Buying your first a lathe...what you wish you knew?

aaronthemeche said:
Which lathe did you get?
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I bought a PM-1030V. I was very surprised how much fun lathe work is.

I just bought a PM-1660TL because I enjoy lathe work so much. A lathe is by far my favorite machine in the shop (second place is gas welding and third place is stick welding). Fun, fun and fun.

I elected to keep my PM-1030V as a second lathe; I wouldn’t want to ever be without it. I have had ZERO problems with it.
 
erikmannie said:
I bought a PM-1030V. I was very surprised how much fun lathe work is.

I just bought a PM-1660TL because I enjoy lathe work so much. A lathe is by far my favorite machine in the shop (second place is gas welding and third place is stick welding). Fun, fun and fun.
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I admire skilled welders.
 
Adding to Mikey's post small lathes can be a great tool in addition to a larger lathe depending on the work you want to do. Small lathe is generally cheaper to tool up and can be much cheaper for the initial purchase. Of course it is also limited in work envelope and may have fewer features although CNC will make some features irrelevant. Some have no use for a 10" or smaller lathe, some (me) do most work on a mini and only go to the larger lathe when the larger size is needed.

A mini to 9 or 10" lathe can be both a good starter lathe helping you to learn what your full needs are without spending a ton of money, to find you came up short of ideal for you. They are also small enough to complement a larger lathe (higher speeds, smaller, lighter, cheaper tooling) and take up a lot less space than a 12-16" lathe all of which can make them a nice second lathe.

I think the worst case would be to buy a 12-13" lathe and find it comes up short of your needs. 12-13" is a very common large hobby lathe because it is a solid general purpose lathe, most being well featured, with good mid range speeds but not hugely expensive and tooling is of a manageable size / weight.

PM is a well respected vendor but at the smaller than 12" size, I think that is where the vintage vs new debate is most fierce. You can get full featured 9" -11" vintage lathes with quick change gear boxes, and full power feed for a similar price, as new less featured lathe. Most new lathes under 12" lack a full gear box, and only the higher end ones have power cross feed. Vintage are often limited on metric thread cutting, and of course being used can have a host of issues.
 
Tons of good info here, and ALL the other what lathe should I get threads. Read the @DavidR8 threads on his lathe search and you'll get a lot of the same info plus thoughts on buying used rather than new.

Trust me, we'll tell you if you're "wasting" your money, from what I've read PM machines are a good value and their service is top notch. However, since you are in Michigan it might be worthwhile looking at some used machines. You're literally less than half an hour from South Bend so it would be almost criminal if you didn't at least see one of their lathes in action. Not every used machine is a project and if you can get one that comes with tooling you will be miles ahead IMHO.

You have nothing to loose by looking at used machines and if you can try one out you'll get a much better sense of what we're all talking about when we answer your questions.

Here's a pretty one that's probably over priced but might be worth a look.

southbend.craigslist.org

South Bend Lathe 10L(aka Heavy 10) - tools - by owner - sale

South Bend Lathe Heavy 10 Model number CL 187RB Late model...1981 Long bed...4 1/2’ with hardened...
southbend.craigslist.org

Oh, and what did I learn that I wish I'd know. Like everyone else, bigger stiffer, quick change gearbox, more tooling, etc....

I like the process of fixing stuff up so projects don't turn me off. I can get much better for way less money if I'm willing to do the work. I'll definitely echo what @macardoso said about CNC vs manual, for a lathe you definitely want manual to start and if you're going to CNC a machine it probably pays to look for something pretty rigid to start with. If you have the space used industrial CNC machines can be had pretty cheap too. Also, you can build your own from parts and pieces like I did with my mill and @r3292c did with his lathe. There are CNC kits for popular mills but not so much for lathes so you have to make a bunch of it yourself anyway and you'll want good manual machines to make that happen.

That's all I've got for now, keep asking questions.


John
 
I have the tangential tool holder from when I bought my first lathe and still use it regularly now, 4 lathes later. I consider it a very smart purchase.

For a lathe, threading is one of my favorite things to do, and opens up a huge envelope of projects you can make. I would get a lathe that is more easily setup to thread.

Spindle bore was always limiting on my smaller lathes. Still sometimes want something larger.

Get a good caliper and a decent set of 1-3" micrometers if you ever want to practice hitting accurate dimensions. When i started i used a cheap caliper and did everything "close enough". Once I started trying to hit exact dimensions, it became much more rewarding. Then it becomes a matter of what tolerance you generally operate to.

Dont waste your money on a cheap 3 jaw chuck, it will only frustrate you. Use a 4 jaw, its a great skill to develop and will help you in setups from here on out.

Those are just a few random thoughts, more to come im sure. Hope it helps.
 
I've had a larger PM for 4 years now. Pretty good machine and their service, what little I've needed, has been excellent.
If at all possible I would avoid bolt on chucks. The CAM lock system is so much faster. You will find yourself wanting to change chucks way more often than you probably think. A 3 jaw is quick and easy to use. BUT if you want to turn the work around to do the other end you will want to use the 4 jaw so you can come back to dead on center. For small work a collet chuck can be accurate enough to just flip the work around. My 5C collet chuck is the "Set True" type, excellent. I bought the optional collet chuck with my lathe. I've used it far more than I though I would. I also bought the set of collets by 1/32". They seem good but 1/32" jump is pretty big.

