Member postings for Hollowpoint

The little unimat sl uses 2 round rails for the bed, I'm supprised at how rigid this setup is for such a tiny lathe. I,ve always thought a larger lathe based on this design using newer technologies like linear bearings could produce a very good economical lathe. You could eliminate the need for gibs for example! How nice would that be?

Edited By Hollowpoint on 04/06/2019 17:17:24

I can see why you might be a bit annoyed at the price difference but Chronos are being honest. I have been an ebay seller for almost 15 years so I know the fees involved. Chronos will have made next to nothing on that sale. Here is how it would typically break down:

Sale price £3.92

Cost of item (price paid by chronos) unknown lets say £1

ebay commission 39p

paypal fees 33p

Royal Mail 1st class large letter £1.03

Packaging 10p

£3.92 - £2.85 = £1.07 profit!

A big company might be able to reduce those fees by about 50p by buying in bulk etc but Ive not even taken into account listing fees and VAT.

Edited By Hollowpoint on 04/06/2019 17:03:50

No problem, don't forget the before and after pictures!

My AUD was a semi gloss grey-blue colour.

I won't be getting the alloy one, I'm hoping to do some parting off. I would probably be making life difficult for myself. I'm kinda leaning towards the Dixon clone. It has a few features I prefer and it's a bit cheaper which is always a bonus. 

Edited By Hollowpoint on 31/05/2019 20:29:58

The one usually sold on ebay as a set for around £40 is alloy. The one sold by Arc euro and chronos for around £90 is steel.

What's the maximum tool size you can get away with on the SC3?

The depth of cut on that bell was very impressive. 😯

I have a Dixon clone on my Boxford which I've been happy with. I was wondering if there is any obvious disadvantages with either type when used on a mini lathe. Max tool shank size for example. Obviously I want maximum rigidety on such a small lathe.

I've been looking at QCTP's for the mini lathe. I think I've narrowed it down to either the Dixon style myford sized T37 or the wedge type 250-000. I was just wondering which one you guys think is the better choice?

Maybe they are Australian? To counter that they are upside down and spinning the wrong way? 😄

There's pro's and cons to buying either British or Chinese, British built lathes are undeniably better quality but they come with a price tag to match. The good thing about Chinese lathes is that parts and accessories are readily available and cheap.

That said there is loads of options for British made lathes under £700 quid. These are the ones I would be looking for:

.Boxford AUD, BUD, CUD

.Myford ML7 or Super 7 (if your lucky)

.Myford ML10

.Raglan Little John or Loughborough (no screw cutting on the latter)

I'm in the same situation as you atm. I've just bought a mini lathe from amadeal to use in a flat as I don't have 24/7 access to my Boxford anymore 😞 The mini lathe isn't stupidly heavy and should be no bother for two people.

I will make one suggestion though, I personally wouldn't go with HSS. It does cut very well but sharpening might be a problem. I wouldn't fancy using a bench grinder indoors especially in a flat. The noise is horrendous. Cutter geometry isn't easy for a begginer either. Go for a SCLCR indexable cutter with either a 8 or 10mm shank and a box of CCGT tips. You can then do the vast majority of turning operations for little out lay and no sharpening to worry about. 👍

Yes that is true. But you seem to be implying I don't have much experience. Belive me Ive tried the lot. I have good quality British made carbon steel taps from the likes of Hall, Osborne, and Clarkson. They are about on par with a low to mid range HSS tap.

Did you get the tip with the tool? There is two types of insert. One for internal work and one for external work. They look identical at a glance, it's very possible you have the wrong type.

I'm very supprised to see so many recommendations for carbon steel 🤨 In my experience HSS is superior in almost every aspect. They are less brittle, seem to cut nicer threads and they stay sharper for much longer. My advice would be to buy the sizes you use most often loose. If you shop around on ebay you can often pick up new taps from top quality brands like presto, dormer and skf for a fraction of the price.

I seem to have that type of day quite a lot. I remember spending abut 3-4 hours one day making a small part then promptly dropping it behind the lathe never to be seen again. Another similar, spent again about 3 hours machining a part, I'd just about finished when I decided to wind the carriage into the part rather than away from it completely destroying it. There isn't enough swear words for them days.

Thanks, I just took pictures of the stuff I liked no real reasoning behind what I photographed. All these images where taken on a mobile phone believe it or not! Just shows how far they have advanced. You are correct the tool is for sharpening drill bits. A nice design I think.

Few images for you guys that couldn't make it to the show.

Visited yesterday for the first time. Very enjoyable. As others have said it was very disappointing to see that Warco, Arceuro, Axminster etc didn't show up. I was looking to buy a lathe and wanted to compare. Their loss I suppose because Chester got my money in the end. Spent a good couple of hours looking around the trade stalls first, managed to bag a few bargains! Then looked at all the amazing models. The Bentley was definitely best in show for me, the detail was just superb. I took lots of photos so if anyone want to see let me know and I'll try to upload a few.