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16th Mar 2015, 06:50 PM #1
Simple versus complicated machinery
Hi What is your philosophy re: buying a lathe or milling machine. Myself, the first thing I look for is ease of maintenance and repair , the older belt driven stuff generally is easier to repair . Some people do like the more complicated machine tools but at the end of the day, a lathe just turns a piece of metal around . The DS&G lathe of Piers is a top class machine but I would be terrified of it breaking down . Me, I like to remove a lathe spindle in less than an hour and put it back together again without hassles . Maybe its my less than ideal mechanical ability coming out
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16th Mar 2015, 10:08 PM #2Cba
- Join Date
- Aug 2007
- Location
- Melbourne
- Age
- 68
- Posts
- 1,410
It is a matter of how much money you can spend. There are some very nice "complicated" machines. If funds are limited, I personally rather have a belt driven headstock. Its not only much easier to repair. It is also very likely to produce a much superior surface finish to a cheaper geared headstock. It will also run quieter than a cheaply made geared headstock, I like silent machines. It also depends what you are using that lathe or mill for. If it is to earn a living, you probably need to remove material fast and a geared head is better at doing that. If you are making prototypes or hobby stuff, you probably value surface finish and roundness (read good spindle bearings) more than speed. That is what those old simple Schaublin's with flat belt drive were so good at, they can make really round parts with perfect finish, lathes that reach into grinding territory. Not as perfect as Dan Gilbert's air bearing lathe with granite bed whose video recently featured in a thread here, but you get the idea what a really round part is.
Another "simple" vs "complicated" lathe feature is the norton gearbox for feeds and threading. I personally do not rate that very high, I can live very well with a change-gear lathe.
If you mean add-ons like a DRO, then my experince has been that a DRO on a mill is invaluable as it greatly adds to the sheer pleasure of using the machine. On a lathe it is a nice toy to have, but far from indispensable. A good quick change toolpost is worth more in practice.