Newbie looking for a lathe

Hi Guys,

I am currently filling up my shop with various machinery, and am looking to add a lathe.

At the moment I have my eyes on the aximinster SC4 but it's a bit pricey and I wanted to know whether anyone knew of any competing products I could lay my hands on at a cheaper price.

Regards

Welcome along Jack,

For this type of question it pays to put up an approximate location, you never know who has stuff in the shed locally.

Hello Jack

From my very limited experience there are some very good second-hand lates available here: http://lathes.co.uk/

I bought an Imperial calibrated Warco WM180 for £500 to get myself started which is a little too small, but at least I have something to learn with - in general, bigger is better, but it depends upon what you intend using the lathe for

As an SC4 owner, I can say they are good lathes. A bit more capacity than the usual hobby lathe, solid, accurate and powerful.

The other main seller is Arc Euro Trade. Axminster costs a little more but offers an extended warranty. You pays yer money, you takes yer choice...

I think there are two versions with different between centre distances.

Neil

I have a well tooled Chester 9 x 20 with a vfd conversion coming up for grabs after Xmas if your interested....

10mm carbide tipped tooling, various chucks/faceplate, tailstock chuck, qctp....etc....comes with the orig stand....

Depends on what you intend doing with it, what your budget is, & what room do you have? I have a Warco WM250V-F plus a WM 16 mill & both have served me well, to date, so can only comment on my stuff.

George.

The same sieg lathes are rebadged by a number of UK importers ... chester, warco, axminster, arc eurotrade.

If you are OK with 2nd hand and a little patient ... ebay and gumtree can unearth some bargains.

you could try the following ebay search:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_fcid=3&_clu=2&gbr=1&_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=%28sieg%2C%20axminster%2C%20chester%2C%20warco%29%20lathe&rt=nc&LH_ItemCondition=4&_trksid=p2045573.m1684

Not entirely accurate Jann. Warco mini-lathes are made by real Bull, for example.

I don't think the SC4 is sold by Chester or Warco as they have lathes from other manufacturers in a similar size bracket

But yes, there is a world of choice out there if it doesn't have to be an SC4. Be aware that similar looking machines can have very different specs, even if they come from the same factory. Have a good read of the details, enjoy comparing machines and decide which are the things that matter most to you.

Best of all, visit a supplier or three and see some machines first hand before deciding.

Neil

Thanks for the welcome and input guys.

I intend to use it for machining scaled down engine and car parts. I do eventually want to build a go cart. The SC4 looks like a reasonable size for the job, not too big nor too small.

In terms of budget, I have about £1000 to splurge, but trying to keep it as low as possible, spent a lot already :P

I'm based in London for anyone interested in making a sale.

EDIT: I should mention that I intend to use the lathe for both metal and wood work.

Edited By Jack Roe on 24/12/2017 19:01:39

This sounds like it’s worth a look Jack. Most of the modern stuff have variable speed drives that aren’t unknown to let their magic spoke out requiring a new circuit board.

The boards are much more robust no than they were 15 years ago. The brushless machines suffer virtually no burnouts.

Neil

The 920 also has a norton type gearbox for thread cutting. Personally I’d go for a 920 over a SC4, especially one with a VFD.

Thanks guys.

What's the largest piece I can machine on a 920 vs a SC4?

Also, it appears the 920 uses imperial (eek) ? I would much rather metric.

My SC4 is 10 years old and never really gone wrong. I used it mainly for making stainless bolts for 8 years, (done about 5,000 @ 5 mins each).

The top/compound slide is a weak point, I just use a solid block now).

Its rare to see them second hand.

Jim

I had a 920 for a while as a second lathe. I found the screw-cutting gearbox to be a bit limiting. It would only give a small range of imperial threads. Otherwise it was a good lathe, very popular in the U.S. see the Yahoo "9x20Lathe" group.

There is very little difference in capacity between it and the SC4. I would go for the SC4 given the choice between the two.

Russell

Edited By Russell Eberhardt on 26/12/2017 10:00:16

SC4 510 is 8" x 19 - 20"

920 is 9" x 20"

There's an SC4 410 (I think) which is 15 - 16" between centres.

Neil

The SC4 has no attempt at the rather pointless one or two speed screwcutting gearbox but I looked at a manual online and it didn't bother to include changewheel charts or anything much apart from the expolided parts diagram.
I see there is a 240B variant that is belt drive not variable so less electronics to go wrong, possibility of upgrading it yourself when funds permit to VFD speed control. It includes 2 chucks and steadies and delivery. Looks to me by the time you have got the extras for an SC4 you could be up in the WM280 bracket.

Given your budget I think you should look at a Boxford or Southbend as for that money it would have to either be in excellent condition if no QCGB or have the box if a bit tired.

I can't thing of anything on a go kart that needs a £1000 lathe as everything round is better bought. You would be better off putting the money towards a decent TIG set.

Jack, the 9x20 lathe is marked in .025 on the dials which is .0002 short of a thou, so really the dials are both metric and imperial. I found the SX2P mill more of a problem as it had .025 on two dials and .02 on the X dial, thats where the DRO came in handy. I have at the moment no DRO on the lathe as I have found I can work around the slight problem of 50 x.025 on the dial which is 1.25mm which is .0008 short of 50 thou, when you get near the size you need to use a micrometer. I'm very happy with my 9x20 it has a VFD fitted and with a bit of adjustment its very accurate, worth a look at John Rudds lathe.

I'm selling an early Myford Super 7 - it'll be well withing budget. Not advertised yet. PM for info.