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- Nov 14, 2016
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- 3,291
I don't have much personal experience with them, but a lot of the Chinese mini lathe complaints come from the bottom rung of the 7x10, 7x12 mini-lathes. The less than $800 machines. When you go to retailers like Little Machine Shop and others who put some work into them, they seem to be much better quality, also quite a bit more money. Same when you step up to the 8", 9" and 10" lathes. I have an older 1990s Enco (Chinese, not the European Emco) 9x20 and it is a much better quality lathe than the 7x10 I've been able to fiddle with at Harbor Freight. Any of these options put you around $1500. The 8-9" lathes are far less portable (160-250lbs), but not really that much larger than the long bed Sherline all at about 3 feet long. The 10x22" lathes are longer around 4 feet and 300-400lbs.
I mostly make little things, so the Sherline lathe remains the most used, despite having larger lathes available.
Riser blocks might be an option. Some seem content with them all the time, some only use them for that occasional larger piece, some (like me) just get a bigger lathe for the bigger parts. Something to consider with the riser blocks, the lathe wasn't designed for them, so if you want to maintain full use on risers, that means raising the tail stock, having taller tool posts etc. Sherline sells all of these parts, but that is not a trivial expense.
I think the mistake many make when buying a small lathe is buying one because it is cheap, the second is buying it because it fits their space. You really need to look at the work you plan to make, and work you might make, then add at least 50% to that. I was sure I would never need a bigger lathe than the Sherline. In less than 2 years I was looking for a bigger lathe to add to my shop. The Sherline is 100% capable of the work I bought it for, but it also introduced a whole new range of hobby stuff I didn't plan for, and some of those things were bigger.
Some disagree but I find a great deal of value in having two lathes of different sizes, one optimized for small parts, and the other capable of bigger work.
Yes this is a good point, I just noticed the same myself last night looking at my larger lathes. The carriage wheel is not graduated, they have a compound which can be used for that final fine tuning. The Taig is built similar to larger lathes, only it doesn't have a compound so people find a work around for that final creeping up on the measurement.
Sherline on the other hand combined that graduated wheel into the lead screw hand wheel which allows accurate measurement built in, but at the cost of being very slow to move the carriage long distances. Not having to crank the lead screw hand wheel "a million times" is a common comment I've heard from people on why they prefer the Taig design.
I mostly make little things, so the Sherline lathe remains the most used, despite having larger lathes available.
Riser blocks might be an option. Some seem content with them all the time, some only use them for that occasional larger piece, some (like me) just get a bigger lathe for the bigger parts. Something to consider with the riser blocks, the lathe wasn't designed for them, so if you want to maintain full use on risers, that means raising the tail stock, having taller tool posts etc. Sherline sells all of these parts, but that is not a trivial expense.
I think the mistake many make when buying a small lathe is buying one because it is cheap, the second is buying it because it fits their space. You really need to look at the work you plan to make, and work you might make, then add at least 50% to that. I was sure I would never need a bigger lathe than the Sherline. In less than 2 years I was looking for a bigger lathe to add to my shop. The Sherline is 100% capable of the work I bought it for, but it also introduced a whole new range of hobby stuff I didn't plan for, and some of those things were bigger.
Some disagree but I find a great deal of value in having two lathes of different sizes, one optimized for small parts, and the other capable of bigger work.
Yes this is a good point, I just noticed the same myself last night looking at my larger lathes. The carriage wheel is not graduated, they have a compound which can be used for that final fine tuning. The Taig is built similar to larger lathes, only it doesn't have a compound so people find a work around for that final creeping up on the measurement.
Sherline on the other hand combined that graduated wheel into the lead screw hand wheel which allows accurate measurement built in, but at the cost of being very slow to move the carriage long distances. Not having to crank the lead screw hand wheel "a million times" is a common comment I've heard from people on why they prefer the Taig design.