Metric Lathes in the USA

David Lewis

David Lewis

Registered
Registered
Joined
Oct 3, 2013
Messages
26
Hello all!

I want to buy a lathe for my bicycle business, and I have a set of requirements that I cannot seem to find in a single machine, new or old. For the record, I am in the USA.

First, I want a large spindle bore. I want at least a 44.5mm or even better a 50.8mm bore spindle, for cutting off and facing tubing. This is available in a number of variants of new Chinese lathes, and obviously in a number of monster American and British lathes.

Second, I want a short bed. I will never need more than maybe 450-600mm between centers, and anything more than that just takes up valuable floor space. I'll need the room to the left of the lathe for tubing to hang out of the spindle. Are there lathes with beds shorter than 1m with 50mm bores?

Third, I want metric leadscrews and dials. I don't just want metric threading capability, I want metric ONLY! I have no interest in setting feeds and speeds in standard in any way, shape or form. I don't want to have to convert back and forth to standard to make cuts, when all my plans and drawings are in metric. I do not want dual dials unless the system has a clockwork that makes it work properly instead of dividing the metric dial by 25.4. Dual dials may have some benefit if they work like this.

Can someone point me to a product that fulfills the above requirements? The only requirement I can budge on is the bed length, but only somewhat. I don't really want to convert an existing lathe unless it is just replacing the dials, which seems reasonable.
 
Old American lathes have puny spindle bores. But keep in mind, they can be bored out to a larger diameter if need be without loosing too much strength. But don't go crazy.
I'd go with an import machine, you can hack the bed down (if the lathe has soft ways) to shorten it and they generally have larger spindle bores then their American counterparts. Plus on a metric machine you have, well.....metric leadscrew, change gears, etc. I'd go for a Precision Matthews, but if you get one from there you may have to cut the bed down, to meet your needs.
 
It's not that easy Andre, which is why I'm asking here. The problem with the PMs and the others like it is that they have standard leadscrews and dials. OR DO THEY? Maybe I have just been assuming it but it's not true. Either way, I found that a number of Asian machines have large bores and and short-ish beds, but appear to be set up as standard, and that's what's got me looking for solutions.

Maybe someone with an Asian machine like what Andre mentions can chime in on whether the machine is a metric machine adapted to standard or a pure standard machine. If all I have to do is switch some dials then I'm sold, and then again if they have dual dials that work properly then I'd like to see it to help me decide. I don't know why the websites selling these lathes don't show this feature up close.

Last year I bought and swiftly sold a Grizzly milling machine that was standard and not worth the money to convert, which would have meant extensive rework. I don't want to repeat the same mistake on a lathe.
 
Then just replace the leadscrew and change gears. Sell the old parts to help fund the new ones. Do you want metric cross slide, compound, and carriage feeds, too?
 
Andre, I don't want metric paint. Of course, the cross slide, compound and carriage feeds are the whole point here!

You casually say to replace certain parts, but I've gone on this forum because I have no clue where to find such things. I want a metric lathe and I need my hand held to try to figure out how to make it happen! Where on earth can one find metric replacements for leadscrews and change gears, and by extension, dials? Which lathes are capable of such a maneuver?

I am a machine tech student at my local community college, and I am starting up a bicycle company. I know and understand decimal inches and I reject it in favor of metric. The problem is finding machinery with as much enthusiasm! I'm willing to buy new from Asia if such a thing exists or can be made to work with standard parts, but of course I prefer USA-made, and I do not want a Frankenstein machine to suit my whimsy. This is not a hobby.

And I don't want to spend all day surfing the internet to try to find something. That's why I'm here. Google isn't as easy to use anymore, since websites can engineer their own spot in the search results. Cross-referencing "metric" and "lathe" will result in tens of thousands of pages of sites referring to metric threading on a standard lathe, which is the opposite of what I want to find. I would rather just have a metric lathe to begin with.
 
David, the problem you are going to run into is the spindle bore size, sounds like you need at least 2 1/8 inches (53.975mm), this generally means a lathe in the 15 inch or larger range. A <1 meter bed is going to be a bit of a problem, but 1.2M to 1.5M should be available.

http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/tld/4514055817.html I don't know if this one has metric/English dials or not.

There are some older large bore, short bed American lathes available, but then you run into the metric issue. What you are asking for as going to be a bit rare in a reasonable price range. You may have to special order a new lathe to your specs.
 
Is there a reason you wouldn't find the lathe you want and install a digital readout. Instead of messing with changing dials. Most newer lathes are capable of inch and metric threading


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Jim, yeah, I looked at that lathe. I want to spend about half of that, but it's a very good candidate, especially since it has a DRO. Funny they have so many pictures and none of any dials.

I'm trying to figure out why it doesn't seem to be a well-advertised feature to include metric dials, since it is quite distinctive when they are included. At school, we have 13" Clausing Colchesters with standard-only dials, but everything else about them is exactly what I would want.

All that being said, I want a metric lathe. I don't want to horse around with workarounds. The DRO is probably the best alternative, and probably what I'm going to end up with, but I see that somebody has also invented digital dials. Unfortunately they seem to be for a specific brand of mini lathe, but that would have been a no-brainer.

Primarily the lathe will be used for cutting and facing head tubes, which can be up to 1.75" and sometimes larger, and for making prototype parts. Threading will probably be few and far between, but nothing I will ever make on it will be standard.
 
My jet has both inch and metric dials, but only has 1 9/16 spindle bore. You need at least a D1-6 spindle to get a 2+ inch bore. Like daveyscrap said, I think digitals are the answer to the measuring issue. I'll keep my eyes open and let you know if a trip over something.
 
David, I suggest you to check the sites of European producers (some still make their own lathes, rather than just rebranding Chinese machines).
Of course prices will be higher than Asian ones, but perhaps you can even find someone building a one-piece lathe (or adapting one) following your precise specs.
After all, for a small company it would be a lot of good advertising for free.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top