Lathes

Steamer sez: "I'm curious to know if anyone has experience with these machines; are they any good or are they typical Chinese crap?"

I have had an MSC geared head 13 x 40 lathe, #951735 for over 20 years and it has given good service. Externally, it looks very much like the 12 x 36 pictured in the link given. The MSC model at the time of purchase was made in Taiwan under the name Dashin Prince from the Yang Sheng Machinery Co.

My "iron experience" which includes a Comet mill and a mill drill is all with Taiwan stuff. Ymmv with mainland China - dunno.

Bob Swinney

--Hoping to get something a little larger than my Myford Super 7 and this one caught my eye; more for price than anything else:

Some of them arnt half bad. Most do require that you take it totally apart and work the rough edges out of the works and the sand out of the various gear boxes.

Odd thing about Chicom lathes....from about 14" and up...they become rather nice lathes..under 12".....they are rather poor. Gunner

"Somewhere a True Believer is training to kill you. He is training with minimum food or water,in austere conditions, day and night. The only thing clean on him is his weapon. He doesn't worry about what workout to do--- his rucksack weighs what it weighs, and he runs until the enemy stops chasing him. The True Believer doesn't care 'how hard it is'; he knows he either wins or he dies. He doesn't go home at 1700; he is home. He knows only the 'Cause.' Now, who wants to quit?"

NCOIC of the Special Forces Assessment and Selection Course in a welcome speech to new SF candidates

I hope you get a lot of good replies. I don't have one of those. But I have been looking around, too. Our Harbor freight used to have some of the bigger machines in stock so you could at least touch and crank them. That helped me personally decide not to go that way at that time. The reason I say this isn't meant to be a put down, but to me, I'd never get a mjor machine tool without putting my hands on it and walking around it for a while. The "specs" do tell you what the machine does, but not what it doesn't do. They never say things like "cheap, easily broken off plastis handles" or "has dials the are hard to reset" or "has a wierd talistock taper".

could the seller of the machine you want be able to furnish a couple of names of satified or other owners that you could visit? Maybe even consider it part of a vacation trip?

If you take the Home Shop machinist, this might be a great question to ask of "The Third Hand" if you aren't in a rush.

Pete Stanaitis

------------------- steamer wrote:

This is the same "birmingham lathe" that everyone else is selling, they will put on a reseller's brand sticker on them to make them a separate brand. This one bears "PrecisionMatthews" sticker.

They are supposed to be not so bad.

MHO you will / should be able to do better (bang/buck) looking at used non-Chinese iron.

Depending on where he lives. Here in So California...I can get him very nice..very nice machines for $3k.

In Podunk Falls...the pickings are a lot leaner.

Gunner

"Somewhere a True Believer is training to kill you. He is training with minimum food or water,in austere conditions, day and night. The only thing clean on him is his weapon. He doesn't worry about what workout to do--- his rucksack weighs what it weighs, and he runs until the enemy stops chasing him. The True Believer doesn't care 'how hard it is'; he knows he either wins or he dies. He doesn't go home at 1700; he is home. He knows only the 'Cause.' Now, who wants to quit?"

NCOIC of the Special Forces Assessment and Selection Course in a welcome speech to new SF candidates

achines;

I've just bought a lathe the same as that(minus foot brake, chuck guard, live center and drill chuck, but a 5" longer bed and of course a different name lol) for around that price in AU$ but I was able to pick it up myself.

So far its only had one real issue, which was the tailstock not having clearance to move "into" the carriage. The manual is a little better than nothing, but not much. If you want a lathe that's going to work straight out of the box then this one isn't for you. Its a little "rough around the edges" with lots of cleaning and burr removal to do. The alignment on the change gears could use some work. But most things seem to work well enough and its done everything I've asked of it so far, although that's not a great deal. I hope to report back in 20 years that all is well :)

(sorry if this is out of place but my isp's new server seems to drop out every few weeks and lose all posts.)

--Thanks; good to know.

--Yeah; know what ya mean. That's an issue.

--Heh. Not sure I can wait that long.

--Aha! Had a feeling.

--Hmmm. I think I want something a wee bit better. Got any recommendations?

I can sell you guys a Morse 3 to 3 extender adapter.

I do not know that much about lathes. I only had one lathe and am still learning to deal with bed wear, and such.

Looks quite similar to my Harrison M300 which is a 13" x 40" and a nice lathe in my limited experience. Gunner, while I don't agree with all he says, has IIRC rated them as being a nice machine. Plenty around in the UK and I think they're available in the US also as I think they may have a common parent company with a US firm.