Buying my first new lathe. Chinese or Chinese?

[MG&L]

What verbotenwhiskey said. Accusize has performed well in my experience, AND the brick and mortar is sure to be a great tool for information.

 

[Dabbler]

I have a bunch of them and I feel as if I am missing a holder to mount to the carriage?

These appear to be intended for an American Rocker tool post. You can easily repurpose them in a QCTP or 4-way. The bottoms of the square component might need to be milled to be on centre - especially for a 4-way. Make chips with what you have, and that will tell you what upgrades you actually need.

 

[David2011]

Accusize is rapidly becoming a favorite source of affordable tooling. I have several of their QCTP tool holders, a set of ER40 collets and just received an R8 ER40 collet chuck. It's a beautiful piece of machine work. So far I'm of the opinion that their products are far better than the cheapest Chinese items for a very modest increase in cost.

 

[B2]

I am also looking at the Vevor drill bit sharpener and wonder if anyone here has any experience with it??

Here is a thread containing comments on the Vevor

I hate hand sharpening drill bits.....I can do it, but I'm ocd. It's gotta be perfect. It ends up taking forever.

I do not know the Vevor so cannot comment other than the posting.

I bought a Drill Doctor, via a recommendation from a friend who does handyman and wood working for a living, and found it to be a piece of junk. He indicated that his was a lot older than the current models. I could not even get it to work well on any size. A 5/16" bit came out worse than it went in. I spent quite a bit of time looking at it and finally got rid of it. I came to the conclusion that if you are going to be drilling in wood that a cheap sharpener might be ok, but then for that quality just use a grinding wheel.

My guess is that it depends a lot on what you are looking for in terms of quality. But I think one needs to spend at least >$1K in order to get a decent starter machine .... maybe more.

It is actually quite hard to get a near perfect grind on a drill bit. ... Even on a simple two flute bit. Very larger bits are much easier to sharpen than small ones and someone who has lots of experience can do a decent job by hand., but they are still far from high quality. Cutting angle on a curve, followed by the relief angle grind and of course these are offset for a split point. Must be centered and rotated about the center while changing the angle. Holding it while sharpening is non-trivial and so good grinders use a collet for each size. This may have been one of the most difficult problems for the Drill Doctor. It did not hold the bit well and the cam used for changing the angle will rotating the bit was both loose and cheaply made. Avoid a machine with plastic parts.

How to tell if a bit is sharpened correctly? Use it. Put it in a so that you can control the plunge rate and force and then see if you can it a speed where you consistently get curls from BOTH flutes at the same time. If you only get one curl then the bit is not sharpened the same on both sides or your rate is wrong. Commonly the curls are not the same on both sides so you know that the bit edges are matched. Only one side is cutting so you only need one flute. In fact the other flute maybe/probably rubbing and just heating up the work and the bit.

 

[mac1911]

Here is a thread containing comments on the Vevor


I do not know the Vevor so cannot comment other than the posting.

I bought a Drill Doctor, via a recommendation from a friend who does handyman and wood working for a living, and found it to be a piece of junk. He indicated that his was a lot older than the current models. I could not even get it to work well on any size. A 5/16" bit came out worse than it went in. I spent quite a bit of time looking at it and finally got rid of it. I came to the conclusion that if you are going to be drilling in wood that a cheap sharpener might be ok, but then for that quality just use a grinding wheel.

My guess is that it depends a lot on what you are looking for in terms of quality. But I think one needs to spend at least >$1K in order to get a decent starter machine .... maybe more.

It is actually quite hard to get a near perfect grind on a drill bit. ... Even on a simple two flute bit. Very larger bits are much easier to sharpen than small ones and someone who has lots of experience can do a decent job by hand., but they are still far from high quality. Cutting angle on a curve, followed by the relief angle grind and of course these are offset for a split point. Must be centered and rotated about the center while changing the angle. Holding it while sharpening is non-trivial and so good grinders use a collet for each size. This may have been one of the most difficult problems for the Drill Doctor. It did not hold the bit well and the cam used for changing the angle will rotating the bit was both loose and cheaply made. Avoid a machine with plastic parts.

How to tell if a bit is sharpened correctly? Use it. Put it in a so that you can control the plunge rate and force and then see if you can it a speed where you consistently get curls from BOTH flutes at the same time. If you only get one curl then the bit is not sharpened the same on both sides or your rate is wrong. Commonly the curls are not the same on both sides so you know that the bit edges are matched. Only one side is cutting so you only need one flute. In fact the other flute maybe/probably rubbing and just heating up the work and the bit.

