Thread: Small Lathe Experiences

Graeme, not necessarily. I recently purchased an ER25 chuck and a set of 15 collets (2-16mm) for a total outlay of $A90. Shipping from HongKong was included in this and they arrived in 10 days. Quality is extremely good and I saved a bucket load of money.
H&F have a set of these in their catalog for over $A300.

Have just ordered an MT3 ER25 chuck from HongKong for a total cost of $A23 including postage and insurance. Same thing locally would be well over $A100.

I have bought other tooling on Ebay as well and have never been disappointed.

At the end of the day the local suppliers source their tooling from the same factories in China that those Ebay sellers do, except they have "slighty" higher markups.

When you look at the pricing of lathe accessories on the Little Machine Shop website in the US, their prices are usually well below half equivalent prices in Australia.

Blu-Roc

H&F sometimes have specials on, have you checked them out, I bought my lathe on such a deal, reduced from $6000 oz dollers down to $4000, at the time I was doing a night school course through TAFE every Wednesday night for a couple of hours using a Colchester lathe, although I could not afford the luxury of one of these machines in my workshop I began looking for a larger machine to replace the AL 280P that I had, browsing through my local H&F dealer he came up with a deal on the machine I have today, it had almost everything that the instructors suggested I get except 3 phase power, that I cannot afford. Its Chinese made not as good as Tawianese which are better.

Anyway good luck with your purchase.

Dingo Dog

Originally Posted by graemet

I can recommend McJing, both online and at their shop.

Thanks Graeme, a bloke I work with also recommended McJing and I will check them out.

Regarding eBay, Sure it can be a bit hit and miss but if you do your home work and know what a fair price should be (use eBay's Completed Listings function to check out how much similar items have sold for in the past, check local prices) and have a rock solid limit (no emotional impulses), you can pick up some real bargains.

Originally Posted by Big Shed

I recently purchased an ER25 chuck and a set of 15 collets (2-16mm) for a total outlay of ... Quality is extremely good and I saved a bucket load of money.

I have bought other tooling on Ebay as well and have never been disappointed.

At the end of the day the local suppliers source their tooling from the same factories in China ...in the US, their prices are usually well below half equivalent prices in Australia.

Big Shed, I have seen those sets and I am considering buying one. Good to hear that you found the quality to be OK. I priced a MT3 chuck locally today and was quoted $180 + GST, for the chuck only (ER32). Collets were about $30 a throw!

I too have bought several tools off eBay, from China, and the quality has been acceptable for the price paid. If it's a tool that I only use occasionally, I can not justify paying more than 2x the "real" price, for comparable products, as you have pointed out.

<rant starts> Sure, some could argue that a larger volume is sold in the US so that explains the difference, but I don't accept that volume can account for that much difference. It's more of an issue that Australia's limited competition results in retailers/wholesalers being able to charge consumers higher prices. The Internet has really enabled the consumer to easily compare prices and source at the most competitive price. As a really stark example, I bought a name-brand guitar effects pedal from the US, had it air freighted to my doorstep and paid about $120. Exactly the same model was selling locally for $230! No warranty, but I've had it for 3 years with no problem. Similar experiences with a chisel honing guide from China, a car MP3 player from Indonesia and digital watch from Hong Kong.<rant ends>

Originally Posted by Big Shed

Graeme, not necessarily. I recently purchased an ER25 chuck and a set of 15 collets (2-16mm) for a total outlay of . Shipping from HongKong was included in this and they arrived in 10 days. Quality is extremely good and I saved a bucket load of money.
H&F have a set of these in their catalog for over .

Have just ordered an MT3 ER25 chuck from HongKong for a total cost of including postage and insurance. Same thing locally would be well over .

I have bought other tooling on Ebay as well and have never been disappointed.

At the end of the day the local suppliers source their tooling from the same factories in China that those Ebay sellers do, except they have "slighty" higher markups.

When you look at the pricing of lathe accessories on the Little Machine Shop website in the US, their prices are usually well below half equivalent prices in Australia.

Big Shed that is a very good price on the collett chuck and the colletts, a lot more than what I paid for mine but now I need some more colletts, who was the supplier?

Tiger, the MT3 chuck was purchased from this supplier.

The MT2 chuck and collets from this supplier.

Would have preferred to buy the MT3 chuck from CTC-Tools as well, but he seems to have increased his prices, although they have varied all over the place. You have to be careful which item you select, pays to go to their shop and compare prices, also prices in different currencies.

