buying mills & lathes

Hello

I would appreciate your views on my planned purchases. I have been looking at £600/£700 mills & £500 lathes - Axminster is one place but a few others also. Could I do better secondhand as I have found a few lathes in that price range but secondhand mills seem to be priced far above £600/£700. Also it has been suggested to me that I would be better off spending around £1200 on a lathe with a milling attachment. Any thoughts please and has anyone purchased an Axminster lathe or mill. I have had ordinary tools from them and they are fine but a far eastern mill - assume far eastern at that price.....

Thanks very much

Smokeyone

Reply to
Smokeyone
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I have purchased a lathe from bh600 lathe from Warco

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and a 626 milling machine from Chester uk
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I know that my machines may bigger than you want, but both Chester and Warco do a full range of machines in all sizes and to suit most pockets. I am pleased with both my machines and they are good value for money. I would recomend dealing with Warco rather than Chester because their customer service is far better, but the machines they sell are about the same as each other. If you can vist one one of the showrooms and see the machine in the flesh.

Reply to
paul swindell

I'd favour quality second hand myself. That's what I've done. Depends what size you want but for 5-600 quid you should be able to get a decent roundhead Colchester Student privately. You should also be able to get a good Boxford in that territory. Mill wise 700 quid should get a decent mill - even a reasonable Bridgeport if you look hard enough. Try these dealers if you want:

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the ever useful Chris Heapy site
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Charles

Reply to
Charles Ping

Been there, done that!.

5 years ago as a total newbie I didn't want to possibly 'waste' too much money on workshop machinery so thought I'd kill two birds with one stone and bought a 'Clarke CL500M 'Lathe/miller. The lathe has since proved very good value for money but the overhung milling head had just 30 minutes use before being removed as physically just too restrictive. A week later realising I liked the hobby I bought the 'Champion' mill from Warco. This has also proved good value for money. (then bought one of those Chinese bandsaws . Then one of those Chinese ... :-) Previously, I'd looked at a lot of second hand machinery. It needed no skills on my part to figure that clapped out, dated, rubbish with ridiculous prices was the British norm. Lost all interest in pursuing the hobby until I noticed the Chinese imports. Yes. Anytime, I'd go with buying brand new Chinese tools from Chester, Warco, Axminster etc. regards john
Reply to
john jardine

Many many thanks for everyones advice. At least now I have a few extra choices.

Smokeyone

Reply to
Smokeyone

Interesting to see the pros and cons from various users.

I'm with Charles on this one, although I do have an Atlas floor pillar drill that is a rebadged import.

The other factor that I don't think was mentioned is space. The secondhand quality route tends to be for larger machinery than the later and smaller imports. Certainly the Elliott pillar drills are very large and heavy, but few ever got seriously used and our one will probably see me out. It will handle up to 1.25" diameter in steel, probably more if you are careful, while the Atlas is nominally a 14mm drill but has a problem with 1/2" holes. Peter

-- Peter A Forbes Prepair Ltd, Luton, UK snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk

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Reply to
Prepair Ltd

I have seen this company advertising in engineering trade magazines .

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They do hobby machines, not seen them mentioned on this group before.

Might be worth a look.

Lionel

Reply to
Lionel

For my sort of budget, especially on mills I would seem better off buying a new chinese one rather than secondhand. Most secondhand mills seem the industrial type and around £2k.

Smokeyone

Reply to
Smokeyone

Thanks again for the advice. Has anyone opions on these offers I have found....

Warco MD30N mill Tom Senior Horizontal mill Richmond No 1 Universal mill SIP Mill/drill

Smokeyone

Reply to
Smokeyone

Bridgeports have been going for under £1000 on ebay recently, there is a bit of a glut of them at present :-))

Also, tooling is more standardised for "industrial" mills, but again it's down to size and space availability.

Peter

Reply to
Peter A Forbes

I don't think my entire workshop cost 2K : I started with a 3 1/2inch Drummond, then got a 5 1/2 Kerry, I also have a mint 4 1/2inch Boxford AUD & a Marlow mill ex school. All British made & all together for the price you'd pay for a poxy Chinese mill/drill. I do have a Nu Tool drill press but since I got a British one from Ebay (£20 plus another £40 quid later for a three phase inverter to give complete speed control) I haven't touched the thing. I know a decent craftsman can turn out excellent work on these Chinese boat anchors, but where's the pleasure in actually USING the tools - they're bloody horrible. My Kerry is a delight to use - its so ergonomic it's more restful than watching TV! Tried a Dean Smith & Grace the other day (must have weighed 4 tons, that's the problem - getting it into the garage), but what a dream to use, the carriage moved like sliding a block of ice across quarry tiles & the whole thing just shouted quality at you. I should point out I don't work in engineering (IT actually), I just keep my eyes & ears open - we got a Colchester Triumph for my mate last year - £200 ex chemical engineering lab of the local uni - one of its three chucks is worth considerably more than that!!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- snipped-for-privacy@boltblue.com John Lloyd - Cymru/Wales

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Reply to
John.LloydUNSPAM

Quite a lot less. This one looks OK for £385.