The drill doctor is just “ok” for dressing up drill bits for basic use.
Anyrhing under 1/4” is a pita to do
I work on cars/trucks often rusty and in cramped areas so drill bits get abused.
As a absolute new hobby machine operator in my shed the drill doctor will have to do.
I also have a older model with out fancy features it does “work” but as I get better machining drill doctor is laughable.
It has bailed me out by getting a better edge on some older bits I have and used on the lathe.
For how many drills I need sharpened for “machine” work I do I am lucky to have a local “sharpening” service near by.

 

[Rufustoad]

You guy rock. This site has been a definitely good experience.

I looked into Accusize and that definitely looks promising however MG&L is correct about the brick and mortar. I would much rather have supported mom and pop and not Amazon but unfortunately, they are hard to find. I did find one in my area, but half the website was written in Chinese. Yeah, I get where my lathe is coming from, but I would love to find an old timer that loves to share
I have seen a lot of good reviews on this Vevor including our old buddy on YT MR Pete. I have a ton of bits I need to sharpen but the bad thing is my grandfather built a ton of scope mounts so a bunch of the bits I have are in the 3mm thread size. I just cannot bring myself to not sharpening them if I can find a way not to mention all I have. I figured $300 would be a drop if it actually worked and if I can maybe make a few really small collets I might be able to get a fairly decent edge on some of these. I also have some bigger ones I sharpened over the years and it would not hurt to regrind them into some kind of shape. I can grind a good edge, but I always go a bit to far on one side and not to the other
Think I will get the Vevor and give it a try for some tax stuff. Will let you know how it goes.

"American Rocker tool post" I have several of those I just thought there would usually be a V style mount for a round type bar but I could be way off on that.. Thanks

 

[David2011]

My basic standard model Drill Doctor is at least 10 years old; maybe 15. As said, bigger bits are easier. It only sharpens standard twist rate bits correctly. Anything other than the standard twist rate will not have the correct angles. There is definitely a technique that has to be developed to get acceptable results. Search YouTube for videos. A few are very good; most are not. It's hard to describe but the basis is keeping upward pressure on the bit holder all the way through every revolution and starting at the | or || mark. The bit has to be turned consistently and not too fast through the grinding stage. Some bits just don't want to sharpen in the Drill Doctor but it has salvaged a lot of bits for me. The ones that come out usable but "just OK" are relegated to carpentry grade use.

 

[Larry$]

just received an R8 ER40 collet chuck. It's a beautiful piece of machine work.

I've had an R8-ER40 for quite a while. I already had a set of collets for my lathe chuck. The R8-ER40 came from PM and is very nice. I'm surprised at how concentric that stack of possible errors is. I've got some metric mill tooling and no R8 metric collets. So the ER collets even though they are imperial come close enough to hold the metric tooling nicely. The set of import/Chinese collets run very true, got lucky. ER collets have a decent clamping range, R8 don't. I have an ER40 chuck but much prefer using my 5C on the lathe.

 

[verbotenwhisky]

I've had an R8-ER40 for quite a while. I already had a set of collets for my lathe chuck. The R8-ER40 came from PM and is very nice. I'm surprised at how concentric that stack of possible errors is. I've got some metric mill tooling and no R8 metric collets. So the ER collets even though they are imperial come close enough to hold the metric tooling nicely. The set of import/Chinese collets run very true, got lucky. ER collets have a decent clamping range, R8 don't. I have an ER40 chuck but much prefer using my 5C on the lathe.

I had a set of ER-32 collets that I used with my drill press and when I bought my mill I bought an ER-40 chuck and Collets with it. I later bought an ER-32x R8 for my mill and and ER-32 x MT3 for my tail stock, I like both the 32 and the 40. I have since attached myself to a set of R8 collets which are good, main thing the R8 collets have not discernible run out and reduce the tool tolerance stack up in the mill, I would tell you it increases my tool clearance (more working room) but I have 22" of clearance between the Quill and table and I have not yet tackled anything that caused me a clearance issue.

 

[Smithdoor]

I am not completely new to lathes but new enough that I admit I am not smart. I posted a few times in other forums and got some really good input but I am a little confused about a few things.
Is there that big of a difference between the PM and Grizzly?
I really like some of the features on the PM 1440 like 8” chuck and a 3yr warranty but my problem now is PM has zero stock on any lathes and they sent me an email a few minutes ago stating it could be December before they get anything.
I have also been looking at the Grizzly 0824. I am sure they both have their goods and bads but just wondering if there is a huge difference between them and are tool posts and some of the basic attachments interchangeable on lathe's?
Also wondering what makes a lathe a gun smithing lathe?

I am same boat .
I just purchased my first Chinese lathe in November. It also is lowest-priced lathe I ever purchased and smallest too.
I sold my South Bend 9A after owning for 20 years and it was made in America.
Today what choices do you have.
It is sad day.

I did install my America made tool post and America made drill chuck.

Dave