Hey you! What lathe? Why?

I have a Boxford AUD. It's a later one and came from an ex employee of a small firm who had previously owned it. I ha been used to produce small brass components and as such had had quite an easy life and the ex-employee had converted it to single phase but had then done little with it.

I dismantled it and loaded it into a small hatchback for the journey from Welwyn to Mansfield.

It is an excellent machine and has tackled everything thrown at it, from a Stuart V10, parts for Austin Sevens and a couple of 3" traction engines.

Brian

I have two Myfords,the oldest has no gearbox and is 63years old .I had it reground at Myfords 2006 and it is still a very accurate lathe .My other lahte is a large bore S7 Plus, which I bought at the Myford closing down sale it is a nice lathe to use for what I make.I made a 2" traction engine but Bought a Ward2A to turn the wheels and you certainly notice the difference in rigidity .I sold it to a factory for what I paid for it 400gbp in the mid eighties. Get the biggest you can accomodate and afford, you have to decide on the size of your projects in the future also.

Frank

My first lathe wasn't very accurate so next I bought a knackered 10mm Pultra. I discovered crinkle effect paint! This really performed. The cross slide on the Pultra is a league above Perris (or Cowells, well older ones at least, sorry), a work of art, and can do really accurate work. Anti-backlash nuts etc. I got another perris bed with 8mm headstock and tailstock.

What happened to them? Same place as Perris. Rusting. Don't get used now.

Next lathe, I got the chance of a Super7, local, £500 so took the plunge. Pulled apart and put back together with some new bits, some scraping but I'm not sure about the headstock and the slideways can't be smooth and stiff - not like another Super7 I use. A good Super 7 with gearbox and power cross feed, QCTP, stand, coolant, the works, is sublime to use. Way over-priced but if you want one, you gotta have one.

This does get used. All the previous lathes are now stored underneath it. It doesn't look like this anymore - it has a haze of rust all over, and some bad spots. But always ready to go.

I probably have used all the controls and found them useful. Reverse, Backgear, Power feed. Screwcutting... can't be bothered. Faceplate - never.

Wish I had more QCT things and more chucks for the tailstock. Tool changing consumes a lot of time if you are not organised!

And I got the Myford dividing head. A bother to set up and take off and set up and take off .....

I bought a major fixer-upper many years ago because I wanted a lathe but I was skint. It still doesn't work so the first lesson is buy one in good nick.

I inherited another many years later, its a popular model but parts for a 1942 machine are not easy to get. Second lesson get a warranty if possible.

However an old machine does not depreciate much if you look after it. I noticed references to rust above and the third lesson from my experience is to invest in a good rust inhibitor, and a good environment, i.e. keep it dry and relatively warm so it never gets condensation on it.

Some of these points are contradictory, but its not that hard to see where your needs are, and if you have the cash you could be making a life-time investment, i.e you will never need another if it is properly specified.

Good luck and don't be dissuaded.

Still awake Howard, just

Thats really interesting, . Especially about the rust my garage come shop is dry except for 2 small corners on the floor which suffer a little with damp, but I've a mini in there from the 70s which has sat for 5 years with no additional rust, despite all the bare metal so it's good enough (I hope). Nothing a bit of blue won't keep right with a light coat of oil, even WD40 isn't bad as long as its applied a few times a year.

When its my turn I think I'll get a slightly beaten up, second hand one, can't be doing with absolutely pristine things, makes me feel bad getting them dirty or dinging them! Like the satisfaction of fixing things as well, not absolute beasts of a job as they sap too much time for the reward, but changing bearings, cleaning back and painting, fixing small issues.

For reference, heres the ol shop, its changed a lot since here, electrics been run throughout and its a lot tidier, this was mid project running all the electrics in and building the worktop and shelves. Eventually a lathe will go where that toolbox is and I'll bring the worktop out another few hundred mil. It looks really narrow because its just over 5 meters long

Liam

I caught the start of your posting just before going out to be vaccinated.

I am not surprised that you do not know what you are going to make on the lathe. I was the same. Even if you don't really know the size of the lathe required, as Andrew says, buy the best you can afford. If the lathe is too large or too small it will be easier to pass it on to someone else. Don't get sucked by the arguement that you can do small work on big lathes. Could one make a small striking clock on a 15" Dean, Smith and Grace?

I think the most important items with a workshop are good neighbours. Mine are and I occassionally do jobs for some of them. However I would never consider getting a cheap noisy air compressor.

