Where to get project lathe?

[kyjuypo]

Hi all,

So I’m currently looking to get a lathe for use in an upcoming project. I’ll be honest when I say that I haven’t got £1000 to buy a top quality Colchester or similar, nor the room for such a large machine.

Ideally I would be looking for a small ish bench top lathe like what’s made by sieg, Chester draper etc.

I know these lathes aren’t the most accurate but I’m not making aircraft parts, so as long as the parts are within .1 mm of what I need I’d be happy.

I’ve been scrolling through eBay for the last, month? Or so and found that everything’s either out of my price range, a million miles away, or way overpriced for the condition. To be honest, I’m a bit ticked off.

So if people are going to ask for £500 for a lathe they know is broken but haven’t put in the description, I may as well just look for a lathe being sold for parts and fix accordingly.

Are any of you selling any broken bench lathes or know where’s best to look?

By broken, I’m meaning things like the electronics are bust, no motor , no chuck etc. not someone’s taken a grinder to the whole thing and badly welded it back together and will never be straight.

Thanks!

 

[Jelly_Sheffield]

There's currently live listings for both a Warco in Doncaster and an Emco Unimat in Nottingham that appear to be honestly described, in serviceable condition, and not unduly far from Stoke.



However you seem to be frustrated with "the game" of sourcing used machine tools at good prices...

In my experience that's something which inevitably involves travelling large distances to remote places and/or gambling on poorly described auction lots that may not quite work right, because that's why they're so affordable.

So if you don't find that fun, you'd probably be better just going for new.



Your £500 price range for a broken lathe would almost buy a "brand new" import mini-lathe from a UK seller.

Stretch yourself by £50-60 and you could get either:

• Sieg SC3 clone from eBay seller "toolsdirekt", or
• CJ18A pre-fitted with DRO from Amadeal (and better support as they're a proper business).

If you have the patience to import yourself via AliExpress, then a similar bench top lathe could be had a fair bit cheaper, if you search to find a seller with reasonable shipping rates.

Neither will be perfect, but the "project" of tidying up a few rough edges on an inexpensive new machine will be a lot easier and cheaper than dealing with something that's actually broken.

 

[Agroshield]

Stretch yourself by £50-60 and you could get either:

While I agree with 90% of what you say above, could I offer an alternative opinion on those two specific ones.

My issue is that both have high voltage DC motors, with non-trivial electronics. That would be my worry with buying one: when, not if the control board or motor lets out the smoke, they would be difficult to repair.

Contrast that with a traditional MyBox, where you could wire a piece of cable from the motor to a 13A plug and make it work. Four bolts and swap the pulley if the motor fails.

 

[kyjuypo]

While I agree with 90% of what you say above, could I offer an alternative opinion on those two specific ones.

My issue is that both have high voltage DC motors, with non-trivial electronics. That would be my worry with buying one: when, not if the control board or motor lets out the smoke, they would be difficult to repair.

Contrast that with a traditional MyBox, where you could wire a piece of cable from the motor to a 13A plug and make it work. Four bolts and swap the pulley if the motor fails.

That’s not really much of a worry for me personally as I’m an electrical engineer by trade so can probably fix any electrical issues that arise (in fact, one of the lathes I went to see had the very issue you described)

 

[kyjuypo]

There's currently live listings for both a Warco in Doncaster and an Emco Unimat in Nottingham that appear to be honestly described, in serviceable condition, and not unduly far from Stoke.



However you seem to be frustrated with "the game" of sourcing used machine tools at good prices...

In my experience that's something which inevitably involves travelling large distances to remote places and/or gambling on poorly described auction lots that may not quite work right, because that's why they're so affordable.

So if you don't find that fun, you'd probably be better just going for new.



Your £500 price range for a broken lathe would almost buy a "brand new" import mini-lathe from a UK seller.

Stretch yourself by £50-60 and you could get either:

• Sieg SC3 clone from eBay seller "toolsdirekt", or
• CJ18A pre-fitted with DRO from Amadeal (and better support as they're a proper business).

