Thread: H&F Mini Lathe Vs Ebay

Hey Fella's about to crunch deal on a lathe after looking for one second hand they just sell for to much lathes hold real good value on the used market, i have looked at the hare and forbes mini lathe but just miss out because i can't afford that extra couple hundred bucks, i was looking on ebay and I'm not being a cheap ass here chosing ebay over H&F's but how do the ebay $525 lathes compare to H&F's for quality and accuracy? i can only afford to spend $600 H&F's are around $825, ebay are $525 I'm stuck in the middle with $600 budget

https://www.machineryhouse.com.au/L685

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/7-x12-Mi...frcectupt=true

Equipment from H&F has a warranty; stuff from ebay relies on luck.
At the price they put them out at, they are built to a price not to a quality level.
If you think you will get a good one or can fix any minor issues...

Michael

There are hoards of people selling stuff like these lathes, mills, personal CNC machines etc. One aspect of purchasing wholesale stock from China is that the more you push to cut the price you pay, the more the Chinese will work to cut the materials used (amount or quality), the labour involved (again amount or quality) and the quality control employed. It is not uncommon for national distributors to have local representatives that do decent quality control procedures and check components before, during and after assembly, before an item is considered worthy of being sold by a particular distributor.

Other importer/distributors fight for lower prices, and get machines that have not been fully vetted by QC inspectors, or worse still are assembled from the parts that the top level QC inspectors have rejected. Also, there is not just one factory churning out thousands of 7 x 12 lathes a week, there are several factories building to the same basic designs, but in their own way, and with their own economies along the way. So one may cast a nice stiff bed and machine it well, another might cut the material in the bed by 20%, making the machine fare less rigid, another might have a poorly cast bed with poor machining, so it can never be rigid and accurate.

The primary way to gauge the actual quality of supposedly comparable items is to purchase each of them and use/test them in the same way for an extended period to decide which is the higher quality, but that test relates specifically to the units being tested, not units that came along the same production lines before or after the test units.

Looking at the links provided, the ebay link is a drop shipper for an unidentified importer/distributor. These distributors tend to have 10 or more drop shippers at a time plugging their products, check how many sellers you find on ebay with very similar or the same listings and slight price differences, they are all getting their stock from the same anonymous source. Check the content of the listing, there are no real specs on machine performance or tolerance, just extremely poorly translated bull****. Try contacting the seller with enquiries about issues with your machine once you have bought it, e.g. it cuts a 1mm taper over a a 100mm long cut, what's wrong, how do I fix it? You won't get an rational answer from the seller, because they have never used a lathe in their life and won't be able to understand your question. Go back to them with a warranty issue or request for spare parts, they won't be able to help you, because the mainly sell electronics, jewelry, make up or other trinkets.

On the other hand purchase via H&F, and you can be sure that if you have an issue, you should be able to contact someone who knows the machine, it's limits and the components in it to get help when needed, they even have a spare parts section on their web site for the machine.

I'm not a big fan of H&F overall, but I have never had problems with their machines that I could not solve myself. Some of their carbide tooling can be a bit on the iffy side, (poor carbide inserts and oddball insert sizes so you can't use standard commercial inserts), but for the most part their stuff is reasonable value for money, and is reasonably supported.

Thanks for that wealth of knowledge Malb, i have new nember sign up cupons for hare and forb but its only $50 i'm still a litte short

Do u guys know of any other lathes online from a reputable dealer that suits my budget? I've tried to google but Chinese products are flooding the search

I had one that was given to me by my indian giving brother. It was the biggest POS I'had ever come across. it spent more time waiting for parts than working. About a dozen drive belts, 8 pulleys, both drive and driven, several sets of gears (the gears inside are plastic), 2 motors, electronics board, switches, I even went to metal gears!!!!!! They are an assembled kit of parts, just to make sure that everything is there.
When he asked for it back, I couldn't get it in the car quick enough!!!!
DOC )Depth Of Cut) was miniscule, any attempt to do anything too much, would see something spit the dummy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was great for making steelwool, which was about all it was good for!!!
Keep saving your money and look around for something better, a small Hercus has about 20 times more DOC, and sometimes turn up for about $200 more than your budget.
The Milling machine is the same, using the same CRAP parts, with the same problems.
No matter what I did with them, just couldn't get either to be a semi decent machine.

Kryn

Out of interest what sort of things do you plan to make from a lathe that weighs 24kg (H & F ) or 36kg (eBay)?

These things seem like toys and overpriced ones at that and i'm sure I won't be the only one to tell you to stay well away from.

I would be looking for something second hand. Look around they are out there, you might just have to wait a little longer and by then you would have saved a little more than your budget of $600. Also if you find something that comes with a heap of tooling for a little bit extra you might be better off.

Someone does a video review on that ebay lathe. Can't recall who but a search should find it. Mini lathes.

What caught my eye, was how can they send a 36kg mini lathe, selling for $ 525 from Sydney by Australia Post for free? It is too heavy / big for a post bag or envelope. What sort of protection is it going to have in transit?
I can see that after free postage the seller will say it was alright when it left.

At least with H & F there is a pick up option (if there warehouse is in your city) or they quote a delivery fee. I would hope the machine gets delivered safely, the correct side up undamaged.

Thanks for the replies everyone, i have looked high and low there is only the ebay and h&f models to chose from

Originally Posted by Glot

Someone does a video review on that ebay lathe.

This Old Tony: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05vUCdzhoe4&t=6s

Will watch that one know thanks Jack, I found this one done by ChuckE2009 and that little machine is impressive look at it spinning that steel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIEb-pzfwjQ

Found a Hercus with no gearing on the end (left side) but it has all the pulley's can this still be used? I'm not exactly sure what the gearing does on the left side of the lathe i don't need anything fancy like auto feed or spinning in both directions i will just be making parts out of aluminium and steel

do u think the Hercus will still work it has the bed, slide, post holder, chuck, it has the pulleys behind the chuck it has a frame for the electric motor mount that still has the band attached with pulleys on it also

it looks like 2/3rds a lathe compared to whats on youtube seems its all there minus the big gearing on the left side

Originally Posted by gazza2009au

Found a Hercus with no gearing on the end (left side) but it has all the pulley's can this still be used? I'm not exactly sure what the gearing does on the left side of the lathe i don't need anything fancy like auto feed or spinning in both directions i will just be making parts out of aluminium and steel

do u think the Hercus will still work it has the bed, slide, post holder, chuck, it has the pulleys behind the chuck it has a frame for the electric motor mount that still has the band attached with pulleys on it also

it looks like 2/3rds a lathe compared to whats on youtube seems its all there minus the big gearing on the left side

Post pictures of it and maybe you'll get sensible answers. Otherwise, who knows.

Generally a Hercus would be a *marked* improvement over one of those Chinese toy machines. Even a beat-up Hercus with severe bed wear and shot spindle bearings would be a better choice IMO.

At least you can fix/upgrade the Hercus. The Chinese toy isn't even a decent dinghy anchor.

PDW

Here are the pics lathe is $450

Looks like i just bought a small HobbyMat Lathe guys i got it for within my budget and reviews looks ok on this model plus i am able to move it around without relying on help

I'm left over with a bit of cash to spend on something for the machine, soon i will be looking for a milling machine and i'll be happy