Home Lathe suggestions

[Tmadia]

I'm not an expert machinist by any means, but I'm looking for a metal lathe for my garage to do little projects here and there and I'm getting a lot of conflicting advice.

I was thinking a 12"x24" or somewhere in that range? I've been told that's too small and I will regret it but I can't imagine needing all that much more!

Do any of you with small lathes really regret buying them?

Also, where is a good place to look for used lathes in Southern California?

Thanks!

 

[txvwnut]

I have a lathe that fits your dimensions and it has fit me well. It does however have more swing on it(12") than most of the 12x24's you will find. If are just doing small jobs that fit the lathe you are looking for then by all means by what you need.

 

[jar944]

12x36 is as small as I would go. Its what I currently have in my garage and occasionally wish it was bigger, I've never wished it was smaller.

 

[jmarkwolf]

Consider the bore size through the headstock.

I have a Grizzly 11x26 that fits my application, but the bore through the headstock is only about an inch. Makes it hard to make a bunch of short parts from a longer piece by just advancing the work through the chuck. Lotta waste.

This alone is making me consider a larger lathe.

 

[Doug Arthurs]

Had a 10" Atlas. Too small change gears were a PIA. Bought a 13 x 36 Colchester. Learned lots on it made a ton of parts but wasn't a tight enough tolerance machine. Now I have a 13 x 24 modern standard and she is everything I wanted. There's is no real wear on this machine. Makes it lots more fun making parts cause you can't blame the machine anymore.

 

[Shadowdog500]

I have an 11x36 and it is a good size for me. An extra inch or two of swing would be great, but no matter what size you get you will always have a project or two that needs bigger.

my 36" lathe is long enough for anything I need to do in my garage, 24 may be as well, but if you can get 36 " I don't think you will ever have a problem with the lathe being too short.

Whatever you get make sure it has quick change gears with a good selection of threads and feed rates. Power cross feed is nice as well. My last lathe used change gears and that gets old real fast and after a while you look for reasons not to thread.

Spindle bore size is also a consideration. Mine has 1-3/8" and I wish it was 1-1/2" a couple times.

I'm on the east coast, so I dint know where to find a deal in California. A few of well known Internet machinist live in your area and they are always finding deals on equipment. MCheck out Tom Lipton at OXtools, amd outsidescrewball and randy Richard. All three are on youtube. Perhaps they could turn you on to a deal in your area.


chris

 

[JoeFin]

Try searching Craigs list

http://sacramento.craigslist.org/tls/4956879349.html

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/tld/4958073341.html



Personally I'm partial to the Leblonds - several levels of quality above any thing you'll find coming out of asia

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/pen/tls/4959728362.html

 

[astroracer]

I guess it depends on how you define " little" projects. I have two 9 x 14's and have made plenty of parts on them and never regretted buying either. One is a lathe/mill combo and it has made or fixed a lot of full size car parts for builds in my shop. I have never needed anything bigger.
Mark

 

[Maui]

Well, it depends on what your budget is and what you intend to do with the lathe. The Southbend lathes are tough to beat for value. They are well built and parts are readily available, even today. I have two of them. One is a 9" and the other is a 16" that was built in 1917. They are wonderful machines. You can see some photos of the 16" lathe here:

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=246413

It weighs 1700 lbs, and I bought it at an estate auction for $170.00. That's about $0.10/lb. As others mentioned, the size of the through hole in the headstock may be important to you. If you provide a little more information, we can give you some better suggestions.

 

[The Cobbler]

I have a 13x3o ish STandard Modern lathe.I can't remember the bore size but it's over an inch , might be 1-3/8" . picked it up early January with a 3 & 4 jaw, a fair bit of tooling .. It's stored at a friends house until I get my garage built.
Another buddy is jealous cause his is only 9" . he wants to trade even... like yeah, sure LOL

 

[dovco]

www.lathemaster.com
Bob B is a very nice guy and his stuff is good. It's imported but he works with the manufacturer to insure he gets the quality he wants. Feel free to contact him with questions.

I have one of lathemaster's first 9X30s. It is very good for home use. However, my buddy has a bigger South Bend in his shop that I have access to. The 9X30 is an excellent bench top lathe. Anything bigger and you'll want a lathe with its own base.

Two things you want to look at are through head hole diameter and hardened, inverted V ways. Quick change gearbox is nice if you want to cut threads. I mostly just feed dies under power to cut threads so a QC gearbox is not really necessary. If you want to cut precision threads on center for things like firearm suppressors then you'll want to cut threads with single point tools, not dies.