If you have the patience to import yourself via AliExpress, then a similar bench top lathe could be had a fair bit cheaper, if you search to find a seller with reasonable shipping rates.

Neither will be perfect, but the "project" of tidying up a few rough edges on an inexpensive new machine will be a lot easier and cheaper than dealing with something that's actually broken.

Thank you for your detailed response; I will give these guys a look. I’m not opposed to traveling per se, but I’ve gone most nights this last week to view lathes that are £X and seem like a good deal for the price only to get there and the guy be like “so I moved it and this broke. Price stays the same though. And no you can’t see it without giving me the money” or the pictures have been taken in such a way that make it look like things are in the price and then you discover “oh yeah I’m keeping that for my other lathe” Which is what’s annoying me and just doesn’t sit right.

 

[gaz1]

if you think your going to buy a lathe and build what your wanting to a spec tollerance you will be wrong and it takes practice and knowing the tools that can do what you want

as goes for a lathe thats used you have to know what to look for and what to leave alone

the same can be said for parts for the machine as well on older machines

whilst the myford ml7 has plenty of parts for a small machine they also have a good price on them

everything depends on the size of item that your making and also between its centers

with the newer machines its slower and know your machines limitations optima has made some loverly stuff via his lathe to say its a hobbymat lathe

 

[Jelly_Sheffield]

While I agree with 90% of what you say above, could I offer an alternative opinion on those two specific ones.

My issue is that both have high voltage DC motors, with non-trivial electronics. That would be my worry with buying one: when, not if the control board or motor lets out the smoke, they would be difficult to repair.

Contrast that with a traditional MyBox, where you could wire a piece of cable from the motor to a 13A plug and make it work. Four bolts and swap the pulley if the motor fails.

I think the "conventional" approach to that problem (because both those lathes and them going kaput after a while are both very much known quantities by now) when the time comes, is to:
- replace the motor with a small induction motor bolted to the bench behind/under the lathe
- run that off a 240-440V VFD
- wire the VFD on/off signals to the existing power buttons, and
- wire the VFD frequency inputs up to the speed control pot on the lathe.

Still far from perfect, but a decent upgrade on the brushed motors (which are at least simpler to fix than the brushless type).

Ultimately, if OP is frustrated with the used market for lathes in their price range, then I really can't see the "spares and repairs" market being any better for them... So new makes sense, even if the options are limited and require a compromise on quality/maintainability.



Personally I would strongly advise OP to persevere with buying used, and seriously consider if they can find a way to buy something freestanding rather than bench-top sized, as:
• there's generally better bargains to buy due to the increased awkwardness of moving them, and
• they're generally a lot better built, so if bought working without major defect, even a well used one will give less trouble than most mini-lathes...

But they sound Very frustrated.

 

[Brad93]

I've got a nice Smart & Brown in the garage that needs a ton of elbow grease. Great project and fitted with a single phase motor

 

[Jelly_Sheffield]

I've got a nice Smart & Brown in the garage that needs a ton of elbow grease. Great project and fitted with a single phase motor

S&B made some very nice lathes... Certainly worth the effort of cleaning up 70+ years of grime for.

 

[Agroshield]

That’s not really much of a worry for me personally as I’m an electrical engineer by trade...

AIUI, the drive setup on that sort of lathe is very similar to on a treadmill - 180v DC motor and controller. That might be walk in the park for you.

 

[Erie Fred]

Have you tried facebook marketplace ?

 

[dieselsamurai]

Just remember if £500 buys a lathe but unless your lucky you'll need to spend almost the same on bit and pieces you need to make things with it, at least you can gradually build up what you need as you go along but it is a hidden cost you need to think about too

 

[Erie Fred]

Just remember if £500 buys a lathe but unless your lucky you'll need to spend almost the same on bit and pieces you need to make things with it, at least you can gradually build up what you need as you go along but it is a hidden cost you need to think about too

Yup ^^^ "Tooling & Work holding".