Buying my first new lathe. Chinese or Chinese?

Dabbler said:
Matt removes the T if it isn't 100% from Taiwan. Some of the models have partially sourced from other parts of Asia, including, but not exclusively China. For instance parts from S Korea ate very high quality, but disqualify the model from having a T in it.

Frankly Matt doesn't sell junk. Even his lathes sourced entirely from China are a cut above traditional Asian imports. Not that his machines are all defect-free, but Matt will usually go to the wall to make it right if a defect is found.

So if your lathe is a "V" model instead of a "TV" model, you are probably still in good shape.
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I agree, everything from the imperial lead screws and dials to service, I had a problem with my lathe and PM helped me to solve to problem down to the point of replacing the DRO and they allowed me to pitch in a few bucks to get the upgraded DRO.
 
Hope this helps someone down the road. In a gunsmithing class I used South Bend 13s and an Enco 1440. The first lathe I owned was a Jet 1024 made in Taiwan. They are a legitimate lathe in a small package with back gears, power cross feeds in and out, a tumbler for right and left feeds/threads and a full quick change gearbox that made all Imperial threads in its range with no other gear changes. It did have change gears for metric threading. It weighed about 700 pounds; no Monarch but beefy for a 10” benchtop lathe.

Now I have a Grizzly 9972z which is very similar to the Grizzly 10x22. I’ve made some of Clough42’s accessories by the dimensions for his 10x22 and the fit has been perfect. The lathe is OK but just OK. It’s accurate enough for most hobby use. It took me a while to get good accuracy. Part of the reason might have been the accumulation of chips in the compound clamp; seems like it got better after cleaning. It also seems like it just took time to learn the machine. The cross feed dial doesn’t read Imperial dimensions accurately so that was no doubt part of the problem. I’ve bogged it down many times even using quality carbide inserts. I’ve changed speeds enough that it’s pretty fast by now but still a pain. It requires different belts for high and low speed ranges. The tensioner is awkward to use. Changing feeds is slow and messy because it almost always requires changing the change gears. Getting the gear engagement depth right is iffy. If I used something other than moly grease it would be a little less messy but still not clean and still not fast. My eyes are always open for a 12”-14” lathe with a full quick change gear box and ideally a geared head for easy speed changes. I can’t imagine owning another lathe that requires changing change gears manually for Imperial threads.

The best used lathes are probably out of labs, trade schools and the military.
 
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David2011 said:
Hope this helps someone down the road. In a gunsmithing class I used South Bend 13s and an Enco 1440. The first lathe I owned was a Jet 1024 made in Taiwan. They are a legitimate lathe in a small package with back gears, power cross feeds in and out, a tumbler for right and left feeds/threads and a full quick change gearbox that made all Imperial threads in its range with no other gear changes. It did have change gears for metric threading. It weighed about 700 pounds; no Monarch but beefy for a 10” benchtop lathe.

Now I have a Grizzly 9972z which is very similar to the Grizzly 10x22. I’ve made some of Clough42’s accessories by the dimensions for his 10x22 and the fit has been perfect. The lathe is OK but just OK. It’s accurate enough for most hobby use. It took me a while to get good accuracy. Part of the reason might have been the accumulation of chips in the compound clamp; seems like it got better after cleaning. It also seems like it just took time to learn the machine. The cross feed dial doesn’t read Imperial dimensions accurately so that was no doubt part of the problem. I’ve bogged it down many times even using quality carbide inserts. I’ve changed speeds enough that it’s pretty fast by now but still a pain. It requires different belts for high and low speed ranges. The tensioner is awkward to use. Changing feeds is slow and messy because it almost always requires changing the change gears. Getting the gear engagement depth right is iffy. If I used something other than moly grease it would be a little less messy but still not clean and still not fast. My eyes are always open for a 12”-14” lathe with a full quick change gear box and ideally a geared head for easy speed changes. I can’t imagine owning another lathe that requires changing change gears manually for Imperial threads.

The best used lathes are probably out of labs, trade schools and the military.
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I completely understand what you are saying. My first lathe was a South Bend 10K with full gearbox and a horizontal drive. Nice machine but took up too much space in my small shop. Then I had a Clausing 100 12x24 with change gears. Stout machine but I missed the gear box.
Happened onto a DF-1237G in Aug with quick change gearbox, cuts metric and imperial and I couldn't be happier.
 
I bought a new Grizzly G4003G 7 or 8 years ago and it really stepped up my game from my old worn out Logan.
 
The Grizzly 4003G is one of the few Grizzly lathes that meets my personal requirements detailed above. If, when the time comes, I can’t find a good American lathe it’s high on my list for possibilities.
 
Consider a Hardinge Hlv-H for a small lathe. Incredible precision. Best manual threading there is. A real treat to operate.
Or if you have the power and room anything Monarch series 60 or newer.
 
Hi all and Merry Christmas.
The boat is finally hitting Panama Canal tomorrow. Unfortunately I am not seeing me turning chips this year but that's OK. I am super excited to start mid Jan.
In the waiting process I have decided to build a foundry furnace. One of my first projects will be to cast and machine a 50cal cannon. Yeah I'm not real smart:).
Has anyone priced metal lately OUCH?? I am pricing Copper at around $12 a pound!

So I am starting to look into buying inserts and parting tooling etc. and wonder if anyone could suggest a good place to purchase these items rather than Amazon? Looking for good quality not necessarily cheap but not diamond cost either?
I am also looking at the Vevor drill bit sharpener and wonder if anyone here has any experience with it??

As I stated in an earlier post my grandfather was a gun smith and I got a lot of tooling from him and there are a few of the items I am not really sure how to use them for example this boring bar. I have a bunch of them and I feel as if I am missing a holder to mount to the carriage? Is the pic the correct way to mount that style bar??
 

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Rufustoad said:
Hi all and Merry Christmas.
The boat is finally hitting Panama Canal tomorrow. Unfortunately I am not seeing me turning chips this year but that's OK. I am super excited to start mid Jan.
In the waiting process I have decided to build a foundry furnace. One of my first projects will be to cast and machine a 50cal cannon. Yeah I'm not real smart:).
Has anyone priced metal lately OUCH?? I am pricing Copper at around $12 a pound!

So I am starting to look into buying inserts and parting tooling etc. and wonder if anyone could suggest a good place to purchase these items rather than Amazon? Looking for good quality not necessarily cheap but not diamond cost either?
I am also looking at the Vevor drill bit sharpener and wonder if anyone here has any experience with it??

As I stated in an earlier post my grandfather was a gun smith and I got a lot of tooling from him and there are a few of the items I am not really sure how to use them for example this boring bar. I have a bunch of them and I feel as if I am missing a holder to mount to the carriage? Is the pic the correct way to mount that style bar??
Click to expand...
I like Accusize, they are a Canadian company and I have had very good results from their tooling, you can find Accusize on Amazon but I found that I could go to their web site and I like it much better.

Past that I would encourage you to locate a local brick and mortar in your area if one exists, I have found those places to be worthy of my patronage and the counter folks to be helpful.

Happy new year
 
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