Thread: Metal lathe.

Originally Posted by wheelinround

Ah its a Myford not a Hercus.

My apologies I did edit it when I realised and the internet dropped out sent the orig message not the edited 1my mistake there is a Hercus on gumtree and got mixed upi same deal but was 1500 dollars from memory.Apologies all around John.

There is this one Lathe Hercus 240v | Miscellaneous Goods | Gumtree Australia Brisbane South West - Wacol but doesn't have any tooling, the $1500 one is in sheppaton VIC.

Originally Posted by Ueee

When you work it out can you tell me?

Welcome Aleks,
Good to see you getting in young. I too was home schooled, loved it, but it does do things to ones social life that some would consider bad (not me, i'm a hermit and i like it....)

The only extra advice i can add is to get something belt driven. These machines are far more forgiving than geared machines as you can adjust the belt tension so that if you do have a crash the belt slips rather than something else giving way. I was saved today by my belt slipping when i got a bit over exuberant with a parting tool.
The other thing is to buy decent cutting tools, etc. If and when time comes to move on to another lathe you can keep all the decent quality gear you have bought, and use it with the new lathe. Many of the guys have tangential tool holders from eccentric engineering(Diamond Tool Holder), they are a bit of an outlay but HSS bits are much much cheaper than going down the path of carbide inserts, and they take the trouble out of sharpening. I still have to get me one....

Cheers
Ewan

I fingered out how to do it, you need to go down to the bottom of the page and hit "go to full site".
And yes home school is hell for a social life, that is one of the reasons I am looking so forward to Tafe.

I second Ewan's suggestion of a diamond tool holder. I use mine for 90% of the work I do. The thing I really liked starting out was that I did not need to become an expert in sharpening tool bits. Just clamp it in the jig and run it over the grinder and you have a perfectly sharpened tool every time.

Cheers

Piers

Not sure if you've seen this one, its close enough:

Metal Lathe | Miscellaneous Goods | Gumtree Australia Toowoomba City - Toowoomba 4350

Best of luck

Ben

Originally Posted by bwal74

Not sure if you've seen this one, its close enough:

Metal Lathe | Miscellaneous Goods | Gumtree Australia Toowoomba City - Toowoomba 4350

Best of luck

Ben

I saw that one but it doesn't cost much less then the new one, if it came with tools that would be a different story.

The AL250G from Hare and Forbes only cuts metric threads. The same lathe is also sold by Weis as the WM250g but Weis supply it with an extra 36 tooth change gear so you can cut imperial threads. I have the H&F lathe but I had a 36 tooth gear floating around which I modded to fit, so for all intentional purposes it’s the same as the Weis. Metric threading is good, you can cut 15 metric threads in the range of .25 up to 2.5 but only around 10 of those are of any use, the rest being too fine unless your into very small models. The imperial thread cutting with the extra 36 tooth change gear in place only cuts 10 threads in the range of 96TPI to 12 TPI and only three maybe four of those threads are of any use, those being 12TPI (½“W), 16TPI (3/8“W) and the 24TPI (3/8”UNF). The 30 and maybe 40TPI may be of some use but the rest are much too fine unless making parts for extremely small models. You may be able to fit another smaller/bigger gear in place of the 34/36 tooth gear to give a better imperial selection. Normally a 127 tooth gear is used but I don’t know where you could fit that. It is a good price though, their normally around the $2100 mark with the stand and the four jaw chuck.

BTW there is a manual, including a parts list, you can download from the Weis site so you can have a good look at it.

Originally Posted by Alaks McGREGORE

The "hefty piece of machinery is a bit of a problem but 200-280 should be okay, I know some strong guys, as for what I am turning I would like to try making a sterling engine a steam engine maybe a combustion engine, okay I am pretty interested in engines and things of the sort (I want to be a mechanical engineer) so a lot of that stuff, I also have a RC car that I would make parts for and projects like that, will a smaller lathe do that?

Hi Alaks. Have you looked at an Emco Unimat lathe. With an Unimat you can make all the above working model engines. Only small models of course. You can buy a used Unimat with milling head for a small fraction of your budget. And if in a few years you want bigger, you will find it easy to sell. It is light enough for you to carry it around. It is accurate enough to make all sort of engines or clocks. Yet you can use it in a spare bedroom. It has about the power of a better sewing machine, so it takes its time to remove metal. Yet it will not rip a finger off if you do a silly mistake. With it you can learn all you need to know to prepare for a larger machine in a couple years time. But there are many that only ever had such a small lathe, and made with it model engines that one would never believe possible.

If that sounds too small for you, have a good look at the Chinese 7" Sieg minilathe. There are Yahoo groups about the minilathe. There is also a booklet from David Fenner in the Workshop Practice Series, #43, titled "the mini-lathe". This is a great beginner's lathe, but it usually needs some TLC (Tender Loving Care) out of the box. Your budget could buy you a new minilathe with a separate minimill and a good selection of tooling and some good books to get started. Buying this type of machines used is a bit risky (because of the TLC requirement when new, there is no guarantee the previous owner made things worse rather than better). Whatever choice you finally make, keep it safe and remember lathes can be unforgiving to mistakes, the larger the more so. Chris

Originally Posted by cba_melbourne

Hi Alaks. Have you looked at an Emco Unimat lathe.

Don't. They are a very nicely made toy. A friend of mine had one so I know of what I speak.

IMO a lathe of the 5" to 6" centre height by 20" to 24" between centres is a sweet spot to be. Preferably with a decent spindle bore, 25mm minimum.

The problem with the short bed lathes is, the distance is measured centre to centre. Add a 3 jaw chuck, there goes 3 or 4 inches. Add a drill chuck & drill, there goes maybe another 6". Unless you can stuff whatever you're machining up the spindle bore, your 18" between centres lathe is now capable of turning maybe 9".

I probably do 80% of my work, and all my fine precision work, on my 5" CH x 20" BC Chipmaster lathe but it has a 36mm spindle bore and a full set of collets so I can use all of the bore.

If money is tight at the start get a nice 6" 4 jaw chuck and a dial test indicator. You can hold to better precision than anything except the really expensive 3 jaw chucks, it doesn't take long to dial work in once you have the practice in and it is also the most secure way (other than a collet chuck) to hold work.

PDW

Thanks guys, this has helped a lot, I will be trying to get a job next weekend so I can save some cash to buy a lathe, I don't have all that I need right now.

I have decided on the lathe I am getting, this will be a nice small starter lathe then I will go for something a bit bigger once I have the basics down. biggest lathe on you tube? heavy engineering - YouTube

I was looking at the C3, is it any good? Would it do what I want it to? I can get it for just over $800 and then if you add the cost of tools it would be $1500 for the basic stuff but as I get better I will want more stuff? Tell me if I am off but up front that would be like $1000 less then that al-250g, that appeals but will it do what I want?

Hi Alaks,

You may well pick up a good second hand Hercus 260 ARM, or an older 9" AR.

Mal Conomy, one of our members here, may be able to help you. He has a business for the metal hobbyist. I'm not affiliated with Mal, but have spoken to him on many occasions, and know him to be an honest bloke.

Australian Metalworking Hobbyist

Ken