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
Take 14" of bed, add the tail stock, a drill bit chuck, and a drill bit, and you've just eaten up half your length. At best. Check out these videos if you haven't. I'm still considering picking up a mini lathe in the future to mess around with. There are pros and cons with almost any choice, so just going in with eyes wide open is the best approach in my opinion.


 
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.

I get the whole big lathe can make small parts, but a small lathe can't make big parts thing, but you hit on a big reason why small lathes are popular despite their limitations. I'm pretty sure my Sherline lathe including the board it is mounted on weighs less than the 6" chuck on my 11" lathe.

I think the smallest Taiwan lathe is Jet's BDB-919, a modified version of the common 9x20 lathe. The 919 runs about $2800 compared to Grizzly's G4000 (Chinese) 9x20 at about $1500. Assuming a similar increase, a Taiwan made 7x14 would probably run about $1700 maybe? If Proxxon (German) can sell a 3.3x15" lathe for almost $3000 then I could see there being a market for an upscale Taiwan made 7x14 or 16 lathe in the about $2000 price range.
 
Am sadly letting my grizzly 4x6 micro lathe go to another home thats been a great learning tool but just isnt big enuff for other projects in mind........so am looking for something bigger like the infamous mini lathe and thinking 7x14 would fit the bill but am open to suggestions.

If your familar with my post I like to do small modeling type things with 6061. so dont need anything big. rather a bench type setup.
Have seen a jillion mini lathes online " that are mostly asian "and kind of have an idea what to look for but am open to suggestions as to what make that "wont break the bank and would like to keep it under $1000. so again, am looking for "Good and Bad" opinions re mini lathes. all comments welcome :cool:
 
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