Aaronthemech's post about things you'll want is a good starting point. For sure a QCTP & lots of tool holders. You don't gain any advantage with the QCTP if you don't have your tools already set up. I'm still up in the air about using only inserted tooling. The cheap Chinese inserts work, but I wouldn't buy them for production use. Their insert holders seem to work OK, at least the ones I've got. Once I had some practice, I found grinding HSS pretty easy and I get excellent finishes with it. An extended nose live center is nice to have but, the aftermarket one I bought turned out to be too low of quality to be useful. My lathe came with an OK face plate and I bought a set of dogs and made a couple for very odd work.

There are no belt changes on my lathe and relatively low gear noise. I have to use change gears to do metric threads, kind of a PIA. All the imperial threads I've wanted have been available through the gear box.
I think you should seriously consider moving up to a 12" swing. If for no other reason than the CAMLOCK spindle. Note that for most work, it is the clearance over the cross slide that determines useful working diameter.

A lathe is just the beginning of a long series of "needing more." A knee mill is next!
 
Congrats on the purchase. My first lathe was an Atlas 12" x 36". I learned an awful lot on that machine. Knowing what I know now, I wouldn't have bought the lathe again. Mine had a number of things missing that I bought from Atlas, just inexperience on my part. I'm not bad mouthing Atlas', but mine was missing the head stock cover and the bench-mount pulley arrangement to the motor. I had never seen the lathe before and had no clue any of that stuff was missing. No similar worry on your part as you are buying new.

Second lathe was a Rockwell 10" x 36" with 4C collets and a taper attachment. Was a salvage buy from a local school shutting their shop down. That introduced me to collets, a taper attachment and variable speed (Reeves-type drive).

Third lathe was a Clausing 5418; 12" x 24". Picked it up from the school shop my dad taught at. Big gain with this lathe was shear mass and stiffness, something like a 800 lbs. machine vs. 200-300 for the Atlas and Rockwell. No problems parting on the Clausing.

Fourth lathe was a Grizzly G0709 14" x 40". Bought this one for primarily 2 reasons: Gear head speed changes and the universal quick change gear box. The Clausing was my main lathe. Speed changes require a deep knee bend to the floor-height lever to release belt tension for slipping the belt on the pulleys. I got tired of all the deep knee bends, left the lathe at ~600 RPM's for everything. I wanted a gear head lathe for easier speed changes.

Also had some projects requiring Metric threading which is where the universal gear box really shines. My G0709 does not come with any additional quadrant gears. There's one gear swap required to get to the really coarse tpi, but swapping between English and Metric is done by the position of one knob. So much quicker and easier than changing out a 100/127 or 120/127 or some other combo gear in the quadrant.

I sold the Atlas and Rockwell. So is everything sunshine and roses? Nope, the Rockwell QCGB had 27 threads per inch for 1/8"-27 pipe threads and a taper attachment. Had no problems threading the 3/4" per foot or whatever the taper is for the pipe thread. My Clausing gear box does 27 tpi, but no taper attachment. The Grizzly has a taper attachment but no 27 tpi setting. As an aside, one of these days I'll cut the gear needed to change 18 tpi to 27 tpi and get that esoteric pipe thread ability back in my arsenal.

Long story longer, maybe list the things you require of the lathe, plus the wants for the lathe and see what fits best. Sounds like you've already done that!

Some factors are screw-on chucks vs. D1 or L style mounts. It's nice to back a tap out of a hole with the lathe in reverse without worrying about spinning the chuck off the spindle. Do you plan on doing work where you'll do multiple operations requiring re-chucking? 4-jaw will work, but collets are nice and quick. Collets are great for softer material like brass or aluminum that'll dent with a really tight 3 or 4 jaw (there are work arounds). Swing and bed length for the size of your projects are a consideration.

You'll find as you gain more experience that there's some feature you don't have that you wish you did. But we're all in that same boat and find work-arounds. Part of the joy of this hobby is using our creativity to figure out how to get the job done with the tools on hand. Looking forward to seeing some of your work!

Bruce
 
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I highly recommend saving up more money to get a PM1236 or cancelling the order if you've already done it.

I bought a PM1127 and I HIGHLY regret not getting the PM1236 instead, even after being told by several members here to do so.

The change gears are an absolute pain to deal with. And it'd be nice to have a more powerful motor so I can take deeper cuts than .040. The carriage lock is hard to get to if you have a DRO installed, along with other complaints.
 
Pcmaker said:
I highly recommend saving up more money to get a PM1236

I bought a PM1127 and I regret not getting the PM1236 instead, even after being told by several members here to do so.

The change gears are an absolute pain to deal with. And it'd be nice to have a more powerful motor so I can take deeper cuts than .040.
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The I plan to convert to CNC so I’m not concerned with change gears.

A more powerful motor would be nice though.
 
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