Advice on Choosing A Mini Lathe

Twenty years ago, I decided that I should have my own lathe rather than pestering friends to make my random parts. It had to fit on a bench, and Myford was the only name I'd heard of. So I went and looked at several listed in the local Freeads. Buying any one of them would have been a mistake for someone who had never used a lathe before, as they had been animals they would have been booked in for a oneway trip to the vet. Looking back, even if I looked at them now I'd walk away laughing at the audacity of some people to encourage a buyer to look at their festering scrap.

I had jobs to do, so eventually walked into Machine Mart and bought a CL300 mini lathe for a third of the price of the cheapest scrap I'd looked at. An hour after getting home, I'd made my first, very simple, parts. Fifteen years later I upgraded to a larger machine(mainly to improve productivity) and sold the CL300 and most of the accessories for what I'd originally paid for the lathe.

The point of this ramble is that an inexperienced user is going to really struggle learning on a machine that would challenge a competent operator. And that a mini lathe is a very handy thing to have even though they're a lot more expensive than they used to. The sheer portability of the thing is particularly handy, as it can easily be moved on and off the bench as necessary.

I am a fan of the "mini lathe" concept. I have had a Clarke machine and literally wore it out. Fully up specced to Dave Fenners books. The parts to reinstate were far too expensive and I bought another machine from an alleged reputable supplier.

Beware there are pitfalls not all "mini lathes" or badge brands are equal. The Clarke machine was of Sieg pattern i.e the saddle was 'H' shaped. The current machine is of Real Bull design with parallel sided saddle. This has proved to be the proverbial Friday afternoon car in days of yore. However, after many hours of work, and making full use of availability of spare and replacement parts I have a tractable machine. I also have a WM180 which was excellent straight from box. But built by the Weiss factories in China.

Yet I remain a fan. I have found that better results come from patient attention to adjustments. Plus making full use of HSS tooling and running a little slower. Keep the tools really sharp and on centre. The mini lathe will reward at a very advantageous price of original purchase.

That's interesting. How many years did it take to wear it out? And how much use did it get in that time? And what were the parts that wore out beyond economical repair/replacement?

It is an interesting question - without flogging it, how long does it take to wear out a mini-lathe?

Sorry to be pedantic, but machine life is measured in hours, actually hours-worked, rather than years, because so much depends on how often and hard the machine is driven, the material being cut, and maintenance.

Apart from the electrics and belt, a lovingly maintained Myford taken for the occasional Sunday spin will stay in 'as new' condition forever because the hours-worked are low and genteel. Exactly the same model would be quickly knackered by following this bad advice: use the machine to carbide cut as many short, small diameter cast-iron widgets per hour as the operator can manage, for weeks on end. This concentrates wear on the bed, requires high-speed, repeated rapid stop-starts (no clutch!), and a proportion of the cast-iron blanks will stress the lathe due to chilling. As the operator is in a hurry, he never cleans the lathe, allowing abrasive swarf to build up under the ways, on the worms, and inside the motor. He doesn't keep the oil topped up, and uses the Dewhurst switch to stop and start the lathe.

The most likely thing to wear out fatally on a mini-lathe is the bed near the chuck, but, as happened to all my old cars, it was a combination of faults that made them 'Beyond Economic Repair, condemning them to the scrapyard'. Same with machine tools: rather than continually patching the old girl up, sooner or later better and cheaper to replace a mini-lathes. Any combination of a worn bed, bearings, plastic gears, half-nut, lead-screw, belt, motor, and electronics could add up to a death sentence.

There are always exceptions! Many Model Engineers thoroughly enjoy refurbishing clapped out equipment and even my cold heart finds fixing stuff very satisfying. But, because my main interest is making things and I'm always short of time, I usually prefer to replace rather than repair. I would use the web abbreviation YMMV here, "Your Mileage May Vary', except I found out recently it can also mean 'You Make Me Vomit"...

Dave

Combination of a number of things. Wear of bed at chuck end started sadly before replacing those push me pull me shears with properly shimmed solid steel ones. Probably not fully hardened as claimed. After a number of other cumulative minor matters like backlash building up in cross slide screw and nut, bearing changes and gear wear, the final straw came with a total failure of the 350 watt motor and breakdown of the FETs on the control board. Replacement parts added up to more than replacement machines could be sourced. The machine was by then 24 years old and had been used commercially for 15 years to bash out hundreds of small parts. I was far too busy to keep count with homemade attachments.

I bought another one which was not of Seig pattern , it was Real Bull and had a huge number of inherent problems which could fill a series in the magazines with photographic evidence to boot. In future if I have a motor failure I will replace with 3 phase motor and inverter. And save a lot of money for an improved machine having just converted my drill press. I now have a machine which is very satisfactory and the satisfaction of turning out good quality parts for my projects. Now retired all the industrial machinery has been sold off and all I have are bench tops and with TLC give good service. Yes I have accrued hours of my own time but not even got near a scrappy Myford price in money. By not going the recognised religious tenet route and yes using Chinese machinery, I have a range of processes in my retirement workshop facility that I could not have dreamt of financially otherwise. Yes I have had to up my skill levels, learn what used to be known as millwrighting skills in miniature to get to making the locomotives and other projects that I have actually designed from scratch starting with a pencil, a sharpener for it, and a lifetime of professional engineering habit, my daybook before producing the working drawings with computer aided design facilities. Does anyone need to know more?

24 years with 15 of them churning out production work is as good as you would expect from any lathe I reckon. Stellar for such a cheap machine.

Hardened bed is usually a bit of a misnomer. They might run an induction hardener along them but unless they use the high grade cast iron -- which they usually don't -- it makes very little difference in the Rockwell rating. And even the good cast iron does not get as hard as good steel. So it's all relative.

Yes very few of the generation before us could afford half the workshop exotica we can now buy very affordably from China.

Yes I agree Hopper. I was lucky enough to spot the wear beginning, changed to the rigid fully shimmed shears and was able to quickly (if that is the word) to eliminate most of the problems with diamond laps. The cheapies will do the job with some patience. One other thing to be noted with suppliers of mini lathes. Some are buying the very very cheapest options they can get. The latest machine has layshaft bearings one size down from the norm to save just pence, the keadscrew is 10mm too short actually at the headstock end and the mandrel bearings were one width down to save pence. Replaced of course with the correct taper rollers. There is much more but intrinsically I had a bad deal from a reputable supplier in the ME world and due to health issues I was not able to get to this machine until the warranty was out. I was even sent secondhand parts battered with lump hammers when I had paid for new.

However that being said given TLC and following published guidance and literature I remain a fan of the concept. And boy is it satisfying to make parts and say I rebuilt this machine.

Ian shows that with care and attention, a reasonable purse can be made from a sow's ear!

And how do you put a price on the satisfaction of having improved and fine tuned the machine?

Howard

Just in case it has been missed, this link could be useful to owners of the small Chinese lathes:

**LINK**