As for what I have had: I bought my first lathe from a friend at work. It, a pre-war Myford, had been his father's. It took a lot of cleaning and setting up but performed well very a few years. I managed to sell it to a work colleague and used a bonus from work to buy a refurbished Myford S7. This was later traded in for a top of the range Myford when I had the money and just before the company changed hands. It has done everything asked of it over the last ten years. I am now about to supplement it with a smaller lathe.

Are you aware of the website lathes.co.uk?

JA

An advantage of Far Eastern machines I feel. I guess most of us have a few tools kept for best that never get used, and I have a friend whose entire workshop is mostly for show.

I'm disinclined to 'improve' well-made tools in case I spoil them. No such inhibitions about altering my collection of inexpensive machines. At the moment on the back page of ME & MEW Home & Workshop Machinery are advertising "Chris Moore's actual lathe", never used, a Big Bore 3000rpm Connoisseur, yours for only £14,000 + VAT. I'd be too scared to use it!

Dave

I bought my first lathe in the 1970s for £50; It was an Edgar 5in model from the 1920s. It came with a motor to replace the treadle and I used it for a few years for the restoration of a vintage car making things like shackle pins and skimming brake drums. Later I replaced it with a UK made clone of the Atlas 10F from about 1950. I initially used it for vintage car work and later for model making, clock making, and (for brownie points) for household repairs. It is like a slightly bigger brother to the Myford being of similar design.

For a while I had a far eastern 9x20 lathe as well but needed the room for a milling machine so one of the lathes had to go and I chose to keep the Atlas which is still in use.

If I was going to replace it I would go for a new Chinese lathe.

Russell

Edited By Tony Pratt 1 on 06/02/2021 15:59:06

Edited By Tony Pratt 1 on 06/02/2021 16:00:20

Just a gentle warning. Six months after getting whichever lathe you choose, you will discover a desperate need for a mill.

+1 what he said.

So very, very true.

If you get a good swivel milling slide and don't have work requiring cubic inches per minute metal removal, you can find your plans to buy a mill keep getting put back because you work out how to do what you want with what you have.

Four of 'em at present! In order of what I have or have had:

1) E.W. Stringer 2.5 inch ctr ht, BGSC and reading the lathes.co site, I found it has all but one of the originally-offered accessories inc. change-wheel , boring-table and vertical slide (for which I made a vice). The missing item is the change-wheel guard.

Second-hand, bought by my Dad from a work colleague, for my 18th birthday, 2 years after I'd joined the society of which I am now the second longest-serving member. I still have it but it needs the worn spindle and headstock journals overhauling.

'

2) IXL-badged Erhlich (German), -

- 6 " X (24 " ?) BGSC, power cross and long feeds, all change-wheels, 3,4-jaw chuck, etc. The 4-jaw was a combined faceplate and chuck, simply by removing the jaws.

It was acquired my society and installed in its rented workshop for members' use until the Uniform Business Rate rendered the rent, as sub-tenants, unfeasible. I bought the lathe and a Drummond hand-shaper from the club, and still own and sometimes use the shaper. The lathe lived with me for a while until I moved home, then it was used by an other group in which I became involved, until supplanted by a Harrison L5.

Later, I donated it to Lynton & Barnstaple Railway workshops as I thought I had no obvious room for it. Oh hindsight - that were a big mistake - it was a good machine and I managed some pretty impressive work on it, though I never managed to identify its spindle taper.

'

3) Atlas or Sphere -

- one was more or less a copy of the other and I forget which way round or which I had. About 3.5" ctr-ht, BGSC. The powered feeds were operated by a hand-wheel in the oddest of places, below the back end of the saddle. Very safe!

'

4) Drummond Flat-Bed-

- whose features suggested it was transition model to an early 'B'-type. It came with a curious angle-plate I discovered was an accessory for the Round-bed, so I gave it to a club-member who owns just such a lathe! I never fully restored the machine and eventually sold it on. It was on its original stand but some un-thinking past owner had needlessly cut the treadle journals off, preventing ready restoration to original.

';

5) Myford ML7.

Yep - I'd joined the Myford fan-club! The poor thing was bolted to a massive timber bench, but via a strange cast-iron "sauce-boat" of unknown original purpose, with no machined facings for machine-tools.