For instance the ER25 MT2 chuck was significantly cheaper in $US than in $A, however the set of 15 ER32 collets was much cheaper in $A, go figure. So I bought the chuck in $US and the collets in $A.

As I paid via PayPal and their conversion rate is quite good, it didn't matter and I saved quite a bit of money!

Thanks, Big Shed, that looks like value for money, I know where I'm going next time I need metalwork items.

Originally Posted by Big Shed

Tiger, the MT3 chuck was purchased from this supplier.

The MT2 chuck and collets from this supplier.

Thanks for the links Big Shed. Their prices are pretty good and I will get a MT3 ER25 chuck (A$21.40 landed) and 15PC collet set (A$61.00 landed) through them.

After reading about others' experiences with milling on lathes, I have decided that I would be better off with a dedicated milling machine and will go with a Sieg X2 knock-off machine. I would prefer a X3 or H&F HM45 but they are a bit out of my price range.

Looks like I am starting to burn a bit of unexpected cash.

I feel that what ever lathe you buy in my opinion must have power cross feed,It makes for a better and neater finnish.Matt

Originally Posted by matthew_g

I feel that what ever lathe you buy in my opinion must have power cross feed,It makes for a better and neater finnish.Matt

Matt, Given my price constraint and the features offered on the smaller lathes, there appeared to be no option to buy a lathe with power cross feed.

I have had the lathe for a couple of weeks now and hear what you are saying about the convenience and quality of finish that comes with a power X feed. I am in the process of designing a bolt on unit that I will make using and old cordless drill that I have lying around. I have already used it to drive the X feed via the allen bolt in the end of the X feed shaft.

This thread on the CNCforum shows how a dude has done a similar thing but my carriage setup is a mirror image of his and I will have to tackle it a different way. Below are pictures of his and my carriages respectively.

This site also has details concerning the -power X feed modification, but again, the carriage setup is a mirror image of mine.

Technically that's wrong. Power cross feed is one of the features I look for and a power compound slide is just the business, but in fact a power cross feed gives a worse finish than manual. The reason is you ahve to vary your feed/speed as the diameter decreases, so if you know what your doing you can actually get a better finish off hand.

However most projects don't benifit from this and I'm lazy

Those tooling prices are amazing.

Originally Posted by damian

Technically that's wrong... The reason is you ahve to vary your feed/speed as the diameter decreases, so if you know what your doing you can actually get a better finish off hand.

Damian, good call, point taken... but I too am lazy.

blu-rock you buy and use what you feel comfortable with mate,we all have our own ways of doing things.with my old lathe power cross feed is the only way to get a premium finnish.Check out my web site and you'll get the picture http://www.freewebs.com/myworkshopandprojects/
tell me in the guest book if you like or dislike all comments there will lead to me having a bigger and better site.Kind regards...Matt

Originally Posted by matthew_g

Check out my web site and you'll get the picture http://www.freewebs.com/myworkshopandprojects/

Matt, you have a pretty impressive workshop setup there. The forge looks like it has seen better days

I just stumbled across this thread and the info contained is really helpful. I bought an HF AL 50 a few weeks ago and am just learning to use it. Haven't touched a lathe since school.

I'm very happy with it, but maybe thats not saying much given my lack of recent experience. I bought it as it seemed to be the best value, and the smallest of the 'proper' lathes.

The mods that I'll copy are the larger cross feed handle, the die holder and the tailstock slide lock (I actually came up with this one myself, but the addition of the spring is a clever idea)

The other thing I did was to make a suds pump. $240 for pump set seems far to exxy. With the advice from the Aussie 9x20 owners and the Aussie mini-mill groups, I was directed to Jaycar for a camping shower pump @ $20. This is 12v so the converter plug was an extra $18. After much buggering around trying to DIY I broke and bought a magnetic base and the flex hose with valve that delivers soluble oil from HF for $25,

So total of < $70 a very workable cooling and lube system. Just used an old 20 litre drum for the reservoir. I figure the swarf and chips will sink, so as long as the pump sits above the base of the container, no need for filtering.

I just bought the BL 20, 1HP mill/drill from McJings so the suds double for this. The machine is beautifully made, even comes with a signed tolerance chart which I checked with the clock and is accurate.

A new adventure begins. Boys and their toys.