- Joined
- Jan 2, 2019
- Messages
- 6,541
Hi and welcome.
The reason for gears is simple, they physically connect the spindle to carriage so you can make accurate and repeatable threads. They are cheap and durable and have gotten the job done for centuries.
Im pretty sure almost every lathe under about $10k is used by a hobbyist or very small job shop. Production shops generally have very little space for manual equipment and their staff can probably program a CNC machine faster than using a manual anyway.
So, like every other market, products are built for the demand. Many lathe owners never do threading so adding several hundred dollars to a machine for an already price conscious market doesn’t make sense.
John
The reason for gears is simple, they physically connect the spindle to carriage so you can make accurate and repeatable threads. They are cheap and durable and have gotten the job done for centuries.
Im pretty sure almost every lathe under about $10k is used by a hobbyist or very small job shop. Production shops generally have very little space for manual equipment and their staff can probably program a CNC machine faster than using a manual anyway.
So, like every other market, products are built for the demand. Many lathe owners never do threading so adding several hundred dollars to a machine for an already price conscious market doesn’t make sense.
John