New Lathe

Hi,

What would be your preference if only these two available;

1. AMABL180 Lathe BRUSHLESS MOTOR

2. SIEG SC3 HiTorque Mini Lathe - Belt Drive with Brushless Motor

   Thanks

Mine would be neither, so surely the answer to your question is only one that you can answer?

Without knowing your budget, what you want to achieve with it etc, I can't see anyone can give you an objective answer

Assuming you have a budget and the two machines selected fall within that, my choice would the Sieg, but that is somewhat biassed as I already have one...the Sieg machine is 400mm between centres rather than the 300 of the AMA180.... But you need to compare the specs...

Both sellers of these machines are excellent with after sales service...

As they say,depends on what you want to do,rather than what you can afford.

If you need to do work of a certain size but cannot afford a machine big enough,that answers the question.!

Horses for courses !!

Have no experience of dealing with AMADEAL, but if in the market for a lathe, I would most probably opt for the Seig.

a) Although only a small spending customer, have always got on well with Arc Euro. I like their attitude and ways of trading. The Company seem to be very supportive of the hobby..

b) Have seen a friend's SC4 and was impressed by it.

FWIW If possible, buy a machine a little larger than you think you will need. It may well have extra features that you will come to value. And you can do small work on a large lathe, but not necessarily the other way round.

Howard

Thanks to all for the response.

I note that a Sieg SC4 has been mentioned, so can I ask what the preference would be vs a 240 either Warco or Amadeal? The budget is there for either. Along with the lathe will be a milling machine such as X2.7 or AMA VM25 / Warco WM16B.

The equipment will be used for pure Hobby (no locomotives) and restricted to whatever the aforementioned equipment can handle.

Any guidance will be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

Kenneth

PS. After sales service is also important.

Edited By KenJ on 18/12/2018 07:49:08

Edited By KenJ on 18/12/2018 07:50:31

Hi Ken
I can only speak for myself; I have a WM250V-F lathe & the WM16 mill, both bought together at Harrogate exhib' in 2012 & both have served me admirably well with what I give them to do. I don't flog either with silly d.o.c, but there again I'm retired & not in the production game so not in any rush. As mentioned what do you intend to do/make with them, what tooling will you need ( that will cost as much as both machines by the time you've finished, as any member can verify )… so to reiterate... horses for courses, enjoy.

George.

p.s. Warco's after sales service has been very satisfactory also, some initial minor issues were smoothly dealt with at the time. 

Edited By mechman48 on 18/12/2018 10:34:45

Stop agonising and buy something, anything would be my guidance. Do it today!

I fear the question pre-supposes that some Models and Sellers are markedly better than others; that this state of affairs never changes; and that Members know what the best deal is at the moment! Not sure any of this holds good.

The SC4 has been getting good reviews: it's an interesting new machine. Neil W is running a series on it in MEW at the moment, and people who have them like them. The alternatives are credible too. For your purposes any of them would do. (The problems start when you find a job can't be done because you're 'restricted to whatever the aforementioned equipment can handle'. Best bit of single advice I got off the forum was 'buy the biggest machine you can'. )

None of the UK sellers have a positively bad reputation. Some are 'unknown'. All the major players have (I think) at one time or another dropped the ball in terms of service. On the other hand most issues get resolved, even it's a refund rather than a nicely working machine.

Very few of us have experience of all the vendors, I can speak positively of Arc Euro and Warco, but I've never dealt with most of their competitors. The machines they sell are 'similar'. You have to look carefully to detect differences, which can and do vary over time.

• Bed hardened
• Motor power output
• Speed range
• Type of Motor. In order of desirability - Brushless, 3-phase, DC, single phase. In practice may not make a big difference.
• Tools provided, eg. does it come with a 4-jaw as well as a 3-jaw.
• Stand
• Imperial vs Metric & does it cut the thread sizes you need.
• Saddle grooves
• Saddle Lock
• Power traverse for facing
• Spindle size
• DRO
• Offers / sales?
• Is it in stock?

For general work, most of these are 'nice to have' rather than essential. Most lathes will do what any other lathe does, the difference is how quickly and conveniently it will do it. This is why it's best (if you can) to have a clear idea about what the lathe is for. For example, I prefer working in metric and therefore bought a metric lathe with metric dials. However in practice, measuring with a micrometer, and having a pocket calculator, I could just as well have bought an Imperial lathe. Fitting a DRO makes the two lathe types pretty much interchangeable apart from some threading. Sometimes, probably due to overstocking in one measurement system, exactly same lathe can be on offer. This makes it possible to save money if Imperial vs Metric doesn't matter to you. But don't do it if Metric vs Imperial does matter continually in the work you do - having to keep an eye on conversions wastes time and causes mistakes! Too me a clutch is an unnecessary luxury, to others a clutch is essential.

Axminister are somewhat expensive but they offer an extended warranty. At extra cost they also do a well received training course.

After sales support might be a problem if you're thinking of spare parts in the distant future. Apart from the major components - Bearings, belts, motors, switches, contactors etc - the machines are not highly standardised. Arc Euro have a good range of spares, but I doubt they have a warehouse full of replacement tail-stocks for 1985 mini-lathes! Even so, for spares the larger well established vendors are probably a better bet than smaller operations.

Hope that helps - have a quick look at what's available at the moment and buy the kit that ticks most boxes within your budget. I don't think you'll go far wrong whatever you buy.

Dave

If you can visit a supplier to see some of these lathe, my advice is do so.

Lots of good suppliers and machines out there.

FWIW I have an SC4 from Arc and am very happy with it.

Neil

If you go to the front page of this website, not just the forum, and use the search option there you can find lots of 'which lathe' type threads to get a much larger set of views. Or use the 'latest Posts' link on any thread and then go back in time to the beginning of the year and just read everything. There must be 50 threads this year on lathe buying advice but often hidden under weird titles.

Thanks to all........

Bazyle, thanks for the information regarding the search on the front page, I hadn’t noticed that.

Kenneth

Thanks to all who responded.

My WM240B arrived and is now set up, cleaned and checked; all seems ok. The Warco process was faultless, ordered and arrived within one week.

Ancillaries from Arc and cutting tools from Glanze, all of which seem to be of reasonable quality.

Now the hunt begins for a Mill of a size that will suit my requirements, which is not massive. Perhaps WM16 or SP2217-III LV (R8).

Kenneth

I would add to SOD's list: Two feed shafts, separate lead screw and self feed. If the motor is electronicly controled, there needs to be a high and low ratio, and back gear would be an advantage.

Ian S C

So, I will be adding a mill to my workshop. The criteria will be R8 and no larger than the Warco WM16 (which isn’t R8).

My choices are;

1. SPG SP 2217-lll B LV

2. Amadeal VM25LV

3. Arc SX2.7L

Any advice / comments will be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

Kenneth

SoD "Too me a clutch is an unnecessary luxury, to others a clutch is essential."

Yes, it certainly is as far as I'm concerned but then my machinery doesn't have DC/Brushless motors (etc) so maybe this is less important these days....?

Otherwise I'm not qualified to comment on new (Chinese) lathes - I'm sure they are well (enough) made and accurate, the main suppliers in the UK all have good reputations and so it comes down to how much you can/want to afford and what you prefer.... Agree with buy a bit bigger (in terms of throw) than you think you need - it will come in handy eventually.

Currently waiting for Son No. 2 to collect his Mother for a late Sunday Lunch - fortunately he's agreed to buy his poor old Dad some too!

IanT

Good choice.

My WeissMachinery 250 is almost the same and I am modifing/improving it

VFD plus WM250