Did the Jet have a standard V thread for a lead screw? I had to repair one for the dealer last year, that had a V thread lead screw, and pot metal work gear. A bit of nylon swarf got in the thread and tore out the gears. Tiny engagement.
The poor bastard bought it brand new to cut only plastics and it was barely able to do that. I showed him how to use a left handed end mill as a tool bit and things went better for him. Soon as the job was done..he sold it to someone and bought a Logan.
Gunner
Liberals - Cosmopolitan critics, men who are the friends of every country save their own. Benjamin Disraeli
From my day to day work in real commercial machine shops, I tend to agree. On the whole...the 12" and bigger imports are actually usable machines right out of the box. Until you get to the 15" or bigger ones..they tend not to last very long (on the grand scale of things) due to poor materials or heat treating etc.. The 15" or bigger machines tend to be very good indeed.
On the other hand, I still see a lot of Logans, SouthBends, Standard Moderns, etc still in everyday usage even if they are 30 or more years old.
Gunner
Liberals - Cosmopolitan critics, men who are the friends of every country save their own. Benjamin Disraeli
All I needed was to discover the Grizzly and Lathemaster models I was interested in didn't offer a reversing leadscrew (but you could change gears to do it in the LM. Yeah, sure.) If I'm going to go to the trouble to haul a load of iron into the basement, I want all compromises moved a couple notches out. I have a little old Atlas 6 and when I upgrade, I want ALL features upgraded. So on balance, I'm for a larger Logan or a smaller South Bend- whichever I find first in reasonable shape at the right price.
"Gary Coffman> >MY feeling is still that having ANY lathe is better than having NONE.
I looked at a lot of 3 in 1 types like Shoptask and Grizzly as well and found that most had decent lathe capabilities but the mill heads were too much of a compromise. However the new Shoptask ( Shopmaster) has some clever innovations such as a spindle brake on the lathe and a new support for the mill that makes it as rigid as a lot of regular milling machines- for a home shop with space limitations its probably the best available.
There have been a number of opinions stated about the
9" import machines here, recently, and most of them have been "stay away, the design is poor and the execution is worse" and this is pretty much what albrecht was saying.
Is this being a racist??
Jim
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Ha ha. Gunner you old racist you. Give him my regards if you see him, please!
Jim
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This seems like a solid machine, possibly the smaller swing makes it more robust than the 9" machines of similar flavor, which seem to me to have about the same amount of bracing etc. The import 9" machines seem to have especially spindly tailstocks.
The bore in the spindle is about what one would find in a 9" south bend machine, those are 0.875 just about. For small work that is fine but I was always running into stock that would not pass through the headstock, and that is the primary reason I finally did upgrade to a bigger machine. The smallest lathe with the biggest spindle bore is still the 10L south bend.
I keep waiting to see if any asian manufacturer will finally wake up and realize what south bend realized, in about 1940 or so - that the utility of the machine goes way up if you put a bigger spindle on it.
Grizzly 9" machine, with a two inch spindle bore, anyone?
Jim
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Umm No. Basically you simply go to a reputable machinery dealer, purchase a used machine that is in good running condition, and pay to have it shipped to your shop.
Sure it will cost more than buying a $500 import. But the results will be somewhat more satisfactory. The inevitable interchange would continue with the information requestor saying "but I don't know anything about lathes so I cannot figure out which used one to buy" or "I don't have space to put a 10EE in my china cabinet" or "all machinery dealers are thieves and charlatans" or "I have no idea where there are any machinery dealers" and so on.
For the first the answer is, DO THE HOMEWORK.
For the second, the answer is, don't buy a 10EE. There are many used machines that are smaller than an american pacemaker.
For the third objection, get involved with the craft locally, talk to folks, ask around. This is the same as choosing a dealer for a car.
For some folks buying a lathe is the same as buying shoes is, for women. The shopping is half the fun. For others, it's like buying a light bulb at home depot, don't care what it is as long as it lights up.
I think that's what pete objected to most, that some folks wanted to learn the art of machining by simply purchasing an off-the-shelf widget. The question "what lathe should I buy to make myself a machinist" is fundamentally flawed and going to produce disapointment along the way.
Jim
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I have a Smithy and got the same load from him. I have had my machine for about ten years. It is still working well and still is maore versatile and doing better work than the South Bends that were available to me when I was a grad student in Physics.
If you want, you could probably go back through his posts and see the number of times he brought politics and the Chinese government as justification for his views. When questions on his experience with these machines, his answers were always vague and derogatory - distinctly lacking in hard fact.
