Harbor Freight 7x10 Mini Lathe?

[Jason280]

What's the general consensus on the Harbor Freight 7x10 mini lathe? Local HF has a return/display model on clearance for $250, and looks to be complete. I've been toying with the idea of picking one up for small parts, and seems like it would be the ticket.

As long as I keep it within its limits, will it be satisfactory to turn up to 1/4-3/8" size rod? Any reason to pass on this particular model?

 

[antinym]

I had one for a little bit. It works fine on plastic. alright on aluminum. frustrating on steel, and impossible on titanium.

Remember, it's really small, and toy like. If you're infrequently doing plastic and brass for model stuff, you'll be alright. But I would suggest to pass on it for most people and situations.

I moved on to a 9x20 off CL. a bit more expensive at $900 including a lot of extras, but significantly less frustrating.

 

[Jason280]

Did it not have enough power for steel, or too much flex/play in the tool head?

 

[Kirbot]

They really have a huge following with hobbyists.
For $250 it might just be worth trying.

I grabbed one cheap at an auction a while back and toyed around with it a bit.
It's definitely a step down if you're used to big Southbends or even Atlas lathes.

 

[Jason280]

I had a 9x20 import bench lathe for a while, but ended up selling it. Seemed like it spent most of its time in the way, but I have regretted selling it. I know this one isn't as big, but I really don't need a large one. Plus, buddy of mine just picked up a good-sized Enco lathe that I can use if necessary.

 

[royesses]

That's a great price. Look at :
http://www.littlemachineshop.com/default.php
for all the parts and accessories you could want. I cut 4130, 304 stainless, brass, bronze, aluminum and mild steel on mine. I've cut up to 3" 6061 t6 aluminum for making integrated flange/adapters for my 8" grinder. Look at:
http://www.mini-lathe.com/
for a whole lot of information and modifications.

Added: Great forum:
http://www.hobby-machinist.com/

 

[JoeFin]

Its not a Real Lathe

Some thing more along the lines of a fairly bad joke

BTW - take a look at my profile pic - that is a lathe tool removing the surface hardening on a piece of surface hardened 4130. Nothing even remotely like that is going to happen on the Happy Fart lathe

 

[Jason280]

Thanks for the links!

 

[MotoDave]

Pretty well everyone that buys one ends up getting a larger lathe eventually - myself included.

 

[Ign]

They really have a huge following with hobbyists.
For $250 it might just be worth trying.

I grabbed one cheap at an auction a while back and toyed around with it a bit.
It's definitely a step down if you're used to big Southbends or even Atlas lathes.

Wow. I consider Atlases wet noodles, so the above is saying a lot.

 

[dovco]

Not a bad machine but very small. The 7x12s are better. I moved up to a 9x30 import bench top from lathemaster.com.

 

[Kirbot]

Wow. I consider Atlases wet noodles, so the above is saying a lot.

Atlas is my least favorite brand, and I try to talk people out of them whenever possible....
But they're still massive and rigid compared to something this small.

 

[dovco]

Atlases have flat ways. That's why they were the economy lathes back in the day. Now, we have Chinese stuff and hardened inverted V ways are somewhat economical.
The HF mini is a capable machine, but very small. I think the 7 and 10 in 7X10 are exaggerated. I don't think it will swing a 7" part and I'm pretty sure you can't get 10" between the centers.
Things you will probably want when you outgrow the HF mini include more distance between centers and larger headstock through bore.

 

[Troutsqueezer]

Its not a Real Lathe

Some thing more along the lines of a fairly bad joke

BTW - take a look at my profile pic - that is a lathe tool removing the surface hardening on a piece of surface hardened 4130. Nothing even remotely like that is going to happen on the Happy Fart lathe

This illustrates how bad some advice can be on the Internet. I've been using one to make running steam and IC engines for years. http://www.goldfinch-acres.com/Steam Engines.html

All the lathe does is spin the workpiece. It's the tooling that does the cutting.

 

[scooternut]

That is just awesome Dennis, thank you for your contribution.

 

[Shadowdog500]

The HF 7x10 is really short to the point that the tailstock gets in the way. I had a 7x12.for 7 years and the extra 2 inches made it more livable.

There is a 7by x mini lathe website that gives guidance on tweaking these little lathes.

I spent weeks tweaking mine to make it at a decent lathe for small stuff. I had to shim the pillow block on the lead screw and the apron to get everything to line up and had to scrape and Lapp the bottom of the ways so it wasn't sloopy loose in one position and so tight that the carrage wouldn't move in another position. I also shimmed the saddle gibs instead of using the hokey spring steel adjusters.

