Re: What lathe/mill - advice please.


ha (nospam) wrote:
On 27 Aug 2006 04:20:19 -0700, jontom_1uk@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

He has invited me round to his place, which will give me a good idea
as to what will be needed. He has his model running on air.
I would hate to go too small on lathe/mill.

Geoff, I don't have any experience of this scale so don't know what
size lathe you will need. There seems to be a lot of choice at the 5"
centre height but it certainly gets more limited when you need to go
over 6". My issue was that I didn't know enough to pick a secondhand
machine that was not worn out so went for the BH600. I must admit
though that "in hindsight" (a perfect art?) I turned down a couple of
excellent Harrisons (M250 (5.7") and M300 6.5") that would have done me
fine. I suppose you live and learn although if they don't come with
tooling they are bl***y expensive. These seem to be available from
schools etc if you are lucky.

There also seems to be a fair number of the Colchester Student (6") in
it's various guises as well as the larger Triumph versions about. I
must admit that when I was looking I saw a fair number of the older
"round head" versions that had been well used in industry and I was
eventually "scared off". The newer square head versions seem to fetch a
fair bit of money and I've seen a couple of "clunky" ones of those too.

My last lather/mill was an Emco V10P and FP2 mill. Very light duty,
but very very good quality.
It's the quality part that's making me think thrice, but what I saw at
Ally Pally reassured me somewhat.

There is no doubt that the imports have improved over the last few
years although there appears to be significant differences between
importers depending on their own "inspection" standards. I still tend
to view them as being superb value for money and mine is certainly
accurate. From a quality viewpoint I would rate it as "workmanlike" and
functional. I would still change mine for a Harrison or Colchester if I
found a well equipped one in good condition that I could afford. If you
enjoyed the Emco then make sure you have a good "play" with the machine
you are thinking of, I found Warco and Chester very patient with me
when I was making my mind up. Looking is not good enough you need to
twiddle the knobs and get the feel of the thing before you spend your
money.

I agonised for ages over the mill and while I had decided to get a VMC
I never actually put my hand in my pocket and bought one, don't know
why really just didn't. John Stevenson eventually took my money for a
Bridgeport and I found moving it as he suggested (in pieces) was really
quite straight forward. I even managed it with the handicap of being
helped by my 19 year old son, so it can't be that difficult. I suppose
in reality I always wanted a Bridgeport and was just frightened by
having to move it. I must say though that finding a reasonable machine
was not easy and I saw a number of overpriced and worn out "clunkers"
before John helped out.

My last piece of advice would be don't rush it, there are lots of
machines out there both good and bad. If you have a dream machine in
mind then chase it down, I've bought/sold a string of lathes because I
kept buying what I "needed" instead of what I wanted. I got there in
the end but it was an expensive way of doing it.

Best regards

Keith

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: A-Rod to opt out of contract
    ... But Derek Jeter and his reputation both with the Yankee brass and fans ... to affect my interest in the sport. ... the money actors and studios make hasn't affected my love ... hit a jet out of the park a la Barry Bonds quality. ...
    (alt.sports.baseball.ny-yankees)
  • Re: Going back in time
    ... In 1933, demand was high, quality was at a premium, but money ... South to buy quality beer. ...
    (rec.crafts.brewing)
  • Re: Some depressing responses to a post I made...
    ... Now that we're clear that money doesn't have any relation to this mythical objective quality you speak of, would you care to define it a little bit better? ... I don't like Shakespeare either, but he's a good writer with lots ... why do other prominent writers think he is rubbish? ...
    (rec.arts.anime.misc)
  • Re: Making money on open source, if not by selling _support_, then how?
    ... Open/close is orthogonal to quality. ... Job satisfaction is not guaranteed by just income. ... in spite of producing mostly low quality crap... ... job satisfaction is not just money. ...
    (comp.lang.ada)
  • Re: bandsaw purchase.
    ... purchase and damn near all the saws we can get down here are re-badged OAV ... built really does not matter too much unless they are not built by an ISO ... Canada, Taiwan, or Europe does not mean that you will not get a quality ... If you demand higher quality spend more money. ...
    (rec.woodworking)