I have seen some real junk from China but I have also seen some pretty darn good stuff and at far more affordable prices than anything serviceable I could get that was American made.
You didn't hear what happened to Pete? He had been shopping for a bride for some time. Was looking for one of the older American models. You know, one that would do all the house work, good cook, etc. And knew her place was in the home.
He looked some older American ones but just didn't want to get involved in the time and expense it would take to rebuild and retrain one. He checked out some nice ones that had had several previous owners and were completely reconditioned but he found that after one or two uses they were demanding and unresponsive.
He also shopped the catalogs for the low mileage European imports. Even tried out a couple of the Russian ones. Those were very heavily constructed but he had some trouble figuring them out. And rigidity turned out to be a problem. They wouldn't do a damn thing he told them too.
Against his better judgement, he finally decided to try out one of those Chinese brides out of Asian online catalog.
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Hmmm. Sorry, but the last time I was to a machinery dealer, this past summer, he had three lathes in stock that weren't "cry-N crash". The smallest was 16X 48, and an oriental import.
I'm sorry, but my ten year old Grizzly cost me over $1600, and I'm still satisfied with it. The only problems I've had with it came from lack of use of the oil can.
Ummm, yasss. Around here, I've been looking for a SB for over twenty years, and have seen many. The only problem is that if you want one, most dealers have a waiting list of people that also want one, and most of them won't get it. There are "X" mumber of used small lathes available, and an infinite number of buyers. I now have a 9" SB model "A", but I'm probably about the fifth or sixth owner of it in as many years. It's only problem was being backed into by a tractor, and everyone else gave up on fixing it. And when I get all the broken/missing parts replaced, there's still a ridge on the top of the v that you could lose a finger in.
Anything wrong with that? pet also had a mindset that nobody could figure out how to set one up the first time, but he was also probably between 100 to 200 percent wrong. And I'm sorry, but I'm on the opposite side from pet, I believe that most people have enough common sense to look at it if something doesn't feel right and be able to figure out what's wrong.
I'll never feel that pet had much knowledge in machining, and even less in dealing with other people. A more poor choice of people to get advice from could not be made.
The Chinese 9s are essentially 6 inch machines with cast in risers to make them 9 inch machines. So you face a longer moment arm on a machine whose bed is already too narrow to take the cutting forces. That's just one of the many design defects of the Chinese 9.
Ill do so. He wants to keep taking me to a Fish Taco place. (gag) where I generally eat veggies..but the girls coming in are indeed worth the rabbit food. Ill mention you spoke of him Ill even get around to mentioning you spoke nicely of him..kinda sorta
Gunner
Liberals - Cosmopolitan critics, men who are the friends of every country save their own. Benjamin Disraeli
No more flawed than the idea that one has a lathe and can make chips, so is, therefore, a machinist. We see that every day here. None of us are born with machining ability, although we may have a talent for the work. Only after considerable experience can one begin to assume the title of "machinist". That is easily proven by placing a novice on a machine in a production environment and expecting him/her to produce good parts in a timely fashion without supervision, including making acceptable setups.
It doesn't really matter what machine one learns on, they all have good and bad features. What's important is to get a machine and begin the learning process, and those of us that have experience should be supporting those that may be down the ladder a bit. Insulting them serves no good purpose as near as I can tell.
That's likely one of the most misunderstood truths there is regarding machining. I've witnessed outstanding work coming off what could best be described as junk machines, and some of the worst work off of high quality machines. If your mind has no clue, why would you expect a machine to do any better?
Turn that around, unless the dealers were there to attend the auctions, the shops and schools would simply sell the stuff for scrap value. I've seen it happen.
That is a bit limiting, if you won't buy unless you inspect personally (and I tend to agree with that) and you won't travel beyond X, then that's gonna put a crimp in things.
I think pete's complaint here was that anyone who could do that wouldn't be posting "what do I do," here. If they knew enough to research the literature - Lindsay for example - then they would probably know what they wanted. Even the initial setup of an asian machine would be too intimidating. This is one reason I always suggest that somebody like that take a voc tech class, IF they can find them in their area. Those too are disappearing.
Well this is sure true. Like your south bend. The ridge on the ways may look pretty bad but for 95% of teh jobs it won't matter. The first 10L I owned was like that, the ridge was probably 1/32 inch tall, but if levelled correctly it would still turn to within a thou or better, ten inches long from the headstock. Braze it back together and run it.
Jim
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Hmm. Are you sure he's not just yanking your chain about 'fish tacos?'
Jim
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