newbie from sunderland

First time posting ,so thought id say hi, never used a lathe before but always wanted to. I built a workshop to start fitting out and wanted to get a lathe as the first major tool to start some metal working. I have to be honest im not sure what I want to make and there are a lot of lathes out there so it is a little confusing at what to aim for, so could do with a little advice. I am restricted to a single door access to my workshop so it has to fit through there, a work friend has a lathe and swears by boxfords but ive been looking at myfords 7 and they seem very compact but not sure if they are all powered feed. any help would be appreciated

cheers lee

Hi Lee,

Welcome to the forum. Which lathe is a very common question, and much depends on what it's for.

Assuming you want to make general purpose stuff rather than restore damaged machines, and size is bigger than watchmaking and smaller than big motorbike work, read on.

In days of yore, Myford dominated the market with a shed-sized machine that ran off ordinary mains electricity, bit pricey, but generally superior to most other hobby-affordable lathes. An obvious low-risk choice, with many happy owners.

Back then unusual to find hobbyists buying Boxfords because they were considerably more expensive than Myfords, as were many other professional lathes. Pro machines tend to be bigger, more robust, better finished, and perhaps more capable, but costly, including a need for 3-phase power. When available cheap second-hand, they were often completely knackered, so rarely found in amateur hands.

All change! Apart from the Connoisseur (yours for about £12,000) it's been impossible to buy a new Myford. That appears to have changed recently, I see other new Super 7 lathes are offered on their website at the moment, starting at £6588.

Second-hand, Myfords have always attracted premium prices, but industry and education dumping manual machines in favour of CNC greatly increased choice. Now you can buy Boxford and other professional level machines at very reasonable prices. And 3-phase isn't the problem it once was, because it can be created at home with a VFD. As a rule of thumb, bigger lathes are more useful than small ones. (Unless you specialise in small work)

The problem with buying second-hand is condition. It matters far more than the brand-name. I go so far as to say make is irrelevant compared with condition. A Myford that's been thrashed in a damp cellar by a gorilla who either didn't bother with maintenance or greased the bearings is probably scrap, absolutely not to be compared with the same model in good nick, one careful owner!

Starting out in ignorance, I chose not to buy second-hand because I didn't know what to look for, though I knew external appearances matter little. It's easy to tart up wrecks. Now I'm much more confident and would insist on putting a second-hand machine through it's paces before buying. Nothing reveals faults like using a lathe to cut metal. Having a friend who knows about lathes de-risks second-hand purchases considerably. He should notice missing parts, the sound, look and feel of high wear and tear, faulty controls, dodgy paint jobs, and brillo-pad polish.

Instead, I bought new Chinese. New machines can be returned if faulty. The purchase is less risky. Lots of guff on the web about how awful they are, but I found it to be much exaggerated. True the machines are made down to a price, poorly finished, on the light-side of robust, and sometimes arrive dinged or assembled a little carelessly. However, the two lathes I bought worked OK out of the box, though both benefited from mild fettling - nothing difficult. My milling machine didn't need any work at all.

I had the idea of learning on Chinese, treating them as disposable, and upgrading when I was educated. In practice I haven't needed to upgrade - they do everything I need. Arguably my lathe outstrips a Myford Super 7 in that it handles bigger work, the larger spindle bore being particularly helpful, plus it has a speed-controlled 3-phase motor working equally well in forward or reverse, power traverse, and does all the common metric and imperial threads. Main negative, the controls aren't as smooth as a Myford in good condition: they slow me down a bit, but not enough to annoy me.

In short, I think who you buy from is at least as important as the make. For hobby use any medium sized screw-cutting lathe in reasonable condition will do the job. I found a mini-lathe to be a shade too small for about 20% of what I did, which is why I changed up.

Dave

Hi Lee,

Welcome to the forum. If you have a friend that knows about lathes you could ask him to check out any second hand lathe you may want to buy. A second hand Myford may be more expensive than a Boxford. If you buy a new lathe, buy from a reputable seller. The size of your lathe depends on what you want to make, and remember that you can do small work on a larger lathe.

Thor

Cheers for the reply dave and thor ( sounds like a norwegian folk group ). what sort of prices are we talking for a chinese lathe and have you any links for the sites that sell them

cheers lee

Just search Google for lathe plenty will turn up. Lathe faults will give you some of the downside. This link will tell you what older machines like the Myford come with.

The below link to a recent thread is what you can get at the budget end of new

Spindle bearing grease? | Model Engineer (model-engineer.co.uk)

Basically it's a gut feeling choice for either new or old then either bench or stand.

But what you don't want to do is buy new and then leave it in the box for a couple of years till the warranty expires.

Welcome to the forum

H

Contact me at 0191 5846732 and I may be able to help

Hi Lee,

If you are in the UK there are several suppliers, a few links below:

***Link*** ArcEutrotrade (Sieg lathes)

***Link*** Warco

***Link*** Axminster

There are many other suppliers but you will get an idea of the price level for Chines lathes. I have an old 290 lathe similar to the Warco WM290, it has served me well for the past decade.

Thor