which machinery for small lathe and milling work?

Hello all...

wondering if you might be able to make some recommendations on smaller lathes and milling machines?

I am looking to get back into small models and prototyping after years out of the game...

Last time I worked on a small emco (?) lathe ... Is there any equivalent in the milling side of things ?

Regards

Linus

Aha ... !..

Many thanks ...

Regards

Linus

Linus

You could also have a look at the following

If you want to spend a bit more money then there's the Cowell range

For a slightly larger lathe or mill, you might want to look at the Proxon range

You might also want to look at the generic Far East 7" x 10" lathe which is re-badged and sold through many outlets around the world. Put "7x10 minilathe" into Google and you should come up with a lot of hits about web pages and forums discussing how to live with the beast :-) They seem to need a bit of work to get them going properly, but once this work is done, they seem to be a good buy.

You could also look at a Myford ML10 which is the smallest in the Myford range but can use most of the wide range of accessories for the Myford range.

If you want to look at buying second hand, then have a look at the private ads on Chris Heapy's pages although these pages are UK based and you might have to negotiate delivery overseas.

Buying second hand can be a good bet since you do normally get chucks and tooling as well, and the cost of these when bought with a new lathe can often double the cost. The only caveat is that you have to be a bit careful buying second hand machinery and you would be taking a bit of a risk if you couldn't check out the machine beforehand. However, I haven't seen any adverse comment about transactions on Chris Heapy's list.

Jim.