- Joined
- Oct 3, 2013
- Messages
- 26
Hello all!
I want to buy a lathe for my bicycle business, and I have a set of requirements that I cannot seem to find in a single machine, new or old. For the record, I am in the USA.
First, I want a large spindle bore. I want at least a 44.5mm or even better a 50.8mm bore spindle, for cutting off and facing tubing. This is available in a number of variants of new Chinese lathes, and obviously in a number of monster American and British lathes.
Second, I want a short bed. I will never need more than maybe 450-600mm between centers, and anything more than that just takes up valuable floor space. I'll need the room to the left of the lathe for tubing to hang out of the spindle. Are there lathes with beds shorter than 1m with 50mm bores?
Third, I want metric leadscrews and dials. I don't just want metric threading capability, I want metric ONLY! I have no interest in setting feeds and speeds in standard in any way, shape or form. I don't want to have to convert back and forth to standard to make cuts, when all my plans and drawings are in metric. I do not want dual dials unless the system has a clockwork that makes it work properly instead of dividing the metric dial by 25.4. Dual dials may have some benefit if they work like this.
Can someone point me to a product that fulfills the above requirements? The only requirement I can budge on is the bed length, but only somewhat. I don't really want to convert an existing lathe unless it is just replacing the dials, which seems reasonable.
I want to buy a lathe for my bicycle business, and I have a set of requirements that I cannot seem to find in a single machine, new or old. For the record, I am in the USA.
First, I want a large spindle bore. I want at least a 44.5mm or even better a 50.8mm bore spindle, for cutting off and facing tubing. This is available in a number of variants of new Chinese lathes, and obviously in a number of monster American and British lathes.
Second, I want a short bed. I will never need more than maybe 450-600mm between centers, and anything more than that just takes up valuable floor space. I'll need the room to the left of the lathe for tubing to hang out of the spindle. Are there lathes with beds shorter than 1m with 50mm bores?
Third, I want metric leadscrews and dials. I don't just want metric threading capability, I want metric ONLY! I have no interest in setting feeds and speeds in standard in any way, shape or form. I don't want to have to convert back and forth to standard to make cuts, when all my plans and drawings are in metric. I do not want dual dials unless the system has a clockwork that makes it work properly instead of dividing the metric dial by 25.4. Dual dials may have some benefit if they work like this.
Can someone point me to a product that fulfills the above requirements? The only requirement I can budge on is the bed length, but only somewhat. I don't really want to convert an existing lathe unless it is just replacing the dials, which seems reasonable.