Clarke CL430 lathe

Hi,

Does anyone have or have used in the past a Clarke CL430 lathe? Just after their experiences with the machine, good points bad points etc?

There's a used one come up on ebay, bidding currently at £385 that I am considering but just wanted some input from those that have used one?

Many thanks

Stuart

Sorry I have no experience of this machine but the photo of the topslide and toolpost suggests the owner is heavy-handed or has lost the correct size key for the pinch screws.

Same photo as EGA the topslide dovetail has been crashed into the spinning chuck, probably a lot more than once, it's the "small piece missing" that the seller talks about.

It's getting too expensive at half price and their reputation is not that great.

I wouldn't.

Edited By Dave Halford on 14/12/2020 11:55:03

In addition to the wrong sized key, those screws were likely threaded to the ends and have slowly been squashed so much as to be difficult to remove, along with the usual carp idea of using allen cap screws (which constantly fill up with swarf. Just another example of cheap chinese engineering practices to keep both the quality and price down to the lowest common denominator possible.

These lathes have been around for 30+ years, and are current with spares availability. They have a good capacity and take Morse tooling. I've had mine for 25+, and it's accurate. But there are reports of more recent manufacture being of poor quality, though these seldom mention the nature of the problem(s). These lathes are often bought be novices, who may not have the skills to set the lathes up correctly, so take care. It most probably has had light use, so not worn out. It's an inexpensive start, and you are unlikely to lose money

Thanks everyone for your advice, it is much appreciated!

Stuart

You should also search for CL500, which is the same lathe with mill/drill. A useful option but with the limited capability common to all combination machines.

The CL500M is the same lathe with a Mill head sprouting from the Headstock.

I friend has one and recently it developed an oil leak. He was quoted a 6 month delivery time for spares!

Shortly, he will be fitting a shop made housing carrying a standard 65 x 40 x 10 lipseal, together with new bearings which he has sourced locally. So supply of spares for those, should not be a problem in the future.

Since the Mandrel has a flange, a four jaw chuck will be expensive if bought from Machine Mart. But it is not impossible to fit a 4 jaw. It may require three extra drillings in the flange (As mini lathes ) or a specially made adaptor backplate. This should not be beyond the capability of most owners of such a lathe.

Judged by another recent thread, opinions of these machines differ widely. To read the comments, search for CL430 or CL500M threads

Howard

I've looked at the ebay listing, and apart from the damage noted above ( which would be worth examining), it is missing some simple guards, belts for the intermediate drive pulley and the set of gears for thread cutting - although sufficient gears for fast/slow leadscrew drive are present.