Why no small high-quality lathes?

tmenyc said:
I did consider the Sherline, and it would've fit the room better, for sure. Frankly, a friend's seemed a bit lightweight and just didn't excite me. As I learned more, I realized that I am intrigued by the notion of working on substantial metal projects and needing more power and swing room.
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Totally understand. If you need more swing and power then the larger lathe is the way to go. I thought you were going to focus on parts for pens - my error.

I own a Sherline long bed lathe and an Austrian-made Emco Super 11CD lathe. I bought the latter because I needed more capacity, not capability. Yeah, I know the Sherline looks like a bare bones lightweight fundamental toy but the reality is that the lead screws on the Sherline allow for finer cuts and greater precision than my larger lathe. Accordingly, that is the lathe I prefer to use for small precision parts and is why I suggested it for use on pen parts. With a good tool, it will accurately take a half-thou off the diameter; that is a 0.00025" depth of cut. The lead screws on larger lathes don't have that kind of resolution, which is why larger lathes aren't as good for small parts.

Grind a really good HSS lathe tool and go over to your friend's house and try his Sherline lathe. The experience may very well result in you owning two lathes, too!
 
Thanks for the detailed response! You read my first one correctly; I do want to focus on pen parts, but not exclusively. Truth be told, I was fascinated by the vintage machine, so went for it.
 
nearly EVERY 'domestic' mini-lathe for sale is rebadged Chinese. That includes the Precision Matthews, Bolton Tools and many others ... the chinese lathes are fairly rough out of the box but should clean up nicely if you care to bother yourself about it ... the 'domestic' versions of these have had a little of this done already - is it worth paying double the sticker price for? that's up to you.
 
The other thing is precision costs money. There are larger lathes that will do the work of a tabletop lathe so there is little market for a tabletop unit that us size limited in swing and bed length. There are watchmakers lathes out there if you want really small. But again these are not a good size for mush either. Sort of like a precision desktop sized lathe in a commercial setting
 
I would definatly check out Precision Mathews in Western PA ( same machine as Weiss from DRO PROS located in CA) I recently got a 10x22 that I am pretty happy with and I think it has most of the features you are looking for... no issues with it thus far.
 
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