Hello I am new & would like some advice on a beginners lathe please. preferably one I can practice on to see if I can get on with the practice of turning metal. are there any benefits of buying second hand?
Are you very limited in what you can do without a lathe?
Best Wishes Colin J.
Always buy second hand.
Pay no more than £600 for an old Myford ML7
Ensure the deal includes faceplate, 3jaw, 4jaw, fixed and travelling steadies, hard and soft centres, vertical slide, quick change tool post, metric and imperial quadrants and change wheels
Theres a few good bargains to be had, look at Chris Heapy's web site. Also
Join your local MEE club - they'll have tabs on deceased sales.
Reckon on tripling whatever you spend to finally fully equip your workshop.
Lots :-) Mostly it will be cheaper and probably comes with some tooling. If you find a good one, it will be sorted out and run accurately.
However, if you don't know what you are looking at or how to assess wear/damage, take an experienced friend. Buying a used lathe is like buying a used car: if you can spot the "one careful owner" you get a bargain, but there is always the "one highly abusive high mileage owner" which can be very poor value.
There's a lot to recommend used Myfords in the UK; most model engineering suppliers know what they are and can supply tools and parts to fit. They are usually repairable/rebuildable (though a few may be uneconomic to repair).
Beware some of the cheaper machines (usually imported from China and sold with British sounding names) available in the UK; the ones I've seen have questionable accuracy and quality. They can be made to run accurately with a lot of work, though the knowledge on how to set them up might not be known to a beginner.
Depends what you want to do. I own one, but don't use it a lot these days, and would probably sell for the right price*. However, my main interests these days are just making small scale electrically powered model trains. The lathe's use tends to be fixing things around the house or on my bicycle; I think the last time I used it was to make some threaded inserts for a bicycle seat clamp.
I'd suggest getting involved with either a ME club, or finding a friend with a machine, and trying to make a few things before splashing out lots of cash. If the model engineering bug bites, then you'll end up with a drilling press, lathe and milling machine, and a big pile of associated tooling. But, if its not for you, there will be several thousand pounds tied up in expensive tools.
Obligatory plug for the website in my signature; dig down into the articles section for a DIY minature lathe which really does work.
NC
(* its a Cowell ME with a lot of tooling if anyone wants to contact me via the website below)
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