DECIDED ON A 7X14

thanx but cant figure out why everyone keeps raving about "longer is better" when 14 should serve my purpose, anyway am enjoying the replys
 
thanx but cant figure out why everyone keeps raving about "longer is better" when 14 should serve my purpose, anyway am enjoying the replys

Tooling eats up a lot of length if you start to get into drilling, tapping or boring operations. I'm glad I bought the longer 17" Sherline, I've never needed the whole 17", but a few inches of unneeded length are much better than 1" too short. I definitely would have had issues with the shorter 8" model. For the things you seem to be making the 7x12 or 7x14 should be fine regarding length.

You will notice the price jumps up quite a bit for the 7x16 lathes, that is due more to them being of higher quality than for the extra 2" of bed length. It is a similar situation with the 8x16 lathes which are nearly identical in features to the 7x lathes but at about double the price they leave more budget for building in better quality and tend to come with more tooling.


The other thing you are running into is simply that small lathes are something of a niche item, and most of the posters here do not fit into the small lathe niche so advice tends to lean toward larger.
 
Buying the 7x14 is a great decision. If you later find you need the longer bed length you will have a good reason to buy a bigger lathe. Or you could buy another bed for the 7x14 and have a fun project mating the two beds together.

All kidding aside. Buy the lathe that works for you.
 
At the end is about 7 x 14. I did not get that far, yet.
 
I bought the Micro-Mark MicroLux 7x16 Mini-Lathe because of its longer bed and the fact the leadscrew is imperial, not metric. After many years of use, I converted it to ELS so I can push a button and change feed-rate and between metric and imperial threading.

I like this lathe a lot, but I wish it was bigger and heavier only because it would be more rigid and allow much heavier cuts. I get jealous watching the cuts taken on many YouTube channels!
 
I bought the Micro-Mark MicroLux 7x16 Mini-Lathe because of its longer bed and the fact the leadscrew is imperial, not metric. After many years of use, I converted it to ELS so I can push a button and change feed-rate and between metric and imperial threading.

I like this lathe a lot, but I wish it was bigger and heavier only because it would be more rigid and allow much heavier cuts. I get jealous watching the cuts taken on many YouTube channels!

Just curious. What kind of tooling are you using and what depths of cut are you able to take with them?
 
I use HSS lathe bits with carbide boring bars and internal threading bits.

Typically, I can't take more than 0.010" (or 0.020" max) on 12L14 or 1018 steel for facing and turning cuts. For threading, I usually start at 0.004" for the first pass or two, then quickly get to 0.002" for the middle passes. After 60-70% of the thread cutting done, I switch to 0.001".
 
Typically, I can't take more than 0.010" (or 0.020" max) on 12L14 or 1018 steel for facing and turning cuts.

Wow, something is off. A good HSS tool should be able to take a 0.050" cut on your lathe with ease. Head on over to the model tools thread and post some pics of your tool or start a new thread and we can maybe take a look at your turning tools and see if we can make it better.
 
It’s interesting you can’t find a lathe in this size category from Taiwan. It’s clear, there is a big demand out there.
To be honest, I always thought these lathes were a joke.
Until I saw the quality parts that can be made with them.
I also discovered when I was fiddling around with my little steam engine model, my lathe is too darn big!
Changing chucks to a 10” four jaw vs. one of these little baseball size chucks makes a huge difference.
Yeah, get the lathe that works for your needs.
 
Wow, something is off. A good HSS tool should be able to take a 0.050" cut on your lathe with ease. Head on over to the model tools thread and post some pics of your tool or start a new thread and we can maybe take a look at your turning tools and see if we can make it better.
Done. Posted in sticky thread.
 
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