Since then I have treated it to all sorts - new Myford 1ph motor, proper Myford cabinet and raising-blocks, change-wheels, a QCTP, etc.. Later, a Newton-Tesla 3ph kit which cured one problem straight away. The original motor made the cabinet resonate loudly, which worried me as I lived in a 1980s end-of terrace with thin party-walls and the lathe was in the kitchen. With the 3-ph, it runs very quietly indeed. I kept the 1ph motor as a spare. I've moved again since, to a home with proper, secure concrete shed.

I was using it only today, screw-cutting at that.

.'

6) Harrison L5 -

That mentioned above. When we were "managed out" of the site and our small workshop there, it was given to me. Well-equipped with 3, 4-jaw chucks, faceplate, etc.

I've treated this to a boring-table I have yet to fit, bought a load of hefty spares including a collet-chuck and collets. Also a Newton-Tesla 3ph conversion, with the motor above the headstock so the machine would go back against the workshop wall. In lowest gearing it will rotate at about 70rpm and can give a beautiful fine feed.

.'

7) Axminster Tools "Micro lathe" -

- bought it about 3 years ago, and though it's in a nominal place in a corner of the kitchen I have yet to set it up and start using it! I may copy the EW and place it on a trolley, as a small machine I can use indoors for fine work in mm, and in comfort.

.'

So 7 lathes of which I still have the EW, ML7, Harrison and Axminster.

PS _ I forgot. I once had an elegant watchmaker's turns, and also bought from a second-hand shop a strange little hand-operated lathe that might have been an apprentice-piece. I had no real use for either and eventually sold them on.

I bought a chinese lathe in the early/middle 90s. I had only used a very old lathe to make a couple of bushings/collars previously, but was quite mechanically minded. Lathe was new (I realised I might get something that needed more remedial work than I could easily manage, at the time). Limited facilities and slow work, along with inexperience with a lathe, led me to only make simple parts mostly. I didn’t get on well with it.

Second lathe was bought when I picked up something else from somewhere. Can’t rightly remember what I was collecting, but the fellow had a few other things on offer. One was a Raglan LJ lathe, on a stand and it had a QCGB (quick change gearbox). It was winched up the lorry ramps and cost me £100 (or maybe a bit less). It was stored away and eventually rebuilt (much later) to replace the chinese lathe as it had so much more going for it - variable speed, higher speed, QCGB, power feed on both axes, a proper lead screw (half nuts) and separate power drive. Altogether streets ahead of the chinese lathe in almost every way. Only possible negative was a slightly smaller swing (but has never been an impediment).

My current lathe - a Raglan 5” - was bought only when I found a good one - at my leisure - It was simply a much improved version of my Mkll LJ version. Beefed up in several areas (there are a few weak points with the LJ). Apart from the extra strength, the main points are the more powerful motor, the auto trip on the long travel, the slotted cross slide with rear parting post. It was accompanied by two good quality chucks and several other useful accessories/tooling and did not cost anywhere near the earlier new chinese lathe or any decent myford.

I always wanted more than a 3 1/2” centre height so a myford was never considered, really. The Raglan was almost twice the cost of a myford, when new, because of the product quality and ability. They now sell for probably half of what people will pay for a myford. The lathe also runs from a VFD, as well as having its mechanical variable speed.

I have four lathes, a Myford ML7-R which was bought new in 1979 and has since had a Super 7 cross-slide and top-slide fitted, so it's a Super 7 less gearbox and clutch. Then there is a Colchester Student, ex-St. Thomas' Hospital medical engineering department and still in superb condition. I also acquired a Colchester Bantam 2000 which I have repaired since some clown, not me!, managed to topple it off a pallet. I have never used it but have repaired it over the last few years although I think it has had a hard life given the excessive wear on the slide screws that I replaced. I also have a Myford ML10 which came from a late colleague's estate, again I have never used it and have no wish to as I consider it a very poor design and wouldn't recommend this British made machine to anyone having examined its constructional features.

I have to say that as a lathe the Student walks all over the Myford, but only as a lathe. The Myford is a complete machining centre upon which I have accomplished many operations from milling, gear-cutting and slotting key-ways etc. before I acquired other machines for the workshop. It is a complete machining centre within itself and has had many accessories and attachments designed for it by some very clever people over the years, many of which I have made, and I would not part with it for all the tea in China! The Student does all the 'heavy lifting' in the workshop and with an Ainjest rapid threading attachment makes screw-cutting a doddle and I screw-cut every thread whenever practicable.

