Advice on choosing a benchtop lathe

If buying new I'd suggest increasing your budget by another $1000 at least. That gets you into a little Precision Matthews machine with good support. Grizzly has some cheaper offerings that might meet your needs but as others have commented you'll need to anticipate what your future self will want.

And, as you'll find out pretty quickly the budget can increase dramatically when you start adding accessories.

You are in a good part of the country for used machines and folks on here can help with deciding what looks like a deal and what's a real dog. I consider my 12x36 to be about as small as I want in terms of size and rigidity. Rigidity is in my opinion even more important than swing or distance between centers.

If you have time to make this decision that'll be your best friend, but don't be afraid to go and look at machines that come up near you even if you don't want to buy used. You'll still learn from checking them out and might just find a real gem. As you look around our site you'll notice that regardless of if you buy new or used there's always setup and refinement on these things. Sometimes you can get a head start by shopping used for late model units.

Cheers,

John
 
Buying a lathe based on size and budget rather than what is realistic for the kind of work you want to do is often doomed to dissatisfaction.

You see a wide variety of opinions on the mini-lathes, from wonderful to a lathe like object. Those that like them are usually people who can utilize a lathe that size and were either lucky or realistic about their capability when they bought their little lathe. In this group are also those who outgrew a small lathe, but still give them credit for being a useful stepping stone to get them to the bigger lathe that they are happy with.


If you are doing very small work (2-3" diameter, 12" or less in length), you have quite a few options for a small lathe within your budget. Sherline, Taig, and the 7x mini-lathe family can all be purchased new, with a solid starter package of tooling usually for $1500 or less. The 8x16" and 9x20" lathes are pushing your budget but do offer more lathe. The higher quality 8x20 or larger 10x22" machines will blow out your budget by at least $1000 after shipping and taxes are factored in.

Without knowing your expectations beyond not to big, and about $2000, something like the Grizzly G4000 9x20" would be my suggestion. Big enough to do a good variety of work, but light enough that two strong people can still move it (250lbs), and just a hair over 3 feet long (37"), so only a foot longer than a 7x10" mini-lathe.

With taxes, and shipping you should be a little under $2400, and this is a lathe that Grizzly often puts on sale, so you might be able to get it a little closer to your $2000 budget if you time it right. These lathes have an active user group with tons of information out there for improving them.


With a budget of $2000 you should really consider the used market, you can get a lot more lathe for your money, but I do understand the concerns of buying a used machine. Even people who are comfortable looking over a used lathe get burned occasionally.
 
I spent most of my working life as a Tool & Die maker, using the factorys' tool room machines.

In the past 5 years I've purchased PM's 25MV mill and 10-30 lathe. Both have given me all the satisfaction I wanted. I did make three extra banjos for the lathe so I can swap banjos, instead of re-gearing for different cuts. For my hobby use the two machines have been quite adequate.

To be totally honest, I purchased a 10-22 lathe, but they were out of them and supplied the 10-30 at no extra cost.
 
Gotta have a QCGB, (quick change gear box) for threading.
 
And the capability to cut the common metric threads with the QCGB. I was able to achieve that with a combo gear on my craftsman 12x36.

Would be helpful to know what Imagineer wants to make with his lathe. Current projects and future projects.
 
I know it’s not benchtop and I think it cheap because only more experienced know the Sheldon name and you have to get it out of a basement, but I’d jump on this like a dog on a bone.

cleveland.craigslist.org

Sheldon Metal Lathe 11x36" - tools - by owner - sale

Sheldon Metal Lathe - $1800 obo. 11x36" Wired for 220V/1phase (I honestly do no remember if the motor can be wired for 110). Comes with 3-jaw chuck, 4-jaw chuck, faceplate for dogs, Jacobs chuck,...
cleveland.craigslist.org
 
That Sheldon would probably be all the lathe you would ever need. Comes with a bunch of tooling. Aloris QCTP and holders are expensive. Getting it out of a basement wouldn't be that hard. Take it apart into smaller pieces. I took my craftsman 12x36 apart and moved it by myself. Both when I bought it and when I moved to my current house. The heaviest part will be the bed and headstock. Strap it to a beefy handcart/dolly and two people could move it out of the basement.

I like that it is in somebody's basement. Might be a lightly used hobby lathe. It has also been for sale for over a month. Make the seller an offer. I am sure that he will take less than the asking price.
 
I think for me a 10" lathe would do 100% of everything I need to do and 90% of everything I want to do. But, the length is critical. If you want to put a threaded hole in the end of a shaft, you might need as much bed length as the length of the shaft plus the length of the tap plus the length of a tap handle plus the length of a tap guide plus a chuck in the tailstock. It adds up fast. Get the longest center to center distance you can find and still meet the rest of your needs.
 
Winegrower said:
If you want to put a threaded hole in the end of a shaft, you might need as much bed length as the length of the shaft plus the length of the tap plus the length of a tap handle plus the length of a tap guide plus a chuck in the tailstock. It adds up fast. Get the longest center to center distance you can find and still meet the rest of your needs.
Click to expand...

OT: Can reduce the length stack up by using a MT tap guide (strongly agree to get the longest possible).
 
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