Lathe

I have been pondering a model makers lathe for a while and i am sure i have broached the subject before because i remember Chris posting pictures of his collet based watchmakers lathe. Its one of those things i struggle with as i am not sure i would get the value from it. It may present opportunities that create value that i haven't thought of and if its fun , it may not have to have a good output value I was looking at this but the details are sketchy so i have written to them to see if they have a user manual PDF that might throw some light on screw cutting pitch etc. Its a bit worrying if its a serious bit of kit that details like that are not included in the on line spec so lets see if they reply


I was also looking at the CNC lathe/milling machine but i dont think the Chinese have the reliability reputation to warrant the extra expense. Strangely i cant find any reviews of their lathe on the web either but i would guess even if it was faulty from the box you would have little redress.
The other problem with machine tools is.....i would guess that if the mini lathe is £500 then you would need another £500 to equip it to be usable....taps, dies, running centres, tools, steady, die holders etc .
I will update if i hear back from these people.

I think you were thinking of my watchmakers lathe Paddy.

Picking a lathe that will do the work you "think" you might want to do is always going to be an issue. When I bought my lathe, I bought just about every attachment I could get my hands on in order to work on watches. That gave me a huge range of tooling to do things that were never in the original purpose. It isn't the lathe so much as what tooling it has that could do what you might envision. Good luck with the acquisition.

Yes sorry Paul i have no idea why i called you Chris ~?

I shopped around many different ones and got lucky to trade out for the old Unimat unit I got. It came in very handy on the Lee tank drilling out axel rods on a consistent center.
Building the scale you're in and with your machinist. I have no doubt you'll get a lot out of that thing.

That specific unit, I recall looking at it and saw some reviews that said it was more toy like than anything worthwhile, but I mean, we're building toys are we not?

I don't think I mentioned it before, but the lathe is only the first part as you well know. I would suggest shopping by what tooling is available for it before deciding.

On my lathe there were two chucks that were the hardest to get without paying an arm and a leg. The first was a good 3 jaw chuck that wasn't trashed. The second was just super hard to find and it was a four jaw chuck that has independent jaws. I think I have used it only a couple of times.
I also had the opportunity to buy 3 different sets of something called wheel chucks. They are not used often, but have come in handy numerous times.
The good thing about my lathe is that I use the T rest for the cutting tools about 99% of the time. I have 2 cross slides to hold tooling like a regular lathe, but for the most part (especially for the hobby stuff) I just use the T rest.

I dont think i would need a 4 jaw but i agree it would be wise to make sure they are available should i decide to turn square stock top round I doubt these micro lathes would be capable of turning an interrupted cut anyway. I think i would need a bench grinder for tools, an interchangeable tool post , Running centre, selection of tipped tools including boring bars, die holders, adj carriage stop.
Unless i hear back from them in relation to screw cut capability its a non starter anyway. As Bob says its a bit of a toy and a mini lather would be streets ahead of a micro lathe but i dont have the space or the need really at this stage. I like the video of their CNC conversion however the only advantage i can see for CNC is repeatability and i think i would be doing 99% one off.

this is twice the size but still very small but a big step up in ability

Proxxon has a good reputation. They also have this smaller lathe

Thanks Bob, the problem with the 150 is it doesnt have a powered lead screw so you can screw cut :-(