Advice on choosing a mini lathe

I could go as far as £1000 if there was a good reason. That's assuming it includes the basics to get me started like tool bits, a 3 jaw chuck and a tailstock chuck. I'd also like a milling attachment, a 4 jaw chuck, perhaps a faceplate, some sort of convenient toolpost. Alan

I'm keen on digital electronic enhancements if they help. Alan

Most will have these as standard, though the tool bits may be a bit cheapo.

Do you mean a milling slide? They are pretty rare on minilathes, I don't know anyone who actually makes one.

If you mean a combined lathe/mill thingy, again they are rare for minilathes, and the ones which exist aren't very good - I'd avoid.

Yep, about £60 +/- £20. May or may not need faceplate. 4" version is better than 3".

pretty cheap - about £18

I have both four-way and quick change tool posts for my mini lathe, but I seldom use either. Every tool has a holder made in situ from a block of mild steel and two or three screws, and shimmed to height. They stay together until the tool dies.

I need rigidity and accuracy, and having a QCTP hang over the top slide is bad news for both. A 4-way might be okay, except it's really a two-way, and that's not enough (and neither would 4 ways be).

Photos here - it's just a lump of metal, but it does a better job than the QCTP or 4-way, by far:

-- Peter F

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Peter, I note that the research into 2" Penis size is going well and that people are flying white flags with red crosses on them for the enumerators to record. OK- a grand!!!!!! Some weeks ago, I mentioned that a rather special ML7 which had been extensively restored( by a guy with a slideways grinder was on sale at =A3400. No goodies but the remaining =A3600 buys a LOT!

Frankly, I'd buy a new 918 complete with a bundled and quite decent set of accessories. Change the speed down to less than the 130 rpm by mechanical or electrical means and enjoy the accuracy. The guy may not be able to tote a Myford and saddle to a decent man and stump up only =A3250 more and have an all singing, all dancing Myford again. Again,the 920 Yahoo group has a pretty good 'blow, by blow' department on 920/918's if one is chosen( at =A3650)

Things have changed in China- and Myfords and Boxfords are mainly shagged out remnants of days that used to be.

Moi? I'd have a Clarkson and a clapped out mill and cheap pillar drill with such largesse

Meantime- Quite Interesting ( But it's not a Speckled Hen)

Norm

Milling slide attachments for lathes feature in the catalogues of suppliers like Chester, Warco and ArcEuro eg

The Chester Conquest small lathe that I bought from Chester 12 years ago is still going strong. (My workshop is in a loft conversion so weight was the main consideration). I got a special deal at a show and it included vertical slide, backplate, 80mm self centring 3 jaw and independent 4 jaw chucks, carbide tipped lathe tooling, centres for both head and tail stocks, tail stock revolving centre. Since then I've also added both 100mm

4 jaw independent and 3 jaw chucks with adaptors from ArcEuro.

On a small lathe you can only do very light milling with the vertical slide attachment. I got a Chester Conquest mini mill to go with the lathe about 9 years ago and that is also still giving sterling service.

The problem with a small lathe is that although you can turn a work piece up to 7in / 180mm in diameter attached to the backplate you have to think carefully about how to hold the cutting tooling because of the more limited amount of travel of the topslide/crossslide. eg you may have to use a boring bar attached to the front of the tool holder rather than a normal cutting tool attached to the left side of the holder that you would use to do the job on a larger lathe. Of course up to about 50mm 2in diameter no such expedients are necessary - the point being that even mini lathes can machine larger workpieces if you do a bit of lateral thinking.

One advantage of the mini lathe and mill is that there is a lot of help on the internet as these are very popular in the USA and there are a number of groups who are willing to help.

Alan

Isn't that a kit of parts? :-(

I did - why do you think I didn't get one.

Yes thats right - like the Chinese ones ;-)

Regards, Tony

Pretty sure the Sieg C3 has a vertical slide as an optional extra - I have one for my C6 and was told it would fit a C3

There is also a slotted table available for the C6 cross slide, don't know if that applies to the C3.

..

The SIEG C6 vertical slide also fits the SIEG C3 without the adapter plate which is used for fitting it to the C6. There is not a standard factory issue slotted table for the C3.

Ketan at ARC.

m...

There is a lot of mystery attached to vertical slides. Quite simply, if the size is right, most slides can be interchanged on lathes. I have a Zyto one which has done duty on several Myfords and a 918. All that changed was a subtable which was no more than a flat bit of sheet which was thick enough to take bolt holes! In fact, the 918 had a 'Myford rear parting tool' bolted on. A bit more advice is to obtain an even bigger chunk of metal to pepper holes ad lib- instead of a perhaps less rigid vertigo slide and vice. The idea wasn't new to small lathe use as some of the greats of the past used such things. It may sound like 'heresy' but I've long past such things! Oddly, I was looking at my fabricated vertical motor slide for a Stent tool and cutter grinder and noted that it would fit quite happily on my Myford- and thought- ah, I could fit it on the mill/drill Swopping about one's 'swag' does make things easier.

