Thoughts on Mini-Lathes

[dabear3428]

Not that I need wun, but iz there a hi quality mini lathe manufacturer?

I'v had sum junk. Got a chuck backing plate from India that seemed to be made uv a cottage cheeze scrap metal alloy. (a backing plate iz wut you uze to mount a chuck to any particular lathe) It wuz a waste uv time machining it kuz it deformed and crumbled wen I first tried to put it on the machine.

Sumwun gave me a drill press that wuz made uv the same stuff, so the table broke off. I tried to salvaje the motor, but the wiring came out from deep in the stator winding.

I would assume that you kept track of the vendor to not buy from then in the future? if you use e-bay or amazon you have free returns and you can make them correct the issue. i also assumed that you payed a lot less than it would cost from a local higher quality provider?
the point I'm making is that on this cheap stuff you are the QC team, is it worth it? that is up to you to decide but at the end of the day some of us have proved that good value can be had from these low cost sources. You do need to enter into the transaction with your eyes open.

my moto is "you very rarely get more than you payed for but you will often get less"

 

[SouthernChap]

good point, but how many ML7s are available on any given month? so if we all follow your lead very soon there would be no available ML7s and you would have the people that never do anything with their 7X that is sitting under a pile of junk in the basement gathering dust and rust, storing a ML7 in its place. the 7X is a good starting point and allows someone to get their feet wet with low commitment to decide if they want a ML7 (or something larger) later. the other side of the coin is that 7Xs are selling for about new prices on CL and FBMP where a Taiwan built quality lathe is selling for 60% of new price.
yes deals can be made on old iron but you need to have some experience with lathes to know when to walk away (or run).

Absolutely agree with what you say.

I just wanted to express the idea that neither the 'old iron is always the right iron' proponents or the '7x mini-lathes are the answer to beginners needs', people, nor indeed the 'buy new, but only 9x and above, and from someone like PM' folks have a monopoly on being right.

Sometimes, one or other of these perspectives are right, but often it's a nuanced mixture of all or some of them, and it's very context dependent.

 

[Nesse1]

This is particularly terrible example of mini-lathe problems. And it should have never been put into assembly. It would truly give the purchaser a very bad feeling from his purchase. Most are not like this. Can you say if this was a SIEG or RB?

This is but one of various problems I had with my machine. A good friend has made a career through sourcing parts out of China, and he said that many companies there, if not held strictly accountable, will ship all manner of junk.

My advice for those wanting a mini lathe is to order through Grizzley or Little Machine Shop. Order a generic like I did, and you are more likely to have problems.

Buying a mini from these companies hikes the price up into the Southbend, Logan, Atlas territory, though. Choose wisely.

 

[GrifterGuru]

Order a generic like I did, and you are more likely to have problems.

That is very true, but remember, even from a reputable supplier things are not always rosy. My Sieg SC3 is proof of that.

Admittedly, it is marginally better than most I have seen, but it still had problems I had to resolve. Latest one is the headstock bearings. Last one was having to fit the two half-nut conversion and remove the lead-screw guard. That conversion revealed another problem, that of not having a proper gib strip and no bearing for the apron handwheel gear, which a cheaper machine actually DID have....

Now, where did I put that spares list?

 

[cfciii03]

My Emco Compact 5 really isn't big enough.

 

[CraigH]

That is very true, but remember, even from a reputable supplier things are not always rosy. My Sieg SC3 is proof of that.

Admittedly, it is marginally better than most I have seen, but it still had problems I had to resolve. Latest one is the headstock bearings. Last one was having to fit the two half-nut conversion and remove the lead-screw guard. That conversion revealed another problem, that of not having a proper gib strip and no bearing for the apron handwheel gear, which a cheaper machine actually DID have....

Now, where did I put that spares list?

I must agree with this. A particular example is still likely to have issues of some sort. The premium 7x lathes are at best only marginally better. Experience tells me the issues within any particular vendor's examples are often as great as the degree of issues between other vendors versions.

On old iron

I truly think "vintage" (very much over used word) is / was / will be / would be great to have. If enough fine examples were available. Ebay, resellers, auctions have lathes available. The range of "at first appearance" runs from stored outdoors severely rusted lathes to fairly fine example. One thing practically all have in common is very high prices - quite overpriced IMO. That, I hope, is just the rather futile searching for a good lathe, and the demand for such with a limited supply.

An analogy; What would you pay for a 1961 Ford, Chevrolet, Plymouth station wagon in average (for age) but running condition? Would you pay more for a new VW Taos (small) SUV?

I do not think the person looking for something to start with, or experiment with, or to do some small work is interested in making a career of trying to get old iron functioning. And also the situation of transport and placement expense - once 200 pounds weight is exceeded, things start getting difficult - and not at a linear rate.

 

[GrifterGuru]

@CraigH

A Question: How many 7x machines will be around in 30 or 40 years in comparison to the older, heavier, better built "machines of old" (as in Myford or boxford as a UK example)?

Hard to know.

All machines are built to a certain level and expected to wear at a certain rate. Nothing lasts forever, despite what anyone may hope or wish.

 

[CraigH]

Hard to know, as you say.

The main issue will be wear of the ways - on any lathe, old, new, big, little. The current situation with 7x lathes is that they are well supported by LMS, ArcEuroTrade, Grizzly, and others. Affordable, available parts to repair or tune or modify (every part). I would never say a mini-lathe is more desirable than the smaller South Bend, Logan, etc lathes. But they are much more "accessible".

 

[Nesse1]

I suspect a lot of the motors, and/or speed controls, will die long before the ways get worn out. And people with these machines will be far less inclined to fix them than owners of larger, and more expensive, machines. That said, even a 7" is too big to just dump in a trash can, so...

 

[CraigH]

Never had an electronics issue on 7x lathes. But if I did ..... well electronics are not my thing. Even though I installed a MacPod tach on my LMS. (Recall my inaugural post in this topic that I was looking to get a G4000)

I have seen support for the electronics - things like rebuilt exchange boxes.

The electronic variable speed control is certainly a selling features. Given the limited power and rigidity, it may also be said a necessity to enable "tuning" the speed for a given turning operation. Heavier machines can just press on with anything close.