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Charles

Reply to
Charles Ping

i have a chester conquest and wouldnt buy another,when i get my new workshop built next year i am going to buy a secondhand ML10

Reply to
bolmas

Proves the point, you CAN get decent kit if you look around and are patient.

I was thinking more of tooled machines with DRO's etc., but I'd be happy with that one at that price!

I have my eye on one across the estate, that might be coming available soon...

Peter

-- Peter A Forbes Prepair Ltd, Luton, UK snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk

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Reply to
Prepair Ltd

Would you care to tell us more about why?

Also, are you going to sell the conquest? Secondhand ones seem to come up for sale very seldom, and I don't know why.

Reply to
Peter Fairbrother

No one likes to admit making a mistake

-- Regards,

John Stevenson Nottingham, England.

Reply to
John Stevenson

Well, I'm looking for a second-hand one going cheap, and I'll promise not to tell...

Very simply, for the money I've got a secondhand small Chinese lathe is about the only option. I don't really need a big lathe, I've only once turned a bit of 90 mm stock, nothing larger, and I can get very occasional access to some big lathes if I should need it.

I can't afford a secondhand ML7, even if I could find one at the £700 price I'm told they are sometimes available for. While I probably could get a larger secondhand British/Continental lathe for say £400, I don't have room, and if I had £400 I'd probably buy a new Chinese one with it anyway (a new Conquest with three and four jaw chucks and one steady is £410, about £450 for one with all the usual bells and whistles).

Thing is, if they are so bad you'd expect to see lots of second-hand ones, but you don't. In fact I've never seen one for sale.

I've heard it suggested that people move up in size to secondhand British, but keep the Chinese stuff as second lathes, for small work.

Reply to
Peter Fairbrother

I bought a 918 lathe and a vmc mill from warco a few years back I was astonished at the accuracy of the 918 as delivered. The inverted seperate vees for the carriage (shared with the headstock for inherent accuracy) and tailstock help eliminate annoying effects of wear. Down side is there is no backgear and all the bits that do not affect accuracy are where you can see cost saving. The nuts are made of bronze (no diecast alloy nuts here) The VMC mill was an extravagance but is again beautifully accurate and a pleasure to use. I served an engineering apprenticeship many years ago but just wanted these small lightweight machines for hobby/prototype useat home. BTW the independant 4 jaw chuck that came with my 918 was like a woodworking device but is useable for metal if time is no object.

Reply to
Chris R

o.k. then, i bought the chester conquest nearly 3 yrs ago and it ha

been used but not a lot. it has had 2 sets of bedway adjusting clamps but i gave up and made my own heavy duty versions. the originals we cracked when they came out of the box but chester sent a new set FOC.

as delivered there was play in everything imaginable.i read about th lathes on the internet and it said to basically go over everything wit a fine toothed comb, i am glad i did. i stripped it to the last nut an bolt and started again, there was not a trace of grease in th headstock and it houses a 2 speed gear and a dog clutch.i spent a wee of nights fitting and filing and got it up and running.once this ha been done you have a half decent lathe , but my problems were far fro over.earlier this year it burnt out both the motor and control boar costing just over £200. it has also stripped the adjusting thread hole on the cross slide nut and one hole in the cross slide where th vertical slide fits on.

there is no carriage lock so i drilled and tapped it for a bras locking screw. that has marked the bedways, leading me to beleive the are not hardened.

as the lathe stands it can produce accurate work and variable speed i a godsend, but it needs constant adjusting to keep going.

for the price you pay they are acceptable bu if you buy one treat it a a kit of parts that needs proper assembling.

does anyone have any experience with the warco 918 and 1016 as comparison

-- bolma

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Reply to
bolmas

I bought a Myford ML7 new forty odd years ago for £120 which included 3&4 jaw chucks and a tailstock jacobs drill chuck. It has done plenty of work and recovered its cost many times over. It still looks like new and shows no sign of wear. At the time of purchase the cost was about 12 weeks wages. When considering buying a Myford I also toyed with the idea of a Portass S, cheaper and had an extra eighth of an inch centre height. Out of interest I bought one of these, including a vertical slide, about eight years ago, £115 from someone who was "upgrading" to one of the 918s'. Compared with the Myford the Portass is fairly primitive, rough and ready. Having said that I use it a lot and it produces accurate work. Screw cutting presents a challenge, no split nut but there is a degree of satisfaction when one succeeds. My milling machine is a Dore Westbury. made on the Myford. Fairly crude by modern standards but versatile and capable of accurate work if you take your time. At todays prices I would buy a secondhand Bridport.

If I was starting again at 30 years of age I would save up and buy a new Myford or similar. They don't wear out. If totally strapped for cash a secondhand flat bed Drummond would serve you well.

Donald

Reply to
Donald

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