I’ve had one since 1990. An almost exact copy of a compact 8 down to the chuck bolt on mounting. Built by Honden in Taiwan as the 450E. Generally pretty good thought will have to change the bearings this year and then realign the headstock. will probably put on a 3 pahase variable pseed then. Just building a Pitkin donut compound slide mount as the stock one is not very rigid. Also have a ‘Gibraltar’ equivalent, a 4″ by 4″ chunk of cast iron machined to the same height as the cross slide to take the same toolposts therfore but with absolutely no play at all. stops the Diamond toolholder chattering. If you get one look at the ‘Rebuilding the Asian 9×20 Lathe’ file on the Yahoo website. It will save a lot of subsequent grief in terms of accurately setting it up in the first place. I wish I had had it 21 years ago! Is it a Myford quality lathe? No definitely not. but it does the jobs I have asked of it so far.

If I was buying new now at this sort of size I think I’d get the Sieg C4 however.( Chester Conquest I think) A seemingly much more solid lathe with power cross feed. SPG in Hinckley do a similar lathe that also has a tumbler reverse too. worth considering but less powerful than the C4 which has a 1 1/2 HP motor. Ah well back to getting greasy. Better than headshrinking which is the day job.

 

Best Wishes

 

Andries