Bench Lathe Capabilities

[Kevin54]

Thanks for all the info once again.

As some have pointed out, I'm interested in a simple manual lathe to learn on. I want to improve it, make it more accurate, turn things using manual controls, so when I do have the free cash to step up to a large CNC lathe years/decades from now (my dreams regularly feature a Haas dual spindle), I have the knowledge to go along with the cash even if it all just comes down to my proficiency to write a program, I'll know what's going on even without the gcode.

For now, I'm going to wait until August and set my budget around $1,000 for everything needed to get up and running on a few projects that don't require great accuracy, like a few small metal ashtrays for the people unfortunate enough to still smoke in my family. I;ll look at Grizzly 7x12 and at the overall used market for my first choices with Harbor Freight as a backup plan. Although, I do find the HF 7 x 10 tempting at $400 on sale w/ coupon and the opportunity to return it if something goes wrong within 90 days.

Also, I do realize a mill is much more useful in terms of capabilities, but for some reason I'm drawn to the lathe and really think I'll have fun learning on that first. This doesn't mean I won't buy several mills in my lifetime as I certainly plan on doing so, but I'm doing this all as step 1 into hands-on machining and its 100% hobby. I will have met all of my goals if I have the skills and cash to fabricate a custom car about 30 years from now on a CNC lathe and CNC mill. This will never be my actual profession as I already have a separate career on track and I'll be using that career to fund better machines.

Whether a lathe or a mill, whatever you make, always make it with accuracy. Make a sketch ahead of time of what you want to make, put some dimensions to it, then make it to those dimensions. In doing so, you will learn more than you realize about the machine. Once you become one with the machine, everything you do will be accurate. A good machine doesn't make a person a machinist, but a good machinist can make the machine do what he wants it to do.

 

[SM Racing]

I see a lot of folks expressing interest in a CNC machine. For the home hobbyist, you will be much happier with a manual machine. Its hard to make one off parts with a CNC machine or tune up certain parts for a different application. A CNC is awesome for production parts, but if you aren't running a lot of the same part, I think a manual machine with a Digital readout is a much more effective tool. I have a friend who bought a nice HAAS CNC lathe and if he isn't running production parts he really can't do near as much with it as I can with a manual machine. So it tends to sit. But when he needs to make a bunch of similar parts, he can crank them out pretty fast.

I just want a Monarch 10EE, that would make my world complete. HAHA

 

[kmacht]

I see a lot of folks expressing interest in a CNC machine. For the home hobbyist, you will be much happier with a manual machine. Its hard to make one off parts with a CNC machine or tune up certain parts for a different application. A CNC is awesome for production parts, but if you aren't running a lot of the same part, I think a manual machine with a Digital readout is a much more effective tool. I have a friend who bought a nice HAAS CNC lathe and if he isn't running production parts he really can't do near as much with it as I can with a manual machine. So it tends to sit. But when he needs to make a bunch of similar parts, he can crank them out pretty fast.

I just want a Monarch 10EE, that would make my world complete. HAHA

Completely disagree on this. A CNC machine is way more versatile. Try making a compound curve on a lathe or milling machine using just a DRO. A CNC machine can be very easy to use as long as you aren't adverse to learning to do some programming. I can pump out a program and have it loaded into the machine to drill dozen holes in a bolt pattern much quicker than I can sit there and do the trig to figure out the x and y coordinates for each hole. Now if you are doing alot of repair work where you don't have dimensions for parts or you just want to do simple tasks like surface a part off then yes, maybe a manual machine would be better but for overall use I will take a cnc machine any day over a manual.

Keith

 

[SM Racing]

CNC mill is a different story. Of course with a rotary table I can do most of that stuff, just takes a little more time. Sweep the center and away I go.

They both have their places, I just don't think for a first machine a CNC is the way to fly.

 

[Kevin54]

I see a lot of folks expressing interest in a CNC machine. For the home hobbyist, you will be much happier with a manual machine. Its hard to make one off parts with a CNC machine or tune up certain parts for a different application. A CNC is awesome for production parts, but if you aren't running a lot of the same part, I think a manual machine with a Digital readout is a much more effective tool. I have a friend who bought a nice HAAS CNC lathe and if he isn't running production parts he really can't do near as much with it as I can with a manual machine. So it tends to sit. But when he needs to make a bunch of similar parts, he can crank them out pretty fast.

I just want a Monarch 10EE, that would make my world complete. HAHA

It sounds to me like your buddy needs to become more familiar with his CNC. At work, we had two axis and a three axis mills. I was the only one that ran the three axis, and in doing tooling or parts in a toolroom, almost everything is a "one off" part. At home now, I have a Lagun manual mill with a readout, and although handy, not nearly as handy as a CNC. Besides that, you can get a CNC mill in either a bed mill or a knee mill. A lot of the CNC Mill can have the computer shut off so you can run it just as you can a conventional mill and have control of all of the axis by hand.

 

[DesertSparky57]

I will be a bench lathe owner in the near future. I've done quite a bit of research and this thread pretty much sums up all of it in one spot.

I am curious if any one has an opinion on the LittleMachineShopdotcom machines. Specifically the 8.5x16 with brushless DC motor and power feeds. Site says they are versions of the Sieg SC4.

Many of the smaller machines available have been brought up in this thread but not the Sieg machines.

Anyone have any info on these???

 

[Ozwelder]

If you want to dip your toe in the water,there's no better than a bench lathe for doing the small projects required. Given you buy the right lathe that has a decent value for money,you will be OK.

A bench top lathe is cheap ,relatively easy to install and will be relatively easy to sell when upgrade time comes.

