- Joined
- May 7, 2020
- Messages
- 263
Intending this sub-forum to be a clearing house for information on 16+ inch lathes made in Taiwan by several manufacturers that seem to have shared many common design elements (and possibly a factory too). Unlike American Mid-West iron, and top-flight Asian machines from Mori Seiki and clones (like Whacheon), and even some designs similar to Mori (Okuma/YAM/Yang), there does not appear to be a cult following or a lot of ongoing support for these very high quality lathes.
Buying a used lathe is always challenging. Orphaned equipment with limited support even more so. The rough part about these lathes is that they were sold under so many brand names and at this point it is difficult to know who made what and where to get manuals, parts and ideas on maintenance and repair. The upside is price - the relatively fragmented branding may allow the hobby and small shop machinist to get a heck of a deal on an amazing piece of equipment.
This particular design pattern, unique from Mori and Sun Master designs, has continued to evolve and is still around. Eisen imports new lathes that share this design pattern but with a few improvements (essentially they are even more "robustified"). Made in Taiwan by WinHo, these lathes compete directly in the 16" class (see Precision Matthews TL series) of medium size commercial lathes as well as a full range of larger lathes. I'm not sure who makes the smaller Taiwan-made Eisen's but they appear to be amazing machines as well and would fit on this forum all the same.
What do these "WinHo" pattern machines have to offer?
Key differentiators for this design pattern:
Unique, very simple and intuitive operation of the carriage/feed/cross-feed. Even a cave-man can do it. Flip up for cross feed, down for carriage feed. No fiddling with pulling a lever in and out before engaging.
10 position wheel for feed rate changes - set the right letter combo then tune cut quality with the 10 position speed change wheel.
Extra swing in the 16" class (16.9").
Other goodness:
Ample power (generally had 7.5hp - 10hp motors).
Wide bed - the Sen Jeys/Millport and Victors had almost 12" wide beds (as do the Eisen equivalents). Very rugged.
The older (mid 80's) versions had a one-piece casting from bed-ways to base. Exceptionally rigid.
Clutched carriage feed that works with micrometer stops.
One-shot lube on the carriage.
Very robust, inch-pitch, lead screws (1 3/8").
Universal gear box with no change gears for inch/metric.
D1-6/D1-8 spindles which are exceptionally flexible.
A no-compromise fully commercial design for this size class (I sound like Matt at PM).
The new lathes from Eisen are even more robust on the Apron - massively rigid.
This is my Osama Sr 17x40. Bought mid-2021 and made in late 1983. Almost 4,000 lbs of lathey goodness. Exceptionally smooth running and a bit of a time capsule as it was never used in a commercial setting (a one-owner machine purchased new for a garage hobby shop). Picked this up from an informal estate sale for $3,500. If it were a Mori in similar condition it would have sold for more than $10k for sure.
Already I've had good luck buying new parts from Eisen. I will start a parts compatibility thread separately. Got to give Eisen full props, they are very easy to work with and pride themselves on supporting older machines.
Attached an old brochure (guessing late 70's version).
More to come.
Buying a used lathe is always challenging. Orphaned equipment with limited support even more so. The rough part about these lathes is that they were sold under so many brand names and at this point it is difficult to know who made what and where to get manuals, parts and ideas on maintenance and repair. The upside is price - the relatively fragmented branding may allow the hobby and small shop machinist to get a heck of a deal on an amazing piece of equipment.
This particular design pattern, unique from Mori and Sun Master designs, has continued to evolve and is still around. Eisen imports new lathes that share this design pattern but with a few improvements (essentially they are even more "robustified"). Made in Taiwan by WinHo, these lathes compete directly in the 16" class (see Precision Matthews TL series) of medium size commercial lathes as well as a full range of larger lathes. I'm not sure who makes the smaller Taiwan-made Eisen's but they appear to be amazing machines as well and would fit on this forum all the same.
What do these "WinHo" pattern machines have to offer?
Key differentiators for this design pattern:
Unique, very simple and intuitive operation of the carriage/feed/cross-feed. Even a cave-man can do it. Flip up for cross feed, down for carriage feed. No fiddling with pulling a lever in and out before engaging.
10 position wheel for feed rate changes - set the right letter combo then tune cut quality with the 10 position speed change wheel.
Extra swing in the 16" class (16.9").
Other goodness:
Ample power (generally had 7.5hp - 10hp motors).
Wide bed - the Sen Jeys/Millport and Victors had almost 12" wide beds (as do the Eisen equivalents). Very rugged.
The older (mid 80's) versions had a one-piece casting from bed-ways to base. Exceptionally rigid.
Clutched carriage feed that works with micrometer stops.
One-shot lube on the carriage.
Very robust, inch-pitch, lead screws (1 3/8").
Universal gear box with no change gears for inch/metric.
D1-6/D1-8 spindles which are exceptionally flexible.
A no-compromise fully commercial design for this size class (I sound like Matt at PM).
The new lathes from Eisen are even more robust on the Apron - massively rigid.
This is my Osama Sr 17x40. Bought mid-2021 and made in late 1983. Almost 4,000 lbs of lathey goodness. Exceptionally smooth running and a bit of a time capsule as it was never used in a commercial setting (a one-owner machine purchased new for a garage hobby shop). Picked this up from an informal estate sale for $3,500. If it were a Mori in similar condition it would have sold for more than $10k for sure.
Already I've had good luck buying new parts from Eisen. I will start a parts compatibility thread separately. Got to give Eisen full props, they are very easy to work with and pride themselves on supporting older machines.
Attached an old brochure (guessing late 70's version).
More to come.
Attachments
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