The perfect ME Lathe

Edited By John Stevenson on 18/07/2011 13:00:13

Before we all get carried away defining our "perfect" model engineering lathe with gold plated bells and whistles, perhaps a cold hard look at what the market can support is called for.

How many machines a year can you sell at £8k+ - not enough to keep an established business going.

At £4k+ - quite a few more but probably no more than the low hundreds.

At £2K+ more than at £4k but even at this you'll probably have to sell world wide with all it's implications in order to get the sort of volume you'd need to meet this selling price, and remember this is the selling price to the end customer, if you're making them you'll need to do it, finished, for half that price in order to get a decent margin to pay for the factory unit, the heating, lighting etc.

Not a business proposition to take on lightly I think especially in the UK, Europe or the USA.

Keith

Edited By John Stevenson on 18/07/2011 15:26:33

Hi Roger

No harm at all in dreaming, in fact it's essential to come up with a suitable spec For example the built in DRO's would probably at the moment push the price too high, but provision for fitting DRO's designed in from the start and available as an option from new and as an accessory for retrofit could make the basic machine much more affordable in the first place, and more versatile for users as time, funds and experience allow. We are seeing home cnc machines "off the shelf" becoming more affordable and the same technology will extend to lathes, we might just have to wait a bit.

Perhaps the people that you mention, Wabeco, Emco, Ceriani et al will decide that there is a gap to be filled with a suitable machine. They already have the distribution and service networks in place so should be better placed to respond. Another alternative is that the makers of the cheaper Chinese machines may realise that there is a market for a better finished, more robust machine and again respond to the challenge.

I think that if someone does go for the vacant niche they will have to invest in production tooling and methods that can produce a lathe without the need for extensive hand finishing and fitting - that really is expensive.

Keith

Edited By Billy Mills on 18/07/2011 20:11:40