Buying a lathe

[wm460]

Hi,
I am toying with the idea of buying a small lathe, More I look the more confusing it becomes.

What should I look for?,
What features should must it have?,
Whats a good size?,
Any good dealers recommend?.
Some have model numbers like C4, others are AL60 or 7 X 20?,

Where I live, I am not able to go the different dealer,s for a look around.
There a bloke at who is leaving soon that will give some tuition if I get it before he leaves.

Cheers,
Mark.

[artme]

Hi,
I am toying with the idea of buying a small lathe, More I look the more confusing it becomes.

What should I look for?,
What features should must it have?,
Whats a good size?,
Any good dealers recommend?.
Some have model numbers like C4, others are AL60 or 7 X 20?,

Where I live, I am not able to go the different dealer,s for a look around.
There a bloke at who is leaving soon that will give some tuition if I get it before he leaves.

Cheers,
Mark.

When I get back from Os I will be in the same boat.

Most advice seems to suggest a Chiwanese lathe that comes in at about $900.

[pipeclay]

Probably one of the hardest things to do if money is a concideration is looking for a lathe.
It would be good if you had some idea of what you intend to do with it.
1 How long a piece of material you want to be able to machine.
2 How large a diameter you want to machine (Either over the Bed,Cross Slide or in a Removable Gap if one is fitted.
3 How big you would like the Spindle Bore to be.
4 Wether you want Power Cross Feed
5 If you want a Quick Change Screw Cutting gear box or are happy with Manually changeing Gears for Screw Cutting and Feed Rates.
6 Do you want to have a Geared Head for quick Speed changes or just a Belt and Pulley set up.
7 Do you want to be able to run the Lathe in Reverse (Most lathes will come with the ability to be able to Reverse the Direction of Feed.
8 If you choose New or Second Hand what extras does the lathe come with.
9 If chooseing New or Second Hand how readly available are Spare Parts.
There are a lot more things to look for in the way of a lathe ( but the most important is knowing what you will want to do on it first if possable).
If you allready have some machining abillity or knowledge you are a long way ahead of some on here that look for Lathes,If you know nothing try and search the Web to get some sort of an idea of the Different parts of a Lathe and there uses .

[Big Shed]

Mark, there are a few threads in the metal work forum that discuss this very question.

I agree that it is all very confusing, I certainly was when I started on this path.

Here are a few threads that you might find useful to read:

http://www.woodworkforums.com/showthread.php?t=97889

http://www.woodworkforums.com/showthread.php?t=78788&highlight=lathe

http://www.woodworkforums.com/showthread.php?t=88415

http://www.woodworkforums.com/showthread.php?t=87677

As you will see above, I originally selected a 7x14 (C3 from Carbatec), but finished up with a 9x20 Steelmaster with EVS for not much more. Asset Plant & Machinery also sells the 7x14, as well as an 8x16, these all have EVS and are nice little lathes. For the money, I am very happy with what I finished up with and would buy it again.

A couple of sites that I found helpful:

http://www.mini-lathe.com/Default.htm

http://bedair.org/9x20.html

Hope that helps.

[Sterob]

To me the two biggest questions ( which may have been mentioned) are:-
1. How much do you want to spend?
2. What sort of operations are you going to need to do? ( boring, thread cutting,etc0
Point two is very hard to answer if you have little experience.
If its too hard, just resign yourself to treating the first lathe as a stepping stone and expect to grow out of it. You can then sell it locally ( I don't think you have any probs there. People come out of the woodwork to buy a S/H local lathe!) and then buy something that you now know you want.

A hard decision anyway. You can only try and get it right off the bat.
Good luck.

Sterob

[wm460]

Thanks for all your replies.
I want to buy a good lathe to start with, Some thing that will last me for a lot of years.
EVS would be nice as my wood lathe has it and I am so used to it.
The biggest thing that I have needed turned in the last few years was 6-8"
I would prefer a new lathe.
How much do I want to spend? Was thinking $900- $1000 but if necessary a bit more.
Thanks for all the links there is a lot of great reading.

Cheers,
mark.

[wm460]

Overall size is important too, I have to have the room to put it in my shed.
otherwise I would look for something about the Hercus 260 size.

Just looking at the dimension's 1 metre would be the max length.
Pipeclay most of your questions I can't answer, as apart from you folk I don't know any one that has a metal lathe.

The bloke at work knows how to use one, but cant tell me any thing about what to look for.

Where I live it too far to look at the different dealers.
Have noticed some lathe advertise metal gears, this would be an advantage?

Cheers,
Mark.

[pipeclay]

Your best bet with the restrictions you have for room would be to look at as many different web sites and take notes on the different specs of the machines.
If the 1 mtr you are reffering to is an overall measurement you will be pretty limited as to what you can get.
Your location also for you is a problem you will most likely be rellying on a salesman to be honest.
If you look at the Hare & Forbes site they have a few machines that would fit in your space,they would come close to suiting the 6/8" diameter you were reffering too.
These machines would not be suitable for long term heavy turning use but for the occasional bigger job should be ok,probably one of your biggest concerns with a smaller machine that will fit in your space will be the ridgidity of them.
There are also Lathe/Mill/Drill combination machines that may also fit your needs but ridgidity comes into play again.
Is it possable to increase the size of your shed or maybe put up another shed to suit a Lathe.

[new_guy90]

first off i would suggest you not only look at the lathe but the accessories you will purchase for it normally people say that you pay just as much as what you paid for the machine but i would say if you come out and have spent half or less than you spent on the machine then that's a reasonable amount to spend in the start. if you haven't thought about this yet then it could be a killer but don't hesitate and shop around as i found H&F's are not the only cheap way to go but i wouldn't buy the lathe off the net make sure you can inspect the lathe you are going to purchase. be careful Carba-tec don't supply some accessories (on some of there machines not all) that others chuck in for a little more or the same price and these are expensive to get after so again shopping around is good.

for a start you want to make sure the lathe you get has 3 jaw, 4 jaw chuck's and face plate for round, hex, square and odd stock also to turn eccentric. fixed and traveling steadies when the time comes you will be glad you had them. change gears so you can cut threads and power feeds. they should all come with splash guards and dead centers if they don't there is a reason why. all this will be included in the price of the lathe and is all very handy but you also need....

1) drill chuck, drill bits and get a few center drills they are special drills needed to get the tail stock in
2) get a live center so much better to use than a dead center
3) tool bits don't go for carbide its to expensive to start off with stay with the HSS, it will need to be ground on a grinder get something like 10 pieces and you shouldn't run out at a bad stage oh and get a HSS parting blade to cut off the stock very important
4) cutting oil for drilling and taping it does make a difference and a lubricant so everything goes smooth
5) measuring tools ok if your on a budget get some cheap digital verniers they will do fine but you do get what you pay for so i suggest getting one from the mid range
6) get a dial indicator again you get what you pay for but the cheap stuff will do but get one with some movement 10mm i think is the norm and on that will measure to .01mm you dont need anything MORE accurate so .01mm is fine

i think that should do it for a beginner if you dont know how improtant these items are then im sure having a chat down at you local H&F's will give you the best ideas after this stuff you would want to get stuff like Mic's and knurling tools but they can come latter

oh as for sized and types of lathes they are mostly the same machines painted differently. you sound like you would be going for the 7x9" size machines they are the best starting point around $900 and come with EVS the next step up is the 9x20" size machines they are around $1500 and are very good dont go for anything smaller than the 7x9" they are just to small

good luck and i hope i could help out