collets in the headstock for gripping the work, often found on capstan lathes. Not very useful for general jobbing work, more aimed at production work, as is the capstan lathe itself.
-Are the combination lathe/mill/drill machines any good? All the ones I've seen seem to incorporate a lathe that is very small and thus presumably of limited usefulness. I have had no experience with these machines, but I would imagine their usefulness to be quite limited.
-How much of a factor is the spindle bore size? I had to take a trailer axle to a specialist a few years back when customising the ends to accept LR hub spindles, but I don't know how often jobs that require a large spindle hole might come up. Generally, the bigger the spindle bore, the more useful the lathe will be to you, a bore big enough to fit pipe through to screwcut a thread, for instance would be extremly useful on a small acreage, I would think.
-What are realistic specifications to look for in a lathe for general home workshop use? It depends on space money and how much you are going to use it, many on here have talked about new Chinese or Tiwanese machines, but I think if you have the space, I would go for an older second hand larger machine. They will be slower to operate, possibly require more skill to do the job, but one in half decent condition will stay that way for years, way after the cheap new ones are showing signs of wear. It would be worth considering buying one with a three phase motor, and retrofitting a single phase motor to it.
Thanks in anticipation.

See my comments in blue.

Cheers, Mick.

What are you going to use it for?

Do you need swing or length or spindle bore to fit your work?

If you are going to do automotive or marine work then sooner or later you are going to have to machine a long shaft. Buy as much length as you can afford.

Do not buy a combination lathe milling machine unless you are only going to do light hobby machining or model making.

Do not buy a machine that requires you to change belts or gears to get the full range of speeds. Ask the sales person to demonstrate this. Salesmen oft-times speak with forked tongues.

Buy only a lathe that has a speed range from around 40 rpm to over 2000 rpm. Slow speed is necessary for screw cutting by amateurs. High speed is necessary to use tungsten carbide tools on small diameter work.

240 volt machines have better resale value than three phase machines.

Buy a milling machine only if you are prepared to spend endless money on tooling, jigs, fixtures etc. If you must, then buy a universal mill with motorised overarm and vertical head. Buy height. The space between the table and the arbor or overarm can shrink when you set up the job in a vise or fixture and mount a cutter.

Originally Posted by spudboy

Mine is made in China, but the quality is not bad at all. If you were a professional machine shop, you'd probably want a proper name branded one (I think mine is Macho brand!!) but for the amount of use it gets I couldn't justify it. Have fun shopping though - that's half the fun

BTW - I got some nice HSS tools for it from Arthur Warner & Co in the USA. They were very efficient at shipping them out, and sell them in little kits. I had a few questions, and quickly got an answer back from the owner!

High Speed Steel (HSS) tool bits and blanks - Arthur R. Warner Co

Those Warner kits seem very expensive to me. I will ask my USA supplier about HSS inserted tools. I didn't think they still existed. Definitely pre-1950 technology. I can supply five piece tool sets with tungsten carbide inserts in 5/8" or 1/2" square tool holders, LH & RH straight, LH & RH angled, and a 60 degree threading or two way turning tool. Prices are competitive with the HSS tool set you mentioned.

Depending on how much space you have available, and whether you have three phase power, you are better off haunting the auctions and buying a used industrial quality machine. The generic Chinese/Taiwanese lathes sold by Hare and Forbes and all the others are good for hobbyists and small workshops like motor mechanics, electrical fitters, and fridgies. Not really meant for all day work in a serious machine shop.

You can generally get a serious lathe of some size at auction for a good bit less than a new generic Ying Tong.

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

What are you going to use it for?

.

Kind of unpredictable, as I'm always dabbling at something. Do all my own mechanical repairs plus always a project or three of one sort or another on the go, building the odd trailer or implement for the tractor and the like. I can see the lathe being used to machine simple small bushes quite a lot but the capacity to turn shafts in excess of a yard long would be desirable. One of the first lathe projects will probably be fabrication of components- contact wheels, drive wheel, tensioners etc- for a belt grinder for knifemaking.
I have plenty of space, will have to reshuffle my existing machinery a bit but I could force myself to make room for a largish lathe if the right machine presents itself.
Wonder if anyone knows where there are any machinery auction houses in Vic? Do Fowles & Jupps do this kind of stuff?

Might be a damn sight easier to buy a linisher than make one. You should be able to find a Linishall in good condition around the auctions. Get one that takes 482 belts (48" x 2"). Contact wheels come in an enormous variety. Smooth, grooved, hard, soft, narrow, wide, curved face for swirl polishing valves, and so on. Abrasive belts come from superfine to coarse. Scotchbrite belts come in three grades. Get as many linishers as you can fit in the shed. You can not have too many linishers.

Originally Posted by spudboy

I thought these were the best option for my needs. Not professional quality but good enough for DIY use, and quite modestly priced for the size:

New 36"X12" Geared Head Metal Lathe With Coolant Pump+Worklight+Stand Cabinet | eBay





I was after something single phase only, which this one was. Assembling it was a bit 'interesting' as it weighed over 500Kg. Needed an engine hoist to lift up the top section to put it on top of the blue stand.

Seller is reliable - I have bought many things from him (OzMeStore), and he has smaller/bigger ones of similar design. This one is at $1550-odd ATM, but would expect it to go a bit higher (+ $200-odd) before the end of the auction..

HTH
David

I have a similar lathe to this and it has served me well and it will handle almost everything I need to spin.
I doubt if I will ever wear it out with hobby use.
A good used brand name industrial lathe would have been better but if you cop a worn one it's a pain in the butt. There are a lot of parts to wear on a lathe, headstock, bed, carriage, cross or top slide, tailstock etc.

Cheers, Mick.

To follow up with this thread- I've just come back from Sydney with a behemoth of a machine on my trailer.
After much umming and ahhing and phoning a friend, I put in a bid on a machine on eBay that had been listed previously without a bid. The bloke who had it had bought it as a job lot with an irrigation pump, he had no use for nor knowledge of lathes, so a few phone calls with him standing at the machine satisfied me that it was a good buy for the opening bid.
The machine has approx 1500mm between centres, 240mm swing over the bed and 400mm with the gap insert removed (doesn't look like it's ever been removed). Spindle bore is 70mm (I could see traffic approaching from behind through the spindle bore in the RV mirror all the way down the Hume!). 3&4 jaw chucks, a fixed steady that weighs about 40kg, metric and imperial thread cutting via a quick-change gearbox, taper turning thingy on the cross-slide, power cross-feed. About the only box it does not tick is the top speed- looks like 750rpm is the highest available.
First challenge is to get the thing off my trailer. I would be surprised if it weighs less than 2 tonnes. Fortunately my neighbour has a yard crane that should manage it.
Next challenge will be to power it, being 3-phase. A mate has a VFD that he has offered me for nix; although he's not sure whether this will be compatible with a machine with built-in reverse and braking. He has the necessary knowledge to figure this out- I sure don't. The other option is to build a rotary phase convertor, which sounds like a fun little project in itself.