If you want to do more than 3/4" diamater work and want to do a lot of threading, the small spindle bore and lack of quick change gears will get old real quick.

Chris

 

[Davefr]

Its not a Real Lathe

Some thing more along the lines of a fairly bad joke

BTW - take a look at my profile pic - that is a lathe tool removing the surface hardening on a piece of surface hardened 4130. Nothing even remotely like that is going to happen on the Happy Fart lathe

^^^Most worthless post of the entire thread!!

The OP asked it it was suited for small parts of 1/4-3/8".

The answer is yes.

 

[wyo george]

For that price it's probably worth picking up as an intro lathe then when you upgrade later you can probably sell it for what you have into it. I've never used a lathe that small, but I'm current shopping small lathes and mills for my personal shop so I don't have to work on personal projects on my lunch break and after hours


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Shadowdog500]

+1 on getting it for the price. I spent so much time pointing out what I did to tweak mine that I forgot to add this recommendation to buy it.

If nothing else it will get your foot in the door for lathe work, and you will learn a lot about the lathe while tweaking it.

Btw get some HSS tool bits and learn how to sharpen them, they give a much better finish on the stuff you will be working on with this lathe. The red carbide bit set at HF are not good imho.

Chris

 

[brouser01]

It's a toy. No matter how many accessories from little machine shop you buy, it will still be a toy.
If you are close to San Diego, I will sell you a pieced together South Bend 9" for a little more money.

 

[Man Cave]

I'm an Atlas owner. I'm a self trained machinist so that means I'm not that good. I have seen a real machinist use one of those HF lathes on steel and make some nice parts. Its the indian, not the arrow sometimes. As others have wrote it would be a start and you would get your money back. I'm surprised at all the hate over an Atlas. At least it was made in the USA. There are whole threads in various forums hating on the atlas lathe.

 

[tymbo]

I just sold mine for $350 a few months ago. Just like anything from HF, s long as you don't push it beyond its limits, it works fine.

 

[Kirbot]

I'm surprised at all the hate over an Atlas. At least it was made in the USA. There are whole threads in various forums hating on the atlas lathe.

They cost as much or more than the equivalent Southbend or Logan, but back in the day, they were half the money.


Do they work? Yes

But unless you can pick up one at WELL under today's market value, there is no reason whatsoever to choose one over the competition.

 

[Troutsqueezer]

It's a toy. No matter how many accessories from little machine shop you buy, it will still be a toy.
If you are close to San Diego, I will sell you a pieced together South Bend 9" for a little more money.

Unless you've got a production facility going on, they're all toys, aren't they? Are the parts you make better than the parts I make? Doubt it...

 

[JoeFin]

This illustrates how bad some advice can be on the Internet. I've been using one to make running steam and IC engines for years. http://www.goldfinch-acres.com/Steam Engines.html

All the lathe does is spin the workpiece. It's the tooling that does the cutting.

Troutsqueezer - your advise concerning lathes is the worst on the internet

Now before you go posting pictures one more time of ridiculous miniature soft metal trinkets that took you days and weeks to produce - which could have been done in minutes on a proper lathe

Made to specs that make the Happy Fart Lathe look accurate - since you obviously have never operated a REAL LATHE

If you have never made parts that are used in the REAL WORLD - since your "Steam Engines" run on forced air from a compressor and not Steam from a Boiler

Then why can't you just admit your playing around in your garage and not dealing very well with reality

My High school aged son has seen the Happy Fart Lathe and even HE can see it is nothing more then a cheap imitation

 

[oldtools]

Its not a Real Lathe

Some thing more along the lines of a fairly bad joke

BTW - take a look at my profile pic - that is a lathe tool removing the surface hardening on a piece of surface hardened 4130. Nothing even remotely like that is going to happen on the Happy Fart lathe

Your lathe is a toy compare to these lathes. Can your lathe machine these parts shown in the picture? Different lathe for different application.

 

[JoeFin]

Your lathe is a toy compare to these lathes. Can your lathe machine these parts shown in the picture? Different lathe for different application.

Which one of those pictured is in YOUR shop ?

The point I was trying to make is the Happy Fart 7 x 10 while you can completely dis-assemble it and spend weeks re-machining, scraping shimming and re-aligning it to get it to perform reasonably well - still begs the question - WHY

IF - and this is an awfully BIG IF - if you are only going to use it for soft metal / plastic parts, AND you only have an extremely limited amount of space - AND you never ever ever see the need for some thing Bigger, More ridged, more Reasonably accurate - then go ahead and buy the Happy Fart

But to tout is praises is a fool's folly

It will come straight out of the box with casting craters in the bed, ways and joining surfaces. It does not have hardened ways, shafts or gears so the life span is extremely short. Any critical alignment will surely be out of alignment and will take some fairly descent machining skills to correct to include the Headstock, carriage, and tailstock.