Before you're done you'll have $X in lathe and $2-10X in tooling. A quick change tool post and carbide insert cutters are the way to go. The imported Aloris clones are good.

 

[JoeFin]

Here this one is in your area if you haven't already seen it or some one snatched it up

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/tls/4961572477.html

For the money you can't go wrong and should you decide later to trade up I don't see how you could take a loss at that price.

My first lathe was a 12" x 36" and I made 1000s of parts on it as well as refreshed my lathe skills and learned a few new ones.

The main problem with buying "New" in the Mini Lathe category is should you decide later you need a larger lathe you most certainly will take a loss on it should you decide to sell it.

Currently I have a 13" Leblond in very good condition - but there are those times when I wish I had not passed on a friends 24" x 48" Axelson.

 

[Shadowdog500]

Here this one is in your area if you haven't already seen it or some one snatched it up



http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/tls/4961572477.html



For the money you can't go wrong and should you decide later to trade up I don't see how you could take a loss at that price.



My first lathe was a 12" x 36" and I made 1000s of parts on it as well as refreshed my lathe skills and learned a few new ones.



The main problem with buying "New" in the Mini Lathe category is should you decide later you need a larger lathe you most certainly will take a loss on it should you decide to sell it.



Currently I have a 13" Leblond in very good condition - but there are those times when I wish I had not passed on a friends 24" x 48" Axelson.

If I was in your area is be all over this!!!

The two chucks and tooling are a big thing even if it needs the electric box fixed.

Chris

 

[Tmadia]

Excellent suggestions! I wouldn't have even thought of the headstock bore, good thing to keep in mind when I look at some.

I'll check out that Enco.

Thanks everybody!

 

[dovco]

I would buy that Enco now if it were in my area. You can probably get the data from the motor and get a used VFD on ebay to control it and be golden.

 

[Tmadia]

Checked on the Enco and it was already sold

 

[kythri]

What are you folks building with these lathes? Parts for what applications?

 

[burnedzr2]

Find a older South Bend heavy 10 lathe. I have one and I use it all the time.

 

[Tmadia]

Well I have 7 cars to support as well as model airplanes and my latest plan is to make a few steam engines.

 

[justanengineer]

JMO but I always recommend folks start in the 12/x36'ish range for a home lathe. Its large enough to do real work but small enough to not waste a ton of room. Ive used mine to do everything from making bushings to seal drivers, custom/expensive fasteners/fittings, boring small engines, the list goes on.

 

[JoeFin]

What are you folks building with these lathes? Parts for what applications?

Currently working on a F1000 build

 

[A_Pmech]

I'm a fan of the Clausing 4900 / 5300 series lathes. They're small enough for a "first lathe rigging experience," they have a quick-change gearbox and the speeds / feeds are appropriate for carbide tooling.

For their size, they're plenty rigid.

 

[zkling]

Something in the 12-14" range. Geared head is nice, but if problems become present, gets expensive quick. With that said, I use my 10" south bend more often than the 15" clausing.

Just a heads up with a used clausing machine. They are very proud of their parts, so factor that into purchase price of a used machine.

All depends on what you specifically plan to turn. A larger lathe can turn small parts up to a point. One of the nicest machines I ever ran for an extended period of time was a Leblond 18"? tool room lathe. Awesome for medium sized parts, but just too cumbersome for small pieces that would be used in typical model making.

 

[BFBOB]

The first question you must answer is: What do you want to do with it?
All else follows from that answer.
If you don't have a definite answer, there are many considerations which have already been mentioned. In addition I would add size, weight, and threading capability. How much room do you have to store it? How much weight can you handle? Can it do Metric as well as SAE threads?
In my case, the lathe had to come down a flight of narrow stairs with a turn at the bottom and top. That ruled out anything that wouldn't disassemble into pieces that could be carried by two people.
I also had no room to set it up permanently, so it had to be on a stand on casters--definitely not ideal.
Price was also a consideration, so all this FOR ME pretty much dictated a Chinese 9x20. Mine is Buffalo brand, but they're everywhere and about the same.

Power crossfeed is nice, but I added it to mine fairly easily with parts scavenged from an old copier. Gearmotor, magnetic clutch, flexible shaft tacked onto the back end of the crossfeed lead screw. One speed, reversible, and free!