Good first lathe?

[flyweightnate]

I'm starting to build more and more stuff, and always going to a CNC shop has a lot of risk when the dimensions might not be quite perfect yet. So I want a small lathe to turn aluminum (and occasionally 303 or 1075) for the first part or three.

I'm super familiar with design for manufacturability, and have enough of a "chess-player" mentality to figure out how to make the cuts... the question is, how cheap of a lathe can I get for a one-off part, without wanting to take it out back and shoot it? Is a 7x12 from Northern Tool or Harbor Freight going to do the job? Major differences between Central Machinery, Klutch, and Grizzly (or something vastly superior for less than 50% more money)? My shop is mostly for woodworking, and both space and power are quite limited - I'm rerouting a 240 x 60A so my table saw stops dimming my LED lights on startup, but I haven't even done that yet.,

I'd love to make chips for under a grand, and get tooling as needed, part by part. But I also don't want to invest in a pretty, shiny boat anchor.

Thanks!

(Oh also... anyone with a lathe who wants to help me prototype on occasion, PM me. My prints are professional, without being aerospace crazy.)

[XEMON]

Is a 7x12 from Northern Tool or Harbor Freight going to do the job? Major differences between Central Machinery, Klutch, and Grizzly (or something vastly superior for less than 50% more money)? My shop is mostly for woodworking, and both space and power are quite limited - I'm rerouting a 240 x 60A so my table saw stops dimming my LED lights on startup, but I haven't even done that yet.,

I'd love to make chips for under a grand, and get tooling as needed, part by part. But I also don't want to invest in a pretty, shiny boat anchor.

Thanks!

Rule #1: Get the biggest you can fit in your space (no matter what, its always going to be a tad too small :P)
Rule #2: dont spend your entire budget on teh machine, tooling is expensive.
Rule #3: get some decent tooling, mid range is great for home shop without breaking the bank on commercial stuff. The cheap stuff is going to give you more headshake than you can imagine ...

If you hunt on the local used market, you can get decent stuff for good price.
Also, keep in mind a lathe that does aluminum all day may not be able to touch stainless ... If you mostly stay with brass and aluminum, the HF lathes are very capable machines with a few tweaks and some god tooling.

(Oh also... anyone with a lathe who wants to help me prototype on occasion, PM me. My prints are professional, without being aerospace crazy.)

I could help (got a small CNC lathe) but time is always an issue for me ... You can always shoot me a PM to check in ...

[DocsMachine]

Just noticed you have a PM to me about this. Sorry, don't always have a chance to keep up as much as I'd like- I'll get to that in a moment.

To keep it simple, I would recommend a Grizzly 9x19/9x20. Everybody has these- Jet, Harbor Freight, Busy Bee, LMS, etc. but Grizzly has the best- in my opinion, for what it;s worth- balance between price and warranty. My first lathe when I launched this business was a Griz 9x19, and it worked just fine. It had issues I didn't like- namely the small through-spindle bore, which meant I couldn't easily do things like barrel threads- but overall, I made hundreds, if not thousands of parts on mine.

And last I heard, Have Blue still has it, today.

There's also a well-established aftermarket of parts, tried-and-tested mods, and useful accessories. Personally, I would not go any smaller than that unless you absolutely have to.

Lemme check... Wow, the prices have gone up a LOT. I bought mine for $800 plus shipping (admittedly 20 years ago) but the same model now is $1,700.

Your other options are to look for something used (local CL, FBMP, etc.) or look up a dealer:. HGR in Ohio has a nice Logan that's a clone of mine, for $1,300. I bet you could haggle with them on the price and get it, delivered, for the same as the purchase price of the Grizzly. (Yeah, it's bigger and heavier, but actually not that much more so than the Griz.)

Doc.

[flyweightnate]

Well, I measured twice... and a 9x20 is about all I have space for. Then this popped up on Craigslist with some tools, way under budget.

