[Lathe] Does Anyone Have A Tiawanese Lathe Rml1440

[malmac]

I am new here so I cannot post the photo I have - at this stage - but when allowed I will.

Interested to know if anyone has one of these lathes, I have no doubt they are imported into the US under one or more brands. 52mm spindle bore, 1000mm bed.

Interested in the accuracy - if someone has one.


Thanks Mal
Australia

 

[tweinke]

Seems funny no one has chimed in, I can not help but this should bump your post back up to the top. I would love to see a picture or pictures by the way

 

[malmac]

Ah good, I have done my apprenticeship as a non spammer - here is the lathe in question. The Eximus is just the Australian firms branding - it will be something else through a different importer. Very interested if anyone has a lathe that is like this one. The real question is how accurate has your version been.

I have been told that Colchester Lathes are now made in Taiwan under licence and strict controls from the parent company - have other people heard this????

Regards


mal

 

[Bob Korves]

Well, I have a 13x40, and it is Chinese, not Taiwanese. On some level all lathes are projects, and you test them and adjust them to make them as accurate as they need to be for what you are doing with them. Mine needed adjustment when I got it in used but new condition just to meet my initial accuracy needs. I think just about all lathes now have accuracy in their bones, but it will take some leveling, adjusting, and perhaps some scraping and shimming to get the best from them. When we buy a bargain priced lathe, we are getting a kit that needs the finishing details it did not get at the factory because they were trying to meet a price point. There are still some high quality lathes being built, and they are as good as they can make them, as delivered. Unfortunately, the amount of labor it takes to do that raises the price to where only the fussiest and well heeled can afford them. How much do you want to pay and how much work do you want to do to it to get it to your expectations? The Taiwanese _generally_ put out better quality machines than the Chinese do, at a higher price, but not nearly as good as something like a Monarch lathe, which costs a lot more. The company that was making that really nice lathe for so little money that you want to buy went out of business. TANSTAAFL. (There ain't no such thing as a free lunch...)

Sometimes the very cheapest lathes have had corners cut badly enough that they are not really salvageable to a useful condition beyond melting them down and starting over...

Edit: Let me get off my soap box and welcome you to the forum, Mal!

 

[malmac]

Bob, thank you for utilising your soap box, us newbes actually get a better perspective by soaking up a bit of experience. I don't want to get into lathe renovation, I have three old motorbikes to look after, which is quite enough. At present I am still researching what my definitive level of desired accuracy is, but it is at least .01mm over 150mm when boring - for example.

Good thread cutting ability - current lathe has no thread chasing dial - that is now a must. Also it has shuffle the gears and then find out the chart in the manual does not match the table in the change cabinet and often neither are what is cut - well that has to improve.

Well back to the shed - some new parts just arrived from Germany.


Regards


mal

 

[malmac]

Another question - what sort of boring accuracy is it reasonable to expect from a centre lathe?

Would it be unrealistic to expect the taper not to exceed .005mm???

Thank you.

 

[pstemari]

Over what distance? That's about two tenths, so I suspect you'd have to go to some sort of grinding to hit it consistently.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[Doubleeboy]

I have the Grizzly branded Taiwanese 1640 that looks just like the RMLs, spec wise also. I can hold 1 to 2 tenths in steel all day long. Its only 15 months old and and light use, so time will tell, but for a budget import lathe its not bad. My 60 year old 10ee still holds 1 tenth over 6 inches on stock over 3/8" diameter. That lathe was retired 4o years ago when it had 54000 hours on the meter. Whole different planet so to speak.

If you can get it at a good price and realize it will never be a Mori or Pacemaker, go for it. I have no doubt in the hands of someone who did not own the RML themselves and did not care, it could be worn out in a few years in a full time shop. In the hands of the owner who cared about it should last for ever in a hobby shop or 10 plus years in job shop.

michael

 

[malmac]

Thankyou Michael and Pstemari for you replies.
I bought a smallish Chinese lathe to get started - I have learnt a bit and have determined how much use I would have for a lathe in my hobby shop. Well it was probably a good choice - if it had been a more expensive lathe I would not feel justified in upgrading - so all good so far.

The given is I don't have more than 2.4m x 1m floor space in my workshop for the new lathe - so that sets a limit there.
The 1000mm long bed I have at present has not been a limitation over the past five years - so staying at that seems a reasonable limit.
My current spindle bore is 43mm and I find that limiting - so definitely want over 50mm - I would like 75mm but I know that is over the top.

So the tree big questions become;
I would like much better ACCURACY
Longevity of machine / QUALITY
VALUE for MONEY spent.

For instance I have looked at a Chinese lathe for $8000 Australian, a Taiwanese lathe for $10,000 Australian and a second Taiwanese lathe of high precision for $20,000 Australian - these were all around the same specs (give or take a bit).

Have looked on the internet for a high quality second hand lathe but mostly what I have seen looks like it would need restoring before I could use it with confidence - so that avenue is not throwing up any prospective solution.

Obviously in USA there are many more options - so for the present I will keep looking.

Cheers


Mal

 

[mksj]

I believe most of the ERL, RML, etc are made by Sunmaster in Taiwan, with different variations depending on the importer/country. The ERL are usually D1-4, so smaller spindle bore.
http://www.sunmaster-cnc.com/lathe.htm
If you look at the few reviews of these machines (ERL and RML), at this price point and what you are asking, I had spoken with an importer of these machines, and they are very high quality lathes. I do not think there would be any question with these being a significant improvement over what you have, and holding tolerance down to a few ten thousandth of an inch. I can do this on my much lighter Taiwanese 1340 lathe. So from an accuracy and quality at this price point, these should meet these requirements with no issues. Longevity in a hobby environment, well plan on passing it on to the next generation. They are very well made machines. Value/money, you get what you pay for. If you are looking at older iron with the specifications and expectations listed, I doubt you will find anything. The RML 1440 would be a very good choice, with the limitation that of a 52.5mm bore (D1-6), you would be looking at a very large lathe if you wanted a larger bore. Availability and too some degree support/parts would be a bigger issue.