And should you decide to try and cut any sort of thread on one of these machines you'll quickly learn the definition of "Drunken Threads". That of course is IF you can get it to align from 1 pass to the next. In that case you'll just have ruined threads and possibly tool bit too



So NO - my advise is not bad - its accurate


Unlike the "Used Car Salesmen" advice others may wish to peddle around here - I deal with reality

Besides - last auction I attended I saw a couple of 10" Sheldon Lathes with cabinet go for less then the Happy Fart 7" Sure they needed tooling - but they didn't need a complete Re-Engineer and Rebuild - PLUS Tooling to get them running

 

[royesses]

This illustrates how bad some advice can be on the Internet. I've been using one to make running steam and IC engines for years. http://www.goldfinch-acres.com/Steam Engines.html

All the lathe does is spin the workpiece. It's the tooling that does the cutting.

That is some beautiful craftsmanship! I've seen photo's of your work before and have much respect for the care and time you put into this.

 

[gungatim]

well, to the HF haters, all I can say is I have the 7x10. every time I make bushings and such for motorcycles, it works. when I had to turn down a hardened bolt to a specific size for a guys custom decapping tool for reloading, it worked. no, I'm not turning down the surface hardening of some special alloy, or building titanium jet engine turbine parts. we don't all have space for huge machines, nor the need to do anything more than make small parts and learn...

to the OP, do a search, there are several good sites (some already listed) dedicated to these and they have a good following which helps work out the bugs and make them perform better. mini-latehe.com is one of the best, full of links...

 

[Spudland_Dave]

As long as I keep it within its limits, will it be satisfactory to turn up to 1/4-3/8" size rod? Any reason to pass on this particular model?

I'm no HF Fan-Boy, but I do have the 7x10...spent plenty of time researching it before buying it, like anything else HF, its a project just getting it running right. but IMHO the price reflects that, and if anything, I like taking things apart and learning what makes it tick...makes using & servicing down the road easier.

For that price it's probably worth picking up as an intro lathe then when you upgrade later you can probably sell it for what you have into it. I've never used a lathe that small, but I'm current shopping small lathes and mills for my personal shop so I don't have to work on personal projects on my lunch break and after hours

Its no South Bend, its no huge lathe...it is a small intro lathe, when I was shopping, sure there were some nice lathes available used...but for a self taught novice, I couldn't see spending that kind of $$ and possibly wrecking it. To me, the HF was a great learning piece, even if I completely wrecked it trying to learn, I wouldn't be out a huge amount of coin. Another thing with buying a used lathe, being a complete n00b with lathes, I could be trying to use one which is shot, worn out, broken and not even know it.

Hindsight being 20/20, I'm glad I bought the HF...if you were closer I'd offer you mine cheap, not because its broken or it didn't work, I just didn't use it as much as I thought I would..

 

[Kirbot]

Troutsqueezer - your advise concerning lathes is the worst on the internet

Now before you go posting pictures one more time of ridiculous miniature soft metal trinkets that took you days and weeks to produce - which could have been done in minutes on a proper lathe

Made to specs that make the Happy Fart Lathe look accurate - since you obviously have never operated a REAL LATHE

If you have never made parts that are used in the REAL WORLD - since your "Steam Engines" run on forced air from a compressor and not Steam from a Boiler

Then why can't you just admit your playing around in your garage and not dealing very well with reality

My High school aged son has seen the Happy Fart Lathe and even HE can see it is nothing more then a cheap imitation

See....
NOW you're just talking like an *** hole.

 

[justanengineer]

Just my $0.02 having several friends own them and a former employer - I sure as heck wouldnt want one. For the price as JoeFin suggests there are much better values out there. Out of the box they arent all that accurate, nor are the ways flat or straight. Theyre actually pretty comparable to most WW2 era soft-bedded South Bends in that theyve got a few waves to the ways, but unlike those machines that isnt likely their biggest issue. For a hobbyist who wants to learn something new or rarely uses something I always recommend they buy a quality tool so they know its their skill lacking and not the tool, if both are lacking it just makes things more difficult. These 7x micromachines can be rather frustrating if youre not very knowledgeable about lathes, tho they do have many forums supporting them. I'd still vote for a better machine thats simply plug n play with real power feeds and a quick change gearbox.

 

[Chevy-SS]

Did it not have enough power for steel, or too much flex/play in the tool head?

