Very good small lathe?

HLV isn't too big, the table's just too flimsy..

A short bed Myford would be 7x20 and 10x1.5 in the gap.

An Emco Maximat V10 or V10P is 10x25, a bit more modern looking, but without the accessory range of the Myfords.

The Boxfords similar in capacity to the Emco's

Colchester Bantam's are mostly 5.5x20, and intermediate between the Boxford and an HLV.

They're all in the 350-500lb weight range.

May be best to have a broad daily search on EBay and consult with Tony's site whenever a new model comes up.

I'm almost at the point where I could let go of the family Long-bed ML7B with its accessories, It doesn't get much use now the HLV is functional. But I'm not quite there yet.

Mark,

Thanks for the head's up. Hope it's ok to repost this.

I don't know much about the Maximat, though that would seem to be the right model of Maximat in terms of size, facilities and so on.

It seems to be pretty similar to a Boxford AUD which I am familiar with, and the right size and so on - the only problem I have with the AUD is quality.

Any idea, how a Maximat would compare to a Boxford, especially in terms of quality? I've looked it up at lathes.co.uk, and so on, but a general quality assessment?

The geared head seems to have potential problems; and while the fibre gears may be quiet, I quite like a belt drive for general use, as when I want real torque I'd always use backgear.

(not interested in a lathe without backgear, full stop. I want to do threading, and even 1 kW on a 3.5 incher still won't give the torque a decent backgear will.

moan moan, why oh Why don't the cheap chinese lathes have backgear?)

-- Peter Fairbrother

On 19/07/14 13:57, Mark Rand wrote: > On Wed, 16 Jul 2014 02:02:14 +0100, in uk.rec.models.engineering you wrote: > >> I'm looking for a very good small lathe, something about 9 by 20 >> size - tabletop, or not much bigger than tabletop - something better >> that the usual new Chinese or old english iron - does anyone have >> any suggestions? > > > Hi Peter, > > Just saw an Emco Maximat V10P come up on

> > Don't know if that'd be of interest. > > > regards > Mark Rand >

If you pop over to Chippenham, you can inspect mine.

There's one in the Labs at work (along with Myford S7B, Colchester Student and a couple of others). That's in Rugby, CV21 2NH. Probably too far, but you're welcome if you can make it.

I'd say a new condition AUD would be better than a Maximat V10, but given the relevant ages, the Maximat probably wins on what is likely to be on sale.

regards

The trouble with the Emco Maier range is that they were innovative on each model but after a few years, would drop all support for it, unlike Myford who essentially produced the Model 7 for 50 years, and modern bits still fit the old lathes.

Well when I went looking for a good small lathe I ended up with an HLV-H. I didn't regret it. There doesn't seem to be anything of intermediate size which comes anywhere close for screwcutting. The speed range up to 3000 makes it ideal for small work and spares are still available from Hardinge (at a price...)

For non-screwcutting work and of tabletop size the Schaublin 70 is a very nice machine and certainly better than the usual WW pattern 8mm lathes. I don't have one, but remain tempted.

The only thing that the Hardinge doesn't like so much is machining large castings due to the lowest speed being 125rpm (I know, it is probably a crime to use a lathe of this type to rough out cast iron, but I don't have an alternative large lathe!)

Alan

At 360fpm with the maximum possible swing, that's well within the range of carbide. 1/2hp at that speed severely limits the cut you can take, but I found no problems with a 10.5" faceplate casting on my HLV :-)

The only real reason I've got now for keeping the ML7B is that it's got 30" between centres and the HLV struggles to reach 20".