Proxxon PD400

[KarlasParticipant @karlas]

Does anyone have exsperience or knowledge of the Proxxon PD400 Lathe,

any hints or tips would be grately appreciated.

Karl

 

 

Edited By Karl Asgeirsson on 02/06/2013 17:59:15

[KarlasParticipant @karlas]

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

Looks a nice little lathe, I would not mind one for a second lathe. It seems by my standard a wee bit pricy, but that depends on the depth of your pocket. I presume it comes with the three jaw chuck. Iwould expect a four jaw chuck, traveling, and fixed steadies, a face plate, and a Jacobs type chuck with a 2 MT arbor for the tail stock. If you are new to lathe work. start off with HSS tooling, if its replacing an old lathe, adapt the tools from that. The list of stuff I wrote is what I got with my Taiwanese lathe Back in 1986, it's a much bigger machine center ht 330 mm, and 600 mm between centers, and weighs 275kg, and cost just over $NZ 1000, which was about 350 UK Pounds, a Myford Super 7 would have cost about three times that. Ian S C

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

This seems to be massively over-priced. It's only a 3 1/2 in lathe and Proxxon is not as far as I know a company with a reputation for precision machines. A Warco wm 180 at 1/3 the price looks about the same. Unfortunately I think Proxxon and Clarke sell through general hardware shops to unsuspecting people who think a lathe is something super special that justifies the price.

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

There's a review here. It sounds like a good machine.

Particularly impressive to me is the mt3 headstock taper

The major weakness, as with 99% of newer machines, is no decent cross slide with t-slots

Sparey himself summed slotted cross slides up nicely

"the scope of the lathe is increased out of all proportion to this seemingly insignificant addition"

Edited By Ady1 on 03/06/2013 18:16:51

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

Hi Ady

I spent ages making a t-slotted topslide for my mini lathe, but since getting a milling machine I have hardly ever used it.

Neil

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

A decent slotted cross slide basically turns a lathe into a poor mans milling machine

If you can buy a proxxon brand new then I suppose you could buy a decent second hand mill and lathe for the same money, lol

[KarlasParticipant @karlas]

Thank you to all of you for your responce …………

Ian …….It is very exspencive to me too , but it is supposedly well built and of good quality and made in Austria . Yes I am new to lath work ( wet behind the ears ), but been dreaming for a looong time to build some engines. And having limited space in my flat ( no garage or workshop ) = limited size of machine. Thank you very much for your input.

Ady…….. I am studying this site . Thank you.

Bazyle …….. Take a look at this site.

Karl

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

I'd be looking at something like the Sieg range of lathes, the Super C3 loks about similar to the PD400, but only about 600 UK pounds, but if you have a little more room it would be worth looking at the Super C6, you can do lillte work on a big lathe, but most modelers try to do big work on little lathes, and some times even a bigger lathe is not quite enough. The other way to go is a second hand small industrial lathe. If you can keep the price down, you may in the future be able to afford a milling machine, or some other equipment. Ian S C

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Karl the link you gave confirms It really is expensive. It might be very high quality but it just isn't where a beginner should be going. If you were just about to get driving lessons would you go out and buy a Ferrari?

It has an MT3 spindle bore yet only weighs 45Kg. That's out of proportion. It should weigh in at 150 Kg to be a 'nice' lathe. A second hand Hobbymat weighs about 30 kg and can start you off making engines for one tenth the price.

[AndyfParticipant @andyf]

Having regard to someone's experience with a (brand new) PD400 as detailed on another forum, the quality of fit and finish, though much better than the Chinese minilathes, is not superlative. Of course, he may have received the last one to be assembled on a Friday evening.

He also found that the design of the spindle flange is such that the register diameter (and perhaps the PCD of the mounting holes) is exclusive to Proxxon, so it's either buy chucks etc from them or make up suitable backplates if you want to use cheap minilathe items.

Andy

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Bazyle on 04/06/2013 22:54:42:

It has an MT3 spindle bore yet only weighs 45Kg. That's out of proportion.

.

I don't know the Proxxon PD400, and I have no desire to fuel the Price/Quality debate, but I do think Bazyle's remark merits further discussion:

It strikes me that putting an MT3 socket on the spindle of a small lathe is a master-stroke. … It allows the PD400 to have a clear bore of 20.5mm; which is a remarkably useful feature!

Yes, MT3 Tooling would be disproportionate … but Workholding is another matter.

MichaelG.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Like putting Landrover wheels on a mini – yes it will clear bigger rutts in a track but doesn't it present the wrong idea about the strength of the machine. Given that one rarely uses the MT in a spindle it would actually be far better to make a lathe with a 5C, or nowadays perhaps ERxx hole.

