Lathe recommendations for a newbie?
I am considering picking up a mini lathe, just so that I can make my own stuff for my airguns. This would be strictly a hobby kind of thing, and I don’t plan on getting into business making parts or anything like that. I just like to tinker, and the idea of a lathe sounds like fun to me. I would probably primarily machine aluminum and delrin, and make stuff like end caps and bushings, or possibly my own shrouds. Anyhow, I am not looking to dump a ton of money, and as I mentioned above, I don’t plan on making money off it’s use either. I have seen some at places like Harbor Freight beginning at around $300 for their Micro Lathe, and I have seen them MUCH higher as well. I am thinking affordable but not crap. For someone just looking to dink around, what recommendations do the knowledgeable masses have?
Thank you,
Chris
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I turned a 24″ .308 Powderburner barrel down from 2″ OD to around 18mm IIRC with a tapered breech area no problem.
Just needs a bit of thought and MUCH lighter cuts than something bigger, like what Walt, Blod, Volt and Lang have.
This –
And this –
Done on a mini lathe
You could turn a small car on Blods lathe, Langs is not exactly mini either. When we say mini, what kind of size are you talking about?
What dave said.
I turned a 24″ .308 Powderburner barrel down from 2″ OD to around 18mm IIRC with a tapered breech area no problem.
Just needs a bit of thought and MUCH lighter cuts than something bigger, like what Walt, Blod, Volt and Lang have.
This –
And this –
Done on a mini lathe
Excellent, cheers Dave 😀
Does your ‘average’ mini lathe have enough oomph to turn hammers and the like? Is the radius of the tool pieces big enough to do decent deep cuts?
Do they make a good cup of tea and shout “YOU DA MAN!!” when you have finished a piece??
yes pab they will have more than enough power to turn hammers and such. I have even turned a barrel and my own AF style valve on my mini lathe. This contained facing, profiling, threading, drilling and boaring and reaming.
However don’t do what I did, I tried to drill an 18 mm hole in some stainless steel and fried the motor, I have the motorsent off and should hopefully get it back so I can get up and running
Dave
Dumb question alert!!!!
Does your ‘average’ mini lathe have enough oomph to turn hammers and the like? Is the radius of the tool pieces big enough to do decent deep cuts?
Do they make a good cup of tea and shout “YOU DA MAN!!” when you have finished a piece??
Check craigslist… there are some good deals on the large machines that usually come with some tools (That I miss out on due to lack of space).
That is the same as the HF minilathe but has a bed 2″ longer.
See my last post here: http://talonairgun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12734
Some guy selling his 9″ lathe for nearly the same price as the ebay one. Don’t know him, but he’s got some nice pieces.
Walk you know anything about this lathe seen it on Ebay thanks Eddie
Tooling is where you will spend most of your money. I paid around $1500 for my 13″ swing lathe. It was built in 1959 and cost the US military probably near $60,000 new, in 1959 dollars. I had to also hire a forklift and flatbed to move it into my garage, another $300 or so. The very first week I had it, I spent double that figure on tool posts, bits, live centers, chucks, more bits, more bits still, another chuck (4 jaw), etc etc etc. Now I have my eye on a collet set and collet head, which I expect will be another $500 or so. And I haven’t even mentioned the steady rest, backing plates, lathe dogs, milling attachments, layout equipment (micrometers, more micrometers, depth micrometers… you’ll learn a new vocabulary with words like Starrett, Mitutoyo, Enco, MSC, to name a few). You will learn that you will frequently have to make tools in order to make tools to do 1 specific job. For instance, I grind high speed cutting bits; they come as a rectangle, like a square piece of chalk. But in order to grind the points with exactly the right angles, you need an accurate protractor to tell you the angle on your bit. You also need a grinding table on your bench grinder that can adjust to exactly the angles you need to put on the stone. That’s easy, most grinders have a little table. But that’s not enough; your table has to have a sliding protractor on it that you can use to steady your bit against, so you can replicate each angle faithfully. You probably need a cupped wheel with a flat face to reproduce really flat surfaces on the bit instead of concave ones that a normal grinder leaves ( do NOT use the side of the grinding wheel, that is dangerous), although this isn’t strictly necessary. Get the drift? the machine itself is only the starting point. What limits you is your budget for tooling and the ability of your mind to think a project through to execution. A small machine set up well will nearly always beat the living crap out of a large machine set up poorly.
I appreciate the options presented here. I didn’t really stop to think too much about the tooling as well, so I will need to re-evaluate my options.
Thanks again,
Chris
Don’t buy new. Safe your money for tooling. You WILL have to spend a lot of money on tooling. That’s inevitable because there are so many machines and so many different sizes and ways of doing things that you can’t always find tooling for what you want in the used market. But machines, esp manual machines like what you are talking about, are a dime a dozen in the used market and there are plenty available. Check ebay in your area for a local pickup. Try the Yahoo Southbend user’s group, there is also a 9×13 user’s group (small chinese lathes), they may know someone looking to upgrade. Personally, I like a 13″ machine, small enough to fit in the garage corner and can do almost everythng I need it to do, but a step down is the 9×13 which can do most of what the 13″ can do if you are very smart in figuring out setups and have more time than money.
walt
i have the mini lathe from harbor freight tools..have had it for years…
keep in mind that the “mini” lathes are just that…”mini”.
they will NOT take deep, accurate cuts, they are not designed to do heavy work. the motor will “bog down” under a load if you’re not careful. adjustment of the gibbs are in order frequently and the electronics fail occasionally (at least mine did)
for small(er) work they can be fine.
don’t let what i say deter you, just keep in mind, they are limited in scope and operation. if you want to make/work on large parts, will it do it?
years ago i purchased a “mini-lathe” from sears and much to my disappointment, it was more like something to make watch parts or model train parts with…it would not do what i wanted it to do.
check with your local tool and machine parts stores, and even estate and garage sales, you might be able to pick up a larger used machine for the same dollar. i recently saw a sears, Atlas, 9″ fully tooled, lathe for $550.00 at an estate sale.
I haved used a mini lathe for years and have a lot of goodies for it.
The best on of the chinese minilathes is from Micro Mark
http://www.micromark.com/MICROLUX-7X14-MINI-LATHE,8176.html
If you choose to go with the HF minilathe there are a few things that will make it a pleasure to use.
1- Quick Release Tail Lock
2- Quick Release Tool Holder
3- 5″ 3 jaw chuck
The place to go for everything for these little machines is http://www.littlemachineshop.com
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Mini Lathe in the US is generally accepted as 7×10 or 7×12 (mines a 7×12)