It's gonna have a lot of limitations, especially as a mill, but for the occasional prototype, I'm pretty excited to have some capabilities at the house.

[XEMON]

Congrats 🎉
let us know how it works (I always been interested in those 2 in 1).

[flyweightnate]

I can tell you already, the mil has rigidity issues (in my ten minute experiment, I can't tell if it was the cross slide or the head), but it's miles better than my Dremel Drill Press!

[XEMON]

That's disappointing ... It's such a long way, it might be tough to get any rigidity back ...
Keep the Dremel handy!
Sometimes it's faster and easier to grad the Dremel and do it by hand than setting up the machine ...

[alpha_q_up]

Congratulations on the new machine! It's always great to see people have some capabilities at home it almost always results in cool stuff being done, can't wait to see what small mods/fabricating you do

[Spider!]

I'm late to the party as well.

Wanted to mention that paper printers usually have a couple of stainless shafts in them. I found some that cut very well. I think they might be 404; it has some magnetism. I would extract these before sending HP printers to the recycle.

These are good for making all sorts of small pins, screws and shafts. They go well in small lathes.

[DocsMachine]

It's gonna have a lot of limitations, especially as a mill, but for the occasional prototype, I'm pretty excited to have some capabilities at the house.

-Generally I tend to pretty strongly recommend against the "three in one" machines, as they don't any one of the three well.

But, I do also understand budget and availability issues, and I'm not so old I can't remember a time when I'd have killed and helped hide the body for ANY mill or lathe. Any lathe, after all, is generally better than no lathe.

let us know how it works (I always been interested in those 2 in 1).

-The above said, if you have a choice, skip the 'combination' machines. They're very much a compromise, and have a lot of issues. I tend to recommend that, if you have any option at all, to get dedicated machines- a 9x20 and a mini-mill, as separate machines, are far more capable.

Wanted to mention that paper printers usually have a couple of stainless shafts in them. I found some that cut very well. I think they might be 404; it has some magnetism. I would extract these before sending HP printers to the recycle.

-Those rods are generally not stainless- there's no need for stainless steel in a printer, and the stuff costs more both as a material, and to machine.

Generally they're what they call a "free machining" steel, something like 12L14, which has a small amount of lead in it (hence the "L") which makes it machine beautifully. As such, they do indeed make great fodder both for making small parts and just making practice chips.

The rods are generally nickel-plated as an anti corrosion step, as there's one drawback to the stuff- it rusts if you show it a picture of water. Worth keeping in mind if you want to make a functional part for a paintball gun or whatever.

Doc.

[flyweightnate]

Yeah, can confirm... the mill vise makes for a pretty poor compound, as it takes up a couple inches of swing (that I, fortunately, will almost never need), and the envelope for the mil is tiny. But - I'm already figuring out how it offers a couple unique benefits, like how if I put a drill chuck in the lathe chuck, I have a very accurate way to position a longitudinal hole that would be very tricky to fixture with a traditional mill-drill.

And it fit in the last 4 feet of wall space in my garage (that toolbox needed to go anyways), and I've spent a fair bit on drills, taps, and cutters without breaking the $1000 mark. I've actually spent more on a paintball gun than on this lathe.

A Bantam mill is probably in the future, and at that point I'll talk myself into selling off the table saw or buying a storage shed to make room for a better lathe, too. But I learned to drive in a Taurus, not a 4Runner, and it made it a bit less painful when I made mistakes.

[Manning]

I’m looking for my first lathe right now and curious on your experience with this one. How has it worked out so far?

[flyweightnate]

It's OK - miles better than no lathe, and the price was right. I will be getting a separate mill eventually, as this one is very, very limited.

An 8x20 would be a better machine, but buying used, it's all about availability.

At the end of the day, it cuts well enough, and cost less than a months groceries, so I'm pretty happy with it. I just use it to try stuff out before sending the files to a third party for CNC work.