[KarlasParticipant @karlas]

thank you all for your inputs, very educational for me, and maybe I should have done some better home work before jumping in the deep pool anyway I will keep on swimming ………

intend to gather some knowledge locally, first hand from lath / mill operators….

my tendency is to look first at better quality, have read bad stories abt some lack of it in asian machines ( mayby buyers bad luck, last fryday or first monday machines ? )

have been surfing the net a lot ( still a bit confusing ) came across this link for lathes and mills: **LINK**

a German controled Chinees manufacturer , should be relyable quality ?

 

Edited By Karlas on 05/06/2013 14:53:53

Edited By Karlas on 05/06/2013 14:54:17

[richardandtracyParticipant @richardandtracy]

Karlas,

I popped in to this forum to take advantage of some of the wealth of experience here, but may be able to help a little with my early experiences 10 years ago with manual lathes and a little from the last few weeks while I've been researching CNC stuff.

I have looked at the cnc version of the PD400. It is a lovely little lathe, but very small & light for the money. The finish is good, but I don't think it's great value for money either in its cnc or manual guise.

10 years ago I bought a Warco WMT300 combi lathe/mill, which is basically the same machine as is still being sold by Machine Mart as the Clarke CL500M. The milling head is – unfortunately – too flexible for anything other than emergency use. The lathe, on the other hand is good value for money. A big, heavy lathe that works nicely after setting up (in my case, just needed to align the tailstock) & it was great. It's big enough & strong enough to survive a beginner's efforts to wreck everything. The Clarke CL430 is the lathe only version, and I admit that I'm seriously considering one for conversion to CNC.

Regards,

Richard

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Bazyle on 05/06/2013 13:23:59:

Given that one rarely uses the MT in a spindle it would actually be far better to make a lathe with a 5C, or nowadays perhaps ERxx hole.

.

I certainly wouldn't argue against that !!

MichaelG.

[AndyfParticipant @andyf]

Posted by Karlas on 05/06/2013 14:50:06:

…I have been surfing the net a lot ( still a bit confusing ) came across this link for lathes and mills: **LINK**

a German controled Chinees manufacturer , should be relyable quality ?

Karlas, I think you may find the Optimum machines are pretty good quality. There are two factories (or two departments in the same factory) in China making the same machines. One is Weiss, and their lathes are shown here . The other is Optimum. Like you, I understand that Optimum is under German control. Weiss is under Chinese control, though they seem to be using a German-sounding name..

I have a small Weiss lathe, which worked pretty well from the start. Optimum machines may be better, because of the German control..

Optimum machines are not regular imports into the UK, but Weiss lathes, milling machines etc are available from UK importers such as Warco, Chester and Amadeal.

Andy.

[dcostaParticipant @dcosta]

Hello Karlas,

I have an Optimum BF20 Vario milling machine and it has worked flawlessly since 2006.
You can find Optimum machines here ***LINK***.
As Andyf says they show in their catalog a picture of their intallations somewhere in Chine.

Best regards
Dias Costa

[AndyfParticipant @andyf]

I am not sure where Karlas lives, but he may be able to find a dealer nearer to him on the Optimum website here.

Andy

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

What ever size lathe you have, it's good to have the largest possible mandrel bore, my lathe has a bore of 39 mm, and a 5MT in the shaft, unfortunately my machine has only 2 MT in the tail stock, but I manage . There are times when a bigger bore would be useful. Ian S C

[Charlie BrownParticipant @charliebrown]

I have a PD400 and use it at work for turning wedding bands, chamfers, lines, millgrain edges etc. I have had no problems with it and can achieve mirror finishes on precious metals. I have made a few mods to make it workable for me such as digital scales and fitting a multi fix tool post. However as is the general concensus I would say it is overpriced and given the chance again would have opted for the Warco WM290. A far bigger, heavier, better equipped machine for the same money. The Proxxon has a few shortfalls for me personally although I get by and as yet have not opted to change it.

1. Set speeds i.e not variable

2. Topslide +- 45 degree adjustment insufficient

3. Mass/Rigidity/chatter even on the relatively soft materials I cut

4. Clearances when trying to use tail stock for support ( in my case remedied by using taper workholding and a drawbar) MT3 headstock an advantage here.

So to sum up I would say it is a decent machine and is well made. But it is still a mini lathe with an oversized spindle. It didn't need any adjustment and ran straight from the box, bearing in mind the tail stock cannot be set over so there is no adjustment required. You could do worse and better.

Hope this helps

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