Advice on lathe purchase

[AjohnwParticipant @ajohnw51620]

A lot of lathe for £3000. Interesting to compare with a Harrison with less bits at £14,500 probably plus vat or £6K for a used one that at that price should be in very good condition but in new lathe terms probably wont be due to industrial use although some probably finish up as Boxfords often do as work shop lathes and may have only had "occasional" use making odd bits an pieces from time to time.

2morse chinese 5/8 chuck pillar drills? They were mainly aimed at wood workers and at times came with a free morticer. The person who sold me mine rather a long time ago wouldn't supply the size that the adds offered for free in case I broke the drill and went down a size. It's served me well and I don't expect too much of it and don't care that larger holes need drilling slowly. I noticed yesterday that the chuck jaws don't run true any more with smaller drills in it – easily fixed via a replacement chuck of a more suitable size and make for metal work. 2 morse 1/2" I have black smith drills for the lathe. They are fine in a good quality industrial key chuck. Results with say a Rohm keyless can be a bit mixed. I don't use that for bigger sizes.

Chipmasters were mentioned, I have a tail about those. Circa 20 often less apprentices making round bits for their make a depth mic exercise. One intake a year and maybe 2 days work on the lathe for each person. It was the only lathe around that could run at 3,000 rpm to allow the work to be done quickly and not cause a bottle neck. Not many years of use and it was still accurate but the finish was a big let down as the bearings had worn. The only lathe we were allowed to use emery cloth on to improve the finish. Most lathes used in a toolroom get like this pretty quickly and not long after loose accuracy too which doesn't matter to them as accurate work is done on a grinder, work is often going to be hardened anyway. Later they wont be suitable for work like that so they get rid of them.

I did buy a chines lathe once. The one that can take a milling head on top of the headstock. One good thing to say about it – the finish was good. Bad things, the scraped tailstock was a very badly miss aligned joke and the headstcok alignment was awful too. Couldn't turn up to a centre so a morse extension sleeve had to be used leaving less between centres than was available before they increased it by 2". Things seem to have improved these days but if some one buys one with sufficient rigidity the finish should be good even if it lacks the over all work accuracy of a Harrison which cost n times as much. It might also be better than a well worn lathe of the same ilk.

Meant to add I'm sticking with my Boxford. I happened on a pretty decent one with lots of equipment. As I have used lathes capable of doing insanely accurate work I want it to do that – conclusion – too much to expect really but it's not that far off.

John

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Edited By John W1 on 01/11/2015 13:38:02

[LathejackParticipant @lathejack]

Martin.

Glad to hear you have made a decision and made a purchase. Pictures of newly delivered brand new machine tools being uncrated, and your thoughts when using it for the first time are always interesting.

[Martin LoweParticipant @martinlowe20701]

The lathe arrived yesterday at about 10.00am, the driver got near to the workshop before the pallet truck grounded – he should have waited for me to lay out the next OSB board and it would have got even closer. Phoned my 2 'recruits' and they arrived half an hour later, I got all my steel bar rollers, large wooden blocks and 'persuader' bar ready for action (had these from a few years ago when I moved my Richmond miller). The lathe was on a wooden base with 3 'skids' which in turn was on a pallet, there was a plywood case covering it and 2 boxes on top held together with plastic strapping.

My neighbour wasn't at work yesterday, so he came to check on things. He then became involved on the operation, good to have his help as he used to work in heavy haulage!

The base of the pallet was in bad condition, so it was decided to get the lathe off and use the rollers under the 'skids'. So strapping cut, boxes removed, plywood case removed, inside the case was the catchplate, faceplate, drip tray, backpanels, footbrake bar and several boxes – all of which were removed to reduce weight.

So we now had the lathe on it's wooden delivery base with skids, using OSB sheets to 'level' the ground it was rollered to the door. At the end, it had to be turned through 90deg to be inline with the door. Now. it was raised about 10" to go over the door threshold using wooden blocks and levers. My neighbour controlling the operation!

It's now in the workshop, with case panels, OSB boards, wooden blocks and rollers abandoned all around – my job for today is to tidy up!

I'll have to move the miller and do some other jobs before it's put on the stand and 'commissioned'. Unfortunately this could take a few weeks because of other commitments. At least the lathe is in he workshop and it didn't rain!

I took a few photos, which I'll post when I get time later.

[Martin KyteParticipant @martinkyte99762]

Don't buy an optimum !!!!?

[John RuddParticipant @johnrudd16576]

Posted by Martin Kyte on 05/11/2015 10:48:46:

Don't buy an optimum !!!!?

Care to elaborate Martin, I know where there is one new and unused…..

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by John Rudd on 05/11/2015 10:55:44:

Posted by Martin Kyte on 05/11/2015 10:48:46:

Don't buy an optimum !!!!?

Care to elaborate Martin, I know where there is one new and unused…..

.

37 pages of elaboration here

'though many of those problems may not be relevant to the bigger models

caveat emptor

MichaelG.

[John RuddParticipant @johnrudd16576]

Thnx Michael, yes I did read that thread, thought I'd missed something else…

[AjohnwParticipant @ajohnw51620]

Posted by Michael Gilligan on 05/11/2015 11:07:02:

Posted by John Rudd on 05/11/2015 10:55:44:

Posted by Martin Kyte on 05/11/2015 10:48:46:

Don't buy an optimum !!!!?

Care to elaborate Martin, I know where there is one new and unused…..

.

37 pages of elaboration here

'though many of those problems may not be relevant to the bigger models

caveat emptor

MichaelG.

True but on larger lathes that might well be comparing chalk and cheese. Actually I have seen "used" as new larger chinese lathes sold as seen. I wonder how that happened. Others with a guarantee.

John

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