What are members thoughts on Gap Bed lathes ?

My Super 7 replacement is a Warco WM 290V, the Myford wins hands down on build quality & ‘feel’ but the Warco is in a different league for performance.

The Warco is certainly rough around the edges but hopefully decent where it matters & also the ‘accuracy’ certificate is a total work of fiction but worryingly I am getting to like it.

Tony

Edited By Tony Pratt 1 on 09/10/2019 12:33:39

Tony how can you compare a 3 1/2 centre lathe to a 6 inch lathe regarding performance, with more than twice the size of motor. You should be comparing the 290 to a 6 inch Colchester which by the way is about 5 times heavier.I have a S7 and a Colchester Master and both are very good and can cover a wide range of work,

I'm not comparing either to each other, just pointing out a couple of observations from personal experience.

Tony

Tony wasn't making the comparison but I will. How about money! Myford are currently offering refurbished Super 7s for £2495. Not bad except adding VAT takes the machine's purchase price up to £2994 and this is lathe and motor only. No accessories and shipping is extra. A brand-new WM290 with 2-axis DRO, variable frequency driven 1.5kW 3-phase motor, tools, 3 and 4 jaw chucks, fixed and travelling steadies, faceplate and cabinet stand is £3300 including VAT and shipping. The smaller WM-280, still bigger than a Myford 7, is about £1000 less. The cost of Myfords puts them head-to-head with some very capable machines.

Being able to choose from a range of different models available new off-the-shelf at reasonable prices has to be attractive. For my purposes, in addition to my prejudice against buying second-hand tools I don't know how to check, Myford 7s are a little small. It was very much to my advantage to be able to buy a new lathe sized to make best use of the available space.

The thread has come a long way from gap beds now. My apologies!!!

Dave

My Myford cost me less than 200 Quid.

Lucky you, but that's not the usual selling price. If it was, Myford would rule the world!

Dave

No they wouldn’t! Most, perhaps, but not all. I, for one, prefer the more expensive lathe, around at the time.

But there again, they would only need a majority, I suppose. Further, my first second hand lathe would have been cheaper than it was, if the usual selling price for a myford was that low.