Member postings for Roger B

I started out milling with a vertical slide on the lathe. This worked but travel was limited and setting up was not aided by gravity. Like you I do not have space for a separate mill so I added a milling head. This is certainly a compromise and is not as rigid as a true milling machine, but by removing the lathe chuck and tailstock it has quite reasonable travel for my use. An up to date Hobbymat and TECO mill are available from Pro Machine Tools.

Best regards

Roger

The first lathe decision is always difficult.

Buy the biggest/best you can afford is one way of looking at it.

The other thought is buy something that will be sufficient for what you want to start with. If it is not too expensive it won't hurt so much the first time you take a lump out of the bed or cross slide You will also have money available for tooling, it's quite easy to spend the same as you spent on the basic lathe. As you gain experience you can then see what features you really need and select another machine that has these. Some of the tooling will be transferable to the new lathe so it won't be like starting from scratch again.

Best regards

Roger

I started out with one of the generic minilathes and latter added a milling slide designed for the smaller Clarke lathe by drilling and tapping 4 holes in the cross slide. There are a couple of pictures in my album milling slide.

What are you intending to make on this lathe?

Best regards

Roger

I started out with an Einhell Minilathe and then moved on to a Hobbymat with milling head.

The Hobbymat is more rigid and better finished but is slightly smaller. The headstock is MT2 and around 12mm bore. The Minilathe has MT3 and around 19mm bore. The low speed kit for the Hobbymat is still available but the tumbler reverse if you want it would have to be found secondhand. Other accessories may also be harder to find.

What are you intending to make, this my help guide your decision?$

Best regards

Roger