Are there any advantages to owning a mini bench lathe for metalworking as opposed to a huge full-sized lathe. A professional machinist once mentioned to me before that you should buy the biggest lathe that you can due to superior rigidity of the machine. But are there any advantages to owning a bench lathe? The only three I can think of are lower cost, easier to move, and it takes up less space. But are there any practical uses in which a bench lathe could do better work?
Also, how much more precise is a full sized lathe compared to the best mini bench lathe money can buy? And can a mini lathe make everything that a big lathe can make but just not to the same precision?
You've gotten some good input, especially from addertooth. I think you will also find the same advice about buying the biggest lathe you can here on HM BUT let me offer some food for thought.
A lathe is a really important machine tool in the shop, possibly the key machine for some of us, and the lathe you choose is not just about size because small lathes can be rigid, too. The real question you should be asking YOURSELF is what you need the lathe to do and buy a lathe that will allow that. We've had discussions about this very topic recently and this one thing - buying a lathe that will suit your needs - is critical for you to spend some time thinking about because that choice will impact on so many things: space needed to house the lathe, power requirements, tooling choices and costs, and on and on and on.
PLEASE take some time and ask yourself what your plans and needs are, then ask about lathes once you can give us a ball park idea.
Now, with that said, how precise a lathe is is not based on size. As evidence, I give you the Hardinge HLV-H. Even a Sherline lathe is capable of working with great precision so size does not determine the degree of precision a lathe can work to; that has more to do with the operator. What a big lathe can do is make bigger parts, something a small lathe cannot do. Conversely, while bigger lathes can also make small parts, it is often easier to make small parts on a smaller lathe. You will also find that the tooling you use has a great impact on how precise you can work.
The last point I want to make is that while a big lathe is naturally more rigid, how rigid it needs to be depends on the work it has to do. If you only plan to make model engines or smaller parts then what use would a 14" lathe be to you? Moreover, not all lathes in a size range are created equal. I own a smallish Emco Super 11 CD lathe. While it is only an 11" lathe, it is capable of taking cuts that some larger lathes would have trouble making. Accordingly, you will find that the quality of the lathe does have a bearing on how functional it is, which is why many of us would steer you towards a Taiwanese lathe rather than a Chinese one.
There are many, many factors that go into choosing a lathe and many of them are inter-related. It really comes down to what you need the lathe to do.