Bear in mind there's always a fairly big outlay in the ancillary tooling on top of what comes with the machine.
Trust me,you will amaze yourself in the number of things you can make in these machines. It won't be apparent now but during your ownership the applications for use bob up, almost daily.
Example our close line rusted to pieces as it suffered from electrolysis and rust.

Example I welded up a box frame and inserted turned up plastic inserts from a $10 bit of rod. The plastic insulates the clothes line wire from the frame. . If its round and you can machine the material,no problem.

Tapping concentric threads in rods and bars -dead easy.You will learn to read a micrometer and vernier which is a great lead in to the .
work for later.
High speed steel lathe tools can be hand ground if you apply yourself to learning the basic skills.

I moved on from there to hand grinding twist drills from 3mm - 20mm (1/8" to 3/4" for you guys)-no drill doctor needed-no micro precision work as far as the drills are concerned-so they can be hand ground.

if you use it regular, a couple of years is a reasonable time frame you can pick up the techniques and skills required.

Ozwelder

 

[Jim Johnstone]

It sounds to me like your buddy needs to become more familiar with his CNC. At work, we had two axis and a three axis mills. I was the only one that ran the three axis, and in doing tooling or parts in a toolroom, almost everything is a "one off" part. At home now, I have a Lagun manual mill with a readout, and although handy, not nearly as handy as a CNC. Besides that, you can get a CNC mill in either a bed mill or a knee mill. A lot of the CNC Mill can have the computer shut off so you can run it just as you can a conventional mill and have control of all of the axis by hand.

I totally agree. I operate prototrak brand cnc mills at work, full manual controls and can set the controller to DRO mode but can input programs in the controller or have full g code programs imported. They are way faster and more versatile than a knee mill. Our 5 knee mills at work only get used when the traks are all used or the guys are old and afraid of the "computer" attached to those damn trak mills haha.

 

[Kevin54]

I totally agree. I operate prototrak brand cnc mills at work, full manual controls and can set the controller to DRO mode but can input programs in the controller or have full g code programs imported. They are way faster and more versatile than a knee mill. Our 5 knee mills at work only get used when the traks are all used or the guys are old and afraid of the "computer" attached to those damn trak mills haha.

That's what I ran was the ProtoTrak. Two of the mills (Alliants which is a Bridegeport clone) were converted to two axis CNC's and then we bought a ProtoTrak Quikcell mill which was a three axis. The QuikCell was a damn nice little mill but the table capabilities is only 14" x 14". We looked at all types of three axis, but our toolroom was in the basement and being in an OLD building, the supports that were cast in left the headroom at 7', and 8' between beams. So the QuikCell was the only one of all we looked at that would fit. When it comes to programming, the ProtoTraks are about one of the easiest to program. Most of the tooling I made, I could punch it into the mill about as fast as drawing it up in SmartCam and programming it through there.

I hope to someday have a CNC mill here at home. There is just so much more you can do on CNC, even with a two axis that you can't do in a conventional mill. Hopefully I'll have one before I'm too old to remember how to run one

 

[Kevin54]

I will be a bench lathe owner in the near future. I've done quite a bit of research and this thread pretty much sums up all of it in one spot.

I am curious if any one has an opinion on the LittleMachineShopdotcom machines. Specifically the 8.5x16 with brushless DC motor and power feeds. Site says they are versions of the Sieg SC4.

Many of the smaller machines available have been brought up in this thread but not the Sieg machines.

Anyone have any info on these???

That lathe doesn't look to be a bad lathe at all and I wouldn't be afraid to buy one. Along with that lathe though, you'll want to order a Quick Change Tool Post (QCTP) and the tooling that comes with it. The four way post that comes with the lathe is useless unless you want to spend half a day digging up shims and such to set your tools. When you get the QCTP, you also want to get the tooling package which will be extra, but almost a necessity.

 

[Jim Johnstone]

That's what I ran was the ProtoTrak. Two of the mills (Alliants which is a Bridegeport clone) were converted to two axis CNC's and then we bought a ProtoTrak Quikcell mill which was a three axis. The QuikCell was a damn nice little mill but the table capabilities is only 14" x 14". We looked at all types of three axis, but our toolroom was in the basement and being in an OLD building, the supports that were cast in left the headroom at 7', and 8' between beams. So the QuikCell was the only one of all we looked at that would fit. When it comes to programming, the ProtoTraks are about one of the easiest to program. Most of the tooling I made, I could punch it into the mill about as fast as drawing it up in SmartCam and programming it through there.

I hope to someday have a CNC mill here at home. There is just so much more you can do on CNC, even with a two axis that you can't do in a conventional mill. Hopefully I'll have one before I'm too old to remember how to run one

Yeah those traks are damn nice mills. I want one in my garage in the worst way. Ours at work are full size 10x50 tables, one machine is old and only used for 2 axis the other 2 we use for 3 axis stuff.

 

[DesertSparky57]

Thanks Kevin54. I've been eyeballing the 8.5x16 for quite some time now. In my research and tubalcain addiction I've learned about the QCTP and in the videos it stands out as an absolutely necessary item.

The brushless motor seems to set this benchtop apart from others I have found. The ability to learn to use the power feeds on a small-ish mahine also sounds desirable. There is no way I would get the lathe without the acc package and QCTP Tool package.

Also you guys that seem to just be surrounded by people selling lathes have it made. Nowhere in my town am I going to find a sweet machine someone has to part with. Hell the guys at work that get paid to use the lathe routinely mistreat it... Guess it's a location thing.

 

[Steinmetz]

I picked up a 10x24 Logan on Cape Cod for $300. In the northeast, there are plenty of machines and prices aren't awful. You just have to be very quick to act. I missed a Gorton mill for $600 recently... 10 minutes too late in calling.

The Logan is a nice machine. Bulletproof.