Minimum HP on mini-lathe for stainless steel cutting?

If one looks at LRA or locked rotor amps it is the amount of current the motor can pull under those conditions.

Others use a fully loaded to point of stalling or still others may use starting current that could be much higher than breaker rating for miliseconds.

Some time ago we found some documentation explaining how the different devices were over - rated this way.

Any type of motor will only draw the rated current when performing rated work so the little 600 watt motor very well could be running at 250 until the depth of cut is increased to the point that the spindle hp requirement gets there.

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It has also been my experience that chinesium motors fry the first time you get close to stalling, where american made motors can generally take more abuse. It's not a hard and fast rule, but in my opinion should be taken into consideration when purchasing equipment.
 
The_Apprentice said:
I heard someone on here refer to the descriptions as "Chinese Horsepower"​

LOL. It does seem we should make that catch-phrase stick, otherwise more hobbyists will run into these nasty surprises.

I also noticed a lot of sellers either purposely, or accidentally keep inflating the values of HP of these chinese lathes. 1/3 gets extrapolated to 1/2. And 1/2 to 2/3, and even now there is a seller on Amazon selling a listed 2/3 Grizzly as a 1 HP unit. Despite I saw at least one person leaving negative feedback stating a warning to inform others.
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I have seen the same thing. Precision Matthews had a machine listing that said it had a 1.5 HP motor and noted "This is the same motor used on machines of similar size, but other distributors choose to round it to 2 HP."

Even when they are somewhat accurate with their HP ratings, they often do it on draw instead of HP at the shaft. So all the energy lost to heat, friction, sound, etc is included in the HP rating.
 
I don't know if they still do it, but in the old days Rolls Royce (under)stated the horsepower of their automobiles as "adequate." If only manufacturers had that mind set instead of undercutting the competition today, we might have more top quality stuff made again...
 
I would almost say, that both the King Canada and the Craftex are the same lathe, just different labeling. If you are near a Busy Bee, I would recomend it over the King Canada. I have recieved good help from the guys at the Ottawa store.

As for if this will do what you want, I do not have any where near the experience to answer that. Hope you find what you need.
 
darrin1200 said:
I would almost say, that both the King Canada and the Craftex are the same lathe, just different labeling. If you are near a Busy Bee, I would recomend it over the King Canada. I have recieved good help from the guys at the Ottawa store.
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I have indeed visited Busy Bee, and took a quick examination of their lathes. There are some differences though, maybe close but not quite the same.

Interestingly, I have seen quite a few very negative threads on this site in regards to Busy Bee.
 
The_Apprentice said:
I have indeed visited Busy Bee, and took a quick examination of their lathes. There are some differences though, maybe close but not quite the same.

Interestingly, I have seen quite a few very negative threads on this site in regards to Busy Bee.
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That unfortunately is true , it must have something to do with their "after sale service" that some customers complain about ,I've heard there has been some improvements made in that regard, and to be fair , their good customer service varies .some say it depends on the individual stores and the people who manage them , I've never had a bad service from the Busy Bee store in Pickering/Salk road , good enough to keep me going back in year after year .also have heard praises of the one in Ottawa.
 
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Bob Korves said:
I don't know if they still do it, but in the old days Rolls Royce (under)stated the horsepower of their automobiles as "adequate." If only manufacturers had that mind set instead of undercutting the competition today, we might have more top quality stuff made again...
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Yes I've heard that. In the 60's and 70's GM under rated HP by up to 200 in order to comply with corporate rules and make insurance companies happy.

Roy
 
LOL, interesting stuff.

One thing I learned by Rolls Royce, is way back in the 60s they would make their machinists watch a medical video that showed what procedure one had to go through when getting brass swarf in their eyes. Everyone had to watch the video, which was very gruesome because doctors could not use magnets to remove them from the eye. Also, it was a procedure that involved no anesthetic at the time for these types of eye operations.

After people watched the clip (many fainted), people were much more dependable on making sure eye protection in the factory was worn at ALL TIMES.

Just reading about it, makes me never want to risk chances. I've seen my father undergo operations from milling/lathe slivers, and that was more than enough growing up.
 
I have worked a fair amount of 304 round bar on a 7X12 (Grizzly G8688) with 3/4 HP and have had no problems with it. I use carbide insert cutting tools and have worked on bars from 0.060" in diam. to 0.50". I get the best finish using a relatively high RPM. On 0.25:" and 0.50" diam rods , I've dine cuts of 0.015" with no problem. The critical thing especially with small diameters is to use collets and work very close to the chuck to avoid deflection of the work piece..
 
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