Lathe?

[Ryan33]

Anyone have a small lathe they can turn metal (aluminum) with? All i can find is wood ones.

I used to work in a machine shop/metal shop/ welding shop when i was in the airforce. Unfortunatly that was before i started this hobby. and now i need something to widdle metal with at home.

anyone?

maybe i should take a huge paycut and get back in so i can make parts for my crawlers... no sure the wife would like that...

[Joat]

Originally Posted by Ryan33

Anyone have a small lathe they can turn metal (aluminum) with? All i can find is wood ones.

I used to work in a machine shop/metal shop/ welding shop when i was in the airforce. Unfortunatly that was before i started this hobby. and now i need something to widdle metal with at home.

anyone?

maybe i should take a huge paycut and get back in so i can make parts for my crawlers... no sure the wife would like that...

I have a grizzly 7x12, any 7x lathe will require some tweaking to get is to be consistent and cut accurate, other smaller options are unimats etc, it all depends on the size of work you'll be doing, if your looking for highly detailed stuff or anything under 3" dia go with a unimat etc, larger then check out the 7x's but be prepared to do some fussing to get it to be a "precise" lathe, not high dollar mods more time and effort kind of stuff, my lathe with a 3 jaw $" self scrolling chuck has a runnout of .0005 and less, I had a adjustable backing plate made,since I do alot of 3 jaw stuff and way way to lazy o deal with setting up a 4 jaw everytime

[john alardin]

Check out harbor freight, they've got several, or craigslist-where I found my Unimat, which I love-you can set it up to be a mill, also.

[sweli]

Harbor Freight will get you the least $$ new one.

I have a small Sherline Vertical mill on perm-loan to me. It's a blast.
The also make lathes.
What's great about Sherline is that they still make the exact model and parts for the mill I got ............that is 30yrs old, but NEW in the box
As long as they can make it through recessions, parts will always be avail.

They are pricey at $650+
http://www.sherline.com/

[inkmunky]

i got a 7x10 (they're all made by the same co. in japan and renamed/painted) I'm a tattoo artist and tattoo machine maker and i got it for turning parts for that bus. but hell that's going to be supporting this habit. You can do a lot of stuff out of the box, but it's a whole lot of tweaking and research. Check out http://www.mini-lathe.com for some good info and http://www.littlemachineshop.com for accessories. Def. get their mini-lathe tooling package, will cut your times drastically for turning anything.

[Joat]

Originally Posted by inkmunky

i got a 7x10 (they're all made by the same co. in japan and renamed/painted) . Check out http://www.mini-lathe.com for some good info and http://www.littlemachineshop.com for accessories. Def. get their mini-lathe tooling package, will cut your times drastically for turning anything.

Sorry but almost all are made in china, the better ones are made in Taiwan,Seig makes most of the 7x's either for HarborFreight,Jet,Grizzly, Seig is based in china.
But on another note, check out mini-lathe.com, well worth it, you may also want to join a 7x yahoo group

[rex cars]

If you come across an OLD craftsman (i believe they were made by Atlas) metal cutting lathe, snap it up and don't think twice about the price. My 7x19 is older than me and better than anything you can buy new today IMO.

[Reflection]

Originally Posted by rex cars

If you come across an OLD craftsman (i believe they were made by Atlas) metal cutting lathe, snap it up and don't think twice about the price. My 7x19 is older than me and better than anything you can buy new today IMO.

Good point. Some older machines are far better than any new machine you can buy. The lathe I run at work was built in 1956. It's one of the most accurate and dependable machines we have at work. She's kinda rough looking,but she's a work horse. It'll hold +/- .001" tolerance all day long. Kinda sucks though,I can't hold on to anything small enough to make RC parts with it. Maybe a 40 series or maxx size wheel.

[inkmunky]

Originally Posted by Joat

Sorry but almost all are made in china, the better ones are made in Taiwan,Seig makes most of the 7x's either for HarborFreight,Jet,Grizzly, Seig is based in china.
But on another note, check out mini-lathe.com, well worth it, you may also want to join a 7x yahoo group

sorry, wrong country same region. However after working with my lathe for a few months now, not all of the information is accurate on mini-lathe.com (talked to my buddy who owns a CNC machine shop). Pick up a guide on machining speeds. Lathe spindle, and feed speeds are very material specific and can greatly affect your tool wear/life.

[john alardin]

I've heard great things about the Atlas. I wouldn't mind having one.

[9fingerkustomz]

I was told a long time ago by a good friend that mass produces machined scale parts for scale model builders "Get the BIGGEST machine you can afford... small machines do small parts while big machines can do anything up to the size limit of the machine".

I've had one of these in my garage for over 4 years now -
http://www.grizzley.com/products/Combo-Lathe-Mill/G9729

not the best for mass production, but for small run parts that I have done for scale models up to making custom parts for motorcycles, it's been good. Granted it is more pricey and a LOT bigger/heavier than the small units (this one is just under 900lbs) but worth it if you have the room.

Pat

[rex cars]

this might have some useful info. look at the videos link and the links.
http://www.lautard.com/
more great info. plenty of good articles
http://www.homemetalshopclub.org/index.html

this one is more to the point of this thread
"buying a small lathe"
http://www.homemetalshopclub.org/new...98.html#Buying