Lathe recommendations for beginner home workshop?

svideo said:
What lathe are you using today? I'm not opposed to something the size of a Sherline, and at that price I would simply pull the trigger today because it wouldn't require a lot of planning (or money).

Here's a dumb question - with a small lathe (Sherline etc) with very little mass, am I still able to cut harder materials by way of reducing the DOC?
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I have an Enco 110-2031 (same as the Grizzly G9249 - link below). It is an import 12x36 with an open quick change gearbox. The 12" lathes and a few 10" ones have easy support for metric threading with few change gears as well as a power cross feed. Both are desirable features.


Yes you can take light cuts in tough materials, but to a limit. Tough materials will create larger cutting forces which will deflect the tool and either create chatter or limit your accuracy. The lighter the machine the more trouble you will have with this. There is a minimum depth of cut before the tool starts to rub. Other operations like parting may be completely unsuccessful on a small lathe where a bigger one would have no problem.

I've done some bigger work where I wish I had the rigidity of a 13" lathe, but I've been able to slow down and take lighter cuts. The whole time I was thanking myself I had as big of a lathe as I do.

But.... if I were doing miniature work, it would be overkill and I could have gotten away with a smaller machine.
 
The smallest PM lathe would probably be fine for you. 1022 which is 10". I doubt you would need larger based on your requirements
I do similar stuff with a 6" Atlas but I did need to fix it up a bit.
-Mark
 
I currently have a PM1127. It's been a great machine to learn on. I have occasionally hit the limits on size, but always found ways to work with it. 99% of my work is about 1" material, and less than 12" of work length, which is well within the envelope of the machine. The PM 10" lathes are pretty good for their size, but you get a lot of upgrades with the 1127. The larger spindle bore is a big win by itself.

If you can swing the budget, space, power, go for the 1236T. It will be tough to outgrow, you get the next step up in precision and quality, and a gearbox. So you might not need to consider messing with an ELS. Not that I don't recommend them, I have one, but if I had a gearbox I probably wouldn't have bothered. Fabricating the parts can be tricky with low experience levels, like myself. I had to do a lot of reading and watching videos to learn how to do some things like cutting keyways on the lathe. It will also be complicated by not having a mill, but it can be done without one. None of the parts need super high precision, so it's not too bad. If you do go that route, I recommend an existing setup like the Clough42 that you can adapt rather than rolling your own from scratch. It makes it less important for you to know as much about machining as the tough parts are done already.

People focus on threading with ELS setups, but honestly, I think feed rates are at least as important. It's so nice to be able to go from a high speed roughing feed to a slow finish pass by tapping a couple of buttons rather than swapping stacks of gears around. A couple of lathe features I didn't think were that important that I use all the time and would really miss, power cross-feed, and the D1-4 spindle. Swapping chucks with 3 cams is so much easier and faster than unbolting the chuck. And it's much simpler to get a nice facing finish with the power feeds. And being and to part under power is nice, frees up a hand. :)
 
The 1236T is what I've been looking at for the reasons you've outlined. It will however require saving up a bit more cash, some electric run, and also somebody that can help me hump that big boy into my basement :D
 
Yup, putting bigger machines in a basement would be a bit annoying. I don't want to even imagine trying to move the Bridgeport down stairs. I know it can be done safely, but I think I'd hire that out. The lathe is probably less annoying than a mill would be. If you're serious about this stuff, that is an excellent choice for a lathe. If I'm ever in the position to be able to justify it, I would love to own one. I love my 1127, but the 1236T is a whole different class.
 
With a good quick change gearbox, I feel I have no need for an ELS. Changing between most imperial threads and feeds takes less then a second.

I was able to get my lathe down the basement by myself in 3 pieces using a few 2x4s as a ramp and some rope and a pulley system. Took an afternoon but I did zero heavy lifting. The lathe was assembled and lifted onto the base using a 1 ton engine hoist.
 
Two different approaches, if you plan on doing an ELS, then you are paying a bit more for a 1236T, maybe consider the PM-1127 or 1228 with variable speed, D1-4 chuck mounts and add an ELS. Might also look at this one, which is both and ELS, DRO and semi-CNC https://www.rocketronics.de/en/els/

If going with the 1236T, probably just deal with the current Norton Gearbox and see how it goes. One issue with doing metric threads on lathes with imperial leadscrews is for the most part the half-nut needs to remain engaged through the threading process. I do quite a bit of metric threading, so I use a proximity stop system which stops the lathe at the same position when repeating the thread. I thread at 250-450+ RPM and just not quick enough to do it otherwise. My current lathe has a universal gearbox so no change gears for metric, although I had the PM-1340GT previously and made due with the manual gearbox change gears for metric. Quite a few of the metric threads are handled by the same gear set, so not that big a deal if you are not threading frequently. When doing imperial threading there are no change gears.
www.hobby-machinist.com

ERL1340 Thread Cutting with a Proximity Stop System

I often get questions on thread cutting using a proximity stop system, recently I had to make several threaded micrometer shafts out of O1 steel, all with the same dimensions and thread tolerances. I do not have any fancy camera holders or editing software, so just propped the camera on the head...
www.hobby-machinist.com www.hobby-machinist.com
 

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With vague ideas of what you want to do with it, I'd suggest either going with a mini-lathe Sherline, Taig or one of the Grizzly 7, 8 or 9" lathes. Small enough to easily get into a basement, not a huge investment, handy as a second lathe if you go bigger and easy to offload on Craigslist if you prefer.

Option B go with a 12 or 13" lathe as that size seems to satisfy most. If you go with plan B I'd buy as good as you can afford. The PM1236T you mentioned seems to be well regarded. Grizzly's 12x36 lathes are also popular.
 
mksj said:
Two different approaches, if you plan on doing an ELS, then you are paying a bit more for a 1236T, maybe consider the PM-1127 or 1228 with variable speed, D1-4 chuck mounts and add an ELS. Might also look at this one, which is both and ELS, DRO and semi-CNC https://www.rocketronics.de/en/els/

If going with the 1236T, probably just deal with the current Norton Gearbox and see how it goes. One issue with doing metric threads on lathes with imperial leadscrews is for the most part the half-nut needs to remain engaged through the threading process. I do quite a bit of metric threading, so I use a proximity stop system which stops the lathe at the same position when repeating the thread. I thread at 250-450+ RPM and just not quick enough to do it otherwise. My current lathe has a universal gearbox so no change gears for metric, although I had the PM-1340GT previously and made due with the manual gearbox change gears for metric. Quite a few of the metric threads are handled by the same gear set, so not that big a deal if you are not threading frequently. When doing imperial threading there are no change gears.
www.hobby-machinist.com

ERL1340 Thread Cutting with a Proximity Stop System

I often get questions on thread cutting using a proximity stop system, recently I had to make several threaded micrometer shafts out of O1 steel, all with the same dimensions and thread tolerances. I do not have any fancy camera holders or editing software, so just propped the camera on the head...
www.hobby-machinist.com www.hobby-machinist.com
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I want to tag on that changing gears (which again is rarely needed) take a whole of 2-3 minutes. You do it as part of the job setup and leave it like that until you need them set differently. For me, it is faster than dialing the part in on a 4 jaw chuck.
 
That's an important point, I've never used one of these things so I'm basing everything on watching a lot of youtubes and reading here on the forums. Gear changing looked like a PITA but maybe I'm overstating the problem. I'm back to thinking something along the lines of the 1228 makes more sense, and if I feel like it's necessary I can hack in an ELS at some later point.
 
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