Mini lathe

tomkat364 · Post by **tomkat364** » Mon Oct 19, 2009 8:36 am

I often have rotational shapes that I have to make and up to now I have been limited by having to use either a dremel or drill to turn the styrene. Anyone have any suggestions as to a good, affordable lathe to make complex shapes (like engine bells)

Joseph Osborn · Post by **Joseph Osborn** » Mon Oct 19, 2009 2:37 pm

About the cheapest new hobby lathe you're going to find is a Taig. Sherline lathes are a bit more expensive and very solid machines. I have a Taig and it's flippin' awesome. If you are in a decent-sized city, you may be able to find a second hand hobby lathe for much less than a new one and save the shipping cost.

Kylwell · Post by **Kylwell** » Mon Oct 19, 2009 4:30 pm

Define "affordable"....

redfinger · Post by **redfinger** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 11:38 pm

Joseph Osborn wrote:About the cheapest new hobby lathe you're going to find is a Taig. Sherline lathes are a bit more expensive and very solid machines. I have a Taig and it's flippin' awesome. If you are in a decent-sized city, you may be able to find a second hand hobby lathe for much less than a new one and save the shipping cost.

I would 2nd the sherline option. I recently purchased a mill and got the score of a lifetime on a sherline lathe, found it craigs list for 100$ the guy said that he wasnt sure of it worked or not, so I took it home spent about 40$ in replacement parts, 5$ in a decent lube and the thing turns to w/ in .005 of an inch!!!! I am a very happy man

Ashton

Blappy · Post by **Blappy** » Fri Nov 06, 2009 1:07 pm

Harbour freight in the US is a good start for affordable tools.

http://search.harborfreight.com/cpisear ... &Submit=Go

Chris E. · Post by **Chris E.** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 4:12 pm

I bought the 7"x10" mini-lathe from Harbor Freight several years ago and have had really good luck with it. It's solid and very heavily built. The extra, interchangeable drive gears let you do things like cut different sized threads. I'd recommend these lathes to a hobbiest without hesitation.

mightymax · Post by **mightymax** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 2:48 am

Chris E. wrote:I bought the 7"x10" mini-lathe from Harbor Freight several years ago and have had really good luck with it. It's solid and very heavily built. The extra, interchangeable drive gears let you do things like cut different sized threads. I'd recommend these lathes to a hobbiest without hesitation.

Sounds like the one I have had for about 5 years. I have never used it but it is a nice little unit.

Max Bryant

Andrew Gorman · Post by **Andrew Gorman** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 10:42 am

I have a Unimat DB200, and I'd recommend the Chinese 7X10s unless you really need a lathe small enough to put away after every use. The Unimat is very nice, but it is very small and tooling is expensive. The 7X10s are astonishingly cheap for what they can do. Another tiny lathe is the Clisby, but they are unfortunately out of production.