Cheap mini-lathe for modelling

Right after I told someone there was no such thing at Harbor Freight, here comes a paper with one in it. Has anyone used one of these that might care to comment on it?

Its a model 3173, the link I posted was for their search page - duhhhhh.

Reply to
Grandpa
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Yup. Crap. Or, to say it mildly, what you get is what you paid. No less, no more. It's ok for wooden parts, but dont even think about working on metal. There's too much free play between parts and the best repetitive precision is around .2-.3 mm.

If you want to get an idea of how a decent mini-lathe looks, take a look at

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(follow "Drehbänke", then select model RC218).

Reply to
[SM04]Serge D. Grun

I also checked them, but after noticing that the advanced mechanisms have gears only slightly smaller than a bus rear end I decided to pass on them. Jose.

Reply to
Jose Altube

Alternately (if you're on the North American side of the Atlantic), you can check out the Taig nminiature lathe available through Lee Valley Tools. Note that the "base" lathe doesn't include a motor.

(That page shows prices in $US - if you want $CDN, change "ccurrency=2" to "ccurrency=1".)

Reply to
Rob Kelk

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