However, all that being said, if I were to be starting all over again I would probably be tempted to start with a Myford Super 7 or ML-7R because there are some good examples to be had in pristine condition having been owned by very fastidious people and little used, but there is obviously a lot of junk out there. I would never consider a Colchester or Harrison etc. unless I could be certain it had been very lightly used by a private owner. The rational being that as these machines pass from owner to owner over the years they can only wear and deteriorate so I think I would rather buy a new Far Eastern machine. Again, only a personal opinion, but I think there is lot of xenophobic nonsense spoken about 'Cheap Chinese crap'. Everything that I have of far eastern origin has performed perfectly satisfactorily, from a Nu-Tool pillar drill which has given good and accurate service for almost 40 years to a Vertex dividing head and rotary table which have proved to be indispensable. Not everything that was made in this country was of the highest quality, i.e. the ML10, and not everything that is made in China is crap.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on the matter for what it's worth. In the end you pays your money and you takes your choice!

Edited By Chris Crew on 06/02/2021 23:18:29

Edited By Chris Crew on 06/02/2021 23:24:35

Chris, after hearing some of the problems people have had with new Chinese machines on this forum, it's a little unfair to say that those people are xenophobic for expecting a new product to be fit for purpose on arrival, vertex is Taiwanese so doesn't really fall into what most consider cheap Chinese.

Hi Liam

To start with the last part of your question first:

Why - because I planned to build a traction engine ( still planning that many years later and yet to get started! )

Which lathe - there are lots but I don;t feel quite so bad about it having read some of the posts here.

My first lathe was a Myford ML7 - about 40 years ago. It was an ex-display model, never powered up. It fitted my budget, apart from the things needed to run a lathe - motor, tools etc. and what to my mind was about the right size for the available space ( at the time ) and my very much undefined requirements. I did look at the second hand market but lathes were not plentiful ( in Western Australia ), mostly clapped out and way over-priced. I still have the lathe and have used it for making all sorts of bits and pieces - apart from the traction engine. All subsequent lathes were brand new.

The second lathe was a bit of a flight of fancy - a Sieg C3 - the idea was to have separate imperial and metric set-ups. Totally unnecessary of course. Lathe itself is fine and now well set up with accessories ( as is the Myford ).

Main issues with the above were limited diameter through the spindle, bed length and screw cutting. Later addressed on the Myford by the addition of a screw cutting gearbox.

A couple of decades on and planning toward retirement all of the above problems were addressed by the purchase of a large ( by hobby standards ) Chinese gap-bed lathe. Basic specs - 1 m between centers, 400 mm swing, 58 mm through the spindle, 3 ph 7.5 hp motor and all up weight ( it has an integral cast iron base ) of close to 2 tonnes. This is an industrial lathe and built to much higher specs than most of the small hobby lathes. Biggest problems, starting with installation, are size and weight. You need to have room for the lathe, including getting it through any doors, and a substantial concrete floor to sit it on. Everything that goes with it is also heavy. My 250 mm grip-tru style chuck with its D1-6 backplate weighs in at close to 40 kg, I can still lift it ( just ) but would not be able to manouvre it into position without additional lifting assistance. Something worth considering as the years go by.

The others are little lathes picked up along the way. A C0 baby lathe. Cowells ME 90 and a bunch of Taig ( = Peatol ) lathes. The last purchased because they are modular and easily adaptable for special operations, e.g the fitting of a high speed spindle in place of the standard headstock. The Cowells is just nice to look at (as well as to use ).

There is also a watchmakers lathe, also ex China but generally marketed under brand name from Germany. Useful for hand work although it also has many of the standard lathe facilities.

The small lathes are more easily stored and can be used indoors when the workshop is too hot, too cold or too unfriendly.

If I were starting again I would still probably start with something like the ML7 ( or preferably its much later cousins ). If starting with a plan to do bike or car work I would aim for something a little larger but not too extreme. For most people the big jobs are few and far between and it is probably going to be more cost effective to sub these out, Remembering that everything on a big lathe - from tooling to chucks is also bigger, heavier and a lot more expensive than on a small bench top lathe.

Pero

ps I am attending regular meetings of Lathes Anonymous and have not purchased a new lathe for more than 5 years - but have lapsed and bought a few accessories and tooling from time to time.

What Lathe? Why? - Fair enough.

Hey You! though, is a very abrupt address, normally prefacing a peremptory command, reprimand or perhaps a warning of imminent danger.

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