Thread: New lathe purchase

Australia. I am looking to buy a budget lathe for tinkering at home. I have been considering the 2506v-20m combo. Thoughts? Smaller second hand machines seem non existent and I live in a regional city. Plus I wouldn't know if I was being taken for a ride.

Hi Glot, it really helps us if you could outline what you plan on using it for and what materials you plan on turning. Is that an optimum branded unit?

Yes, it is an optimum combination unit. I have no real plans. Just tinkering at home. I won't need super precision etc. Boreing pulleys. Making machine shafts. Threading. Simple milling. I only have secondary school training so won't be doing a nothing to complex. I liked it could take an inch shaft. Swing was all I would need. I want sure about the mill table though. A separate machines would be much better but also a lot more expensive. It won't get a lot of use but who knows. I might develope a love for it. I don't know enough to know what functions are useful or gimmicks. Not sure about the electronic speed control. Does it have sufficient torque down low. How slow does it need to go. Functions it doesn't have that would be useful. Will accessories of other brands fit. Does it have good ergonomics. Budget is my main concern but I don't want false economy.

Distillation of many years of people (and me) asking what lathe should I get -

• Everyone who gets into machining will own in their lifetimes at least 2 machines. The first one you will use to learn what you want/ need, the second to realise or refine that learning. Provided you are careful with the machine, you should not lose too much money trying to sell a small lathe to get another.
• Nothing beats hands on with a knowledgeable machinist, who can explain what it is you need, what you don't and some of the techniques used. Preferably find one before you buy to help you get a better machine.
• Like lots of trade skills, getting a good machined result is harder than it looks. It will take practice and perseverance. The idea of producing perfectly sized parts with perfect finishes right off the bat won't happen.
• Combination machines are alright for tight spaces but trying to get two machines in to one means compromises. For combination machines, that is usually rigidity. Perhaps reduced surface finish, reduced feeds and speeds to compensate.
• For machine tools, rigidity is all. Usually but not always, this means the heavier the better. Next best things are power and speed. Underpowered, slow machines take a lot of joy out of the activity
• Budget machines are exactly that - machines built to a price. As someone suggested in another thread, with these cheaper machines, the lower the price, the greater deviation from specification.
• Buying from a bricks and mortar shop will get you some support and warranty. Buying via ebay requires luck to get any worthwhile support.
• I personally like secondhand, the reason being that by the time you strip the machine down and fix the issues, you have a really good idea of how it all works.
• Buy assuming you can't get spare parts. Most time you can get them for a current model, but that can change quickly. You will likely have to make them or get help to get them made if you need them down the track.
• It's your money.

Michael

Buying any machine is great, but to get the best out of it, requires sharp tools. Those dinky little bolt on carbide tip lathe tools, aren't much use on a small machine. They are basically designed to have a large DOC (Depth Of Cut), .5mm plus, try that on a small machine and it will stall.
Get good quality HSS (High Speed Steel) and a good grinder, bin the normal stones that comes with them, get an Aluminium Oxide wheel (White in colour) and learn how to sharpen the HSS. Doing this will allow you to make special tool bits as required later on in this fantastic hobby.
Kryn

I am thinking I need to look at a few quality / professional machines to learn what I need to be looking for in a cheaper one. It's horses for courses. Why buy a Landcruiser to just drive down to the local RSL.

Originally Posted by Glot

I am thinking I need to look at a few quality / professional machines to learn what I need to be looking for in a cheaper one. It's horses for courses. Why buy a Landcruiser to just drive down to the local RSL.

Doesn't quite work like that WRT machine tools I'm afraid. It all depends on the size of material you want to work with, the type of material you want to work with and the tolerances you expect.

I have a very lightweight vertical mill that works fine for machining plastics and aluminium. It's marginal to poor in alloy steels and stainless. It'd be hopeless for working on big slabs of cast iron, as I often do. So I use a bigger heavy horizontal mill for that, which could do the other stuff too, but would be quite clumsy and a general PITA to set up.

Same with lathes. If you're doing fiddly bits in brass & aluminium, a small machine works fine. However if you're making carburettor needles for an obsolete Honda motorcycle then the lathe better be capable of fine accuracy, finish and repeatability.

The cheap machines fail this last test. There's simply no way around this unless you want to learn hand scraping, get a copy of the Schlesinger publication on tolerances and disappear for a while down *that* rabbit hole.

PDW

Originally Posted by Glot

I won't need super precision etc. Boreing pulleys. Making machine shafts. Threading. Simple milling.

You still need precision to do those things.

Bare in mind that your intended use when you look at buying your first machine will change once you get it. The reason is because as your skills and confidence improves after using the machine, you entertain the idea of building more complex parts.

You may envisage making simple pulleys at the start (Also, there is no such as thing as machining a "simple pulley" if you are new to metal turning) but once you kick some goals with simple parts you will naturally look to make more complex parts. This can sometimes mean making stuff that is close to the work envelope or capacity of the original machine. Same, same with precision. You say you don't have a need for precision but let me tell you that once you get some experience in machining, you will definately look to making more precision parts. It's a natural progression for most people. If you have chosen a machine with poor precision then ultimately you will either be dissapointed or be forced to purchase another machine earlier than you expected.

I was lucky in some ways. I inherited my dads lathe so the make, model and size of lathe was decided for me. My 12x36 has served me very well and has been a great allrounder. Sometimes it has been too small (but I worked around it) and sometimes it has been to big and clumsy. As PDW said, sometimes two different sized machines would be ideal but overall I'm lucky in life and very happy with what I have.

I still think the limiting factor in my shed is my skills and not my machines.

Simon

Glot i just bought a second hand lathe and i encountered the same thing second hand hobby lathes are pretty much a rare thing to find unless its very old vintage model or its huge and u need a forklift to move it unless u buy new there is pretty much no options

finding a second hand lathe is great because u get all the extra's some unfortunate person has forked out for some time previously and its likely the seller will have experience sharpening the tools and they'll be sharp for u to give u an idea what to look for when you do it your self

i was searching ebay, gumtree, trading post and online for a lathe daily and some how i came across a lathe i had missed on ebay it had 45mins to go untill the auction ended so i only had 45mins to research the model and lucky for me it was only 25mins up the highway for pickup

keep looking something will come up