11-12 inch PM lathe decisions

I was looking at some of the machines you are and ended up getting the 1236T mainly because of not needing many change gears for threading, bigger selection of feeds and threads, and it being made in Taiwan. I avoid most things made in China when I can, except my wife :) I mostly thread metric and so far everything I have done has not required changing any gears. I haven't used or seen the lathes you are considering, so can't compare other than by the specs, but I am very happy with it.

One other thing why I went with the 1236T, 3 phase motor with a VFD. I knew I was going to want options for setting up my lathe and with the right VFD, you can do some interesting things with the control that might be more difficult with the single phase or DC powered machines. It's a sizable jump in price over the 1228, but I figured the chance of needing to upgrade this is for what I do is low, so it was worth stretching my budget.
 
mustangsal said:
You weren't kidding. It's also a little too heavy for a benchtop... Now I have more decisions... remove the current bench or buy a smaller lathe.
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:grin:

Is that even a decision? The bench goes. Or build a nicer/better/stronger bench to put the new 1340GT on. :grin:
 
There you go, get er done :encourage:
I played with a 1228 for a few years, and then got the 1340GT. That is the longest I could fit, and I was able to keep my D1-4 chucks
 
mustangsal said:
You weren't kidding. It's also a little too heavy for a benchtop... Now I have more decisions... remove the current bench or buy a smaller lathe.
Click to expand...
You’ll be sorry I love my 12x36t lathe. Loose the bench and put a 12x36t on the heavy stand and you will never need to buy any other lathe for a home shop.mine will do any thing I want it to do. Let us know what you get. When it is in the shop.
CH
 
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