Cabin Fever-Mini lathe

[EdK]

(04-17-2014, 03:33 PM)sbh10 Wrote: I was advised to look at the Precision Matthews. Would you rather have (1) Little Machine Shop Lathe, (2) Lathemaster, (3) Precision Matthews ?
Ron

Which Precision Matthews lathe are you looking at? They don't sell a mini lathe.

Ed

[PixMan]

(04-15-2014, 07:28 PM)EdK Wrote: Ron,

I think the bottom line is to get the biggest lathe you can afford and have room for. I don't think I've ever heard anyone say they wish they had a smaller lathe.

Ed

I wish I had a smaller lathe. There, I said it.

Darren might also wish to have a smaller lathe. We'd both do well with a cute "little" Monarch 10EE with their 4000 rpm spindle, collet closer and taper attachment. Hell, I'd settle for the Hardinge HLV-H if I had to.

Doing work under 1/4" is certainly possible with the collet closer on my 16x40, but with top speed of 1800 the thing struggles with smaller drills and features on parts. For Darren it's a far worse situation. His machine tops out at (I think) about 400 rpm and it's a long reach over the gap to the chuck.

Small lathes are really nice for that kind of work.

[Mayhem]

Yep - Ken summed it up nicely.

I currently have the luxury of having a friends 8" lathe in my workshop, as he hasn't sorted out his own workshop yet. I do joke with him that I could turn it between centres on my lathe but I will miss it when he moves it to his shop.

I've toyed with the thought of retrofitting mine to run on modern bearings (which would allow for more RPMs) but I think the better solution would be to upgrade.

I'd certainly relieve Ken of his Victor to facilitate his acquisition of a CNC lathe but then getting it here would be an interesting proposition...

[f350ca]

I'd be lost without both. Charlie broke a headphone jack off inside his laptop, (not going to as to how). Made this puller to reach in and grab the 0.040 centre wire that was left. The major dia is 3/8 with a 1/4 step to grab and back drill into the body, with a 1/8 extension drilled 0.040. I could have done it on the 16 x 80 but not sure i could see it over the apron.



Split it with a 0.006 thick slitting saw, no idea why it wandered so bad, but it worked.
On the other hand I couldn't resurface the brake drum off a D6 cat on the Hardinge.

[EdK]

I agree, having a small lathe is really nice. I have a mini lathe myself, but if I could have only one lathe I'd rather it be a bigger one. It certainly wouldn't need to be a monster lathe, just something stouter than a mini lathe.

Ed

[ieezitin]

A lathe Achilles heel is swing. I have worked lathes that have turned 4 meter diameter steam rolls 7 meter long while on the same machine turned down 3/16th diameter pins.

In my opinion it’s the tooling. Nothing wrong with small lathes if you have real estate problem, buy the largest swinged capable lathe you can….. you can always match the tooling up or down.

precision is not sacrificed as you get larger or smaller.

One more piece of advice…… tooling for any machine in a machine shop will always be greater than ten times your investment of the machine itself.

Anthony..

[sbh10]

Good thoughts and advice from all of you. Still haven't pulled the trigger.
Ron

[chucketn]

Ron,
I have a Micromark 7x14. I highly recommend them. Mine is a few years old now and has had a few mods done. Their latest offering has the higher output motor. Come look at mine for a comparison.
Chuck

[sbh10]

Thanks Chuck, I'd like to see it.
Ron