Cheers

Norman

OK, I think I'll be patient and go for a metric AET super C3

I've got my eye on these accessories from further down on the same page:

Super C3 Digital Speed Display. C3 Milling Attachment MT2 Rolling Tailstock Arbor with 13mm Key Type Chuck (M10) ??? C3 Face Plate 160mm C3 Face Plate Clamping Set C3 Digital Readout Conversion Kit Metal Gear Set (as required) C3 #94 + #107 Brass Gibs Set

The main problem I can see, apart from not having the built in RPM readout of the standard C3, is that it doesn't have a hardened bed. What do people think? Alan

At present, you dont need:

-You just need a standard drill chuck and arbor - call us and speak to me. The MT2 Rolling Tailstock Chuck and arbor were a product for a different application to probably what you ar thinking.

-Get used to the dials and consider later. Also, if lathe is placed in cold workshop, these readouts start to become sensative at temperatures below 10 deg.C, especially if cheap batteries are used such as cheap =A31.00 strips, instead of silver oxide type. having said this, most of these units come installed with the cheap batteries instead of SR type. Both types drain with colder temperatures. If the machine is in a heated environment, then the batteries drain at a slower rate.

-These are designed for use by Hells Angels only.

-This makes things smoother, but if the originals are adjusted correctly, they should work as well.

Spindle speed readout is useful, but not entirely necessary. Hardened bed - well there are over a 100,000 of these units around the world which dont have the hardened bed. If you look at the picture at the end of beds of mini-lathes which say they are hardened, it shows that only the V part of the bed and the same on the parallel? side is hardened. This raises the question - what is the meaning of "hardened bed" in the context of a mini-lathe. The word "hardened bed" is a great marketing tool. This is open for debate - one which I am not qualified to get involved in. Myfords didnt have a hardened bed. Rest is up to you to decide.

Ketan at ARC.

C3

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[...]

Agreed.

I have one, and consider I need, one, having broken two plastic gears ..

But the SuperX3 doesn't *have* gears, so even the Devil himself wouldn't need one of these.

I bought some brass to make some gibs, and put it somewhere safe - consequently/subsequently I have never been able to find it since. The normal ones are OK though.

Agreed.

Afaict the only [1] minilathe available in the UK with a hardened bed is the Warco. It's induction hardened, which probably means it's only hardened on the bearing surfaces - but then that's where you need hardening.

I have heard that they resist dings from dropped chucks etc much better than unhardened ones, but I don't know how reliable that is. The main point however is that they should also wear a lot better, and unfortunately modern minilathes are really too new for that kind of data to be available.

Ketan, how's the low speed torque on the Super X3? No gears is okay if that works (the brushless motor sounds good enough for normal speed work) -

- though a minilathe with backgear ... and power cross feed ...

... Oooh. :)

I'd buy one, even though I don't need one. Even if it was £100 extra, or more, though I'd hope for a hardened bed too, at that price :)

A lathe really needs backgear. Though for a short term occasional temporary expedient, the minilathe is small enough that you can augment the slow speed torque by using a handle on the main shaft. Is that why they don't have proper backgear?

And power X-feed / L-feed, preferably on a seperate shaft, or using seperate motors like the HLV-H. The seperate shaft/motors is needed so that you can set up the gears, banjo and leadscrew for screw cutting, and leave them set up while you do other work, if nothing else.

[1] the Axminster X2A may also have a hardened bed, but I don't really consider it as being a minilathe (or worth the price).

-- Peter Fairbrother

My minilathe came with one of these. You use it with long thin stock, much like a live (bearing) center.

My point exactly - PF is a "noisy" hells angel :-)

Thank you for the correction. You mean Super C3. and yes, you are correct - it doesnt have these gairs. Lapse of mind!

You mean Super C3 . The torque at low speed on this is surprisingly good!

The C2A does not have a hardened bed. No mini-lathes from the SIEG factory have a hardened bed. If you want a hardened bed, you need to look at the Yangzou Real Bull factory product sold by Amadeal.

Ketan at ARC.

I resemble that remark. I only use one metal gear, one plastic, and I have your taper roller main bearings - so not so noisy.

Curious - Axminster say their C2A has a "Precision ground Vee bed with hardened slide ways" [1], Warco say their lathe has "Induction hardened and ground bedways" [2], but afaict Amadeal don't mention it either way [3].

The US Mad-dog (or something similar) Real Bull lathe has a hardened bed, but I don't see anything that says the Amadeal ones do.

Chester Conquests used to claim (and have) a hardened bed, but they don't claim so any more, just "precision ground" [4].

-- Peter F

[1]

This Amadeal lathe mentions hardened and precision ground

So it does - but afaict, unlike the Amadeal 7x14, it's not a Real Bull lathe.

Confused,

-- Peter F