Pretty much plastic and alum only with these. You are exactly right about the flex/play in the head - too much on steel.

 

[jeepinerdeep]

Wow. This escalated quickly.

 

[Vegaman_Dan]

@JOEFIN

Your elitist attitude and unhelpful response has done a lot to damage the reputation of machinists in both hobby and professional levels. Not everyone has the space or funds for a massive lathe weighing tons and costing $10,000-100,000.

Remember, it's a *hobby* lathe. Be realistic.

The OP wanted to turn small items, not engine cranks. And for their needs, then the machine will do what they want it to.

Mind you, there is someone out there whom is used to working with massive lathes meant to turn out parts for diesel locomotives and is sneering at your puny lathe, believing you to be nothing more than an amateur. It's all relative.

As for me, I have a Unimat and I'm enjoying it. It does what I need it to. It isn't size of a car nor did it cost as much. It's not about how much you pay, it's what you do with it.

 

[Jere]

For 250 thats a jump on it price, if it doesn't suit your needs sell it for another 100 and make a profit.

 

[Shadowdog500]

Don't listen to the naysayers. A mini lathe is a diamond in the rough. After you spend a little time tweaking the lathe. Plus some time learning to properly operate the lathe, it will perform any job you want to throw at it. I could hit any tolerance I wanted with my little minilathe after I got used to operating a lathe.

Sure some people think everyone needs a really big lathe with all the bells and whistles. But for now you can dip your tow in the lathe waters for a cheap price and learn proper technique on a machine that don't have the ability to pull you in and kill you while you are learning. if You crash a mini lathe while learning you may need to buy a nylon gear, you crash that Sheldon you are going to be used parts shopping for a while.

Get the thing and learn proper technique, make lots of small parts, then upgrade later if you outgrow the lathe.

I had mine for 7 years because I was working on the workbench in my attached garage. That little lathe made every part I ever asked it to make including working on and single point treading stainless and drill rod.

Eventually I got a 30x52 shop in my back yard and waited until I found a bigger lathe with a larger spindle bore and quick change gears. My neighbor bought my mini for $350 and sometimes I wish I never sold it. It was perfect for small detail stuff where you need your head right on your work with a lighted magnifying glass.

A mini will single point thread great, don't listen to the naysayers.

Get it learn, and sell it later if you outgrow it.


At the price you quoted it's probably gone by now.
Chris

 

[Davefr]

Don't listen to the naysayers. A mini lathe is a diamond in the rough. After you spend a little time tweaking the lathe. Plus some time learning to properly operate the lathe, it will perform any job you want to throw at it. I could hit any tolerance I wanted with my little minilathe after I got used to operating a lathe.

Sure some people think everyone needs a really big lathe with all the bells and whistles. But for now you can dip your tow in the lathe waters for a cheap price and learn proper technique on a machine that don't have the ability to pull you in and kill you while you are learning. if You crash a mini lathe while learning you may need to buy a nylon gear, you crash that Sheldon you are going to be used parts shopping for a while.

Get the thing and learn proper technique, make lots of small parts, then upgrade later if you outgrow the lathe.

I had mine for 7 years because I was working on the workbench in my attached garage. That little lathe made every part I ever asked it to make including working on and single point treading stainless and drill rod.

Eventually I got a 30x52 shop in my back yard and waited until I found a bigger lathe with a larger spindle bore and quick change gears. My neighbor bought my mini for $350 and sometimes I wish I never sold it. It was perfect for small detail stuff where you need your head right on your work with a lighted magnifying glass.

A mini will single point thread great, don't listen to the naysayers.

Get it learn, and sell it later if you outgrow it.


At the price you quoted it's probably gone by now.
Chris

^^^^ +1. Very well stated!!!

 

[Troutsqueezer]

Troutsqueezer - your advise concerning lathes is the worst on the internet

Now before you go posting pictures one more time of ridiculous miniature soft metal trinkets that took you days and weeks to produce - which could have been done in minutes on a proper lathe

Made to specs that make the Happy Fart Lathe look accurate - since you obviously have never operated a REAL LATHE

If you have never made parts that are used in the REAL WORLD - since your "Steam Engines" run on forced air from a compressor and not Steam from a Boiler

Then why can't you just admit your playing around in your garage and not dealing very well with reality

My High school aged son has seen the Happy Fart Lathe and even HE can see it is nothing more then a cheap imitation

Hey Joe, I got a smile out of that post. Thanks!

 

[Troutsqueezer]

That is some beautiful craftsmanship! I've seen photo's of your work before and have much respect for the care and time you put into this.

Thank you very much, Sir.