Mini lathe discussion

Great reviews I see in lathes that interest me are the MicroMark 7x16, the LMS 7x16 and the LMS/Sieg 7x14. One timely question is are there Black Friday sales to consider?

Thanks in advance.

All of the machines you've listed are essentially the same lathe being based on the Sieg 7x lathe. Most likely all built in the same factory. The differences come from the re-sellers setting quality control standards and in some cases different specs, included items and what color they are painted.

The good part of that is they have good parts availability and community support because a mod that works for a Harbor Frieght 7x10, likely applies equally well to a Grizzly 7x12 or LMS 7x16. The bad part is they will all have the same limitations and issues being based on the same base machine.

The main difference between the base Sieg C3 7x14 and the two 7x16 machines is the larger motor, and an additional 2" between centers. None of them come with much tooling, basically just a chuck, center for the tailstock and a (assuming) a cutting bit. You will want to factor in several hundred dollars more for tooling, at a minimum a drill chuck for the tailstock, more cutting bits, and possibly a steady rest.

Grizzly is another vendor to look at, their versions are the G688 7x12, and G0765 7x14.


I don't have any of their machines, but I've bought tooling and accessories from Little Machine Shop and have no complaints with their products or service. I've bought a few things from Micro Mark, never had an issue with them either, but never bought a machine or machining products from them.


For just a little more at $1295 the Grizzly 0768 8x16 lathe is just a little larger, and heavier but gives you more power (600w vs 500w / 350w), slightly larger working envelope and comes with a much larger collection of tooling, 2 chucks, a steady rest and follow rest, 2 centers. Personally I think this is a much better deal than either of the 7x16 machines you are looking at, the extra $200 easily being worthwhile for the additional tooling alone. You would still want to add a drill chuck.



As it sounds like you are very much at the small side, do not overlook the Sherline lathes. They are in my opinion, and most every modeler I've talked with (including those who own different machines) the best small lathe for model building short of some very high dollar instrument lathes (Levin). For $850 you can get the 4100 3.5x17 lathe with their "A" package which includes a much more comprehensive set of tooling and accessories than any of those 7x lathes. Their "C" package is $1282 but includes just about everything you would want to get started. Sherline has excellent customer service, a huge range of accessories and their machines and tooling come with good instructions. Some accessories have company made youtube videos demonstrating set up and use. There is an active user community and aftermarket for these machines.

If the majority of your interest is parts 1" and smaller in diameter, very occasionally reaching upwards of 2" the Sherlines are great. If you expect much work at the 1-2" size they are being pushed. 2"+ is possible particularly with the use of riser blocks, but if you want to do much at this size you probably want to look at something bigger.


If you do get the $100 lathe, please report back on it. I've had a lot of modelers who don't have the budget for one of the more traditional mini-lathe options ask about it, but I've found nobody who has actually used one, to know if it is really an option for small plastic parts.


As far as Black Friday sales? I don't know specifically but there are sales from all of these vendors at times. Grizzly is the probably the most likely to have a significant BF sale.
 
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Perhaps it's time to (re)define what you're looking for.

Think of a router and a milling machine as pretty much the same machine with different tolerances. The milling machine, depending on operator skills of course, can hold to 0.0005 or better. The router only can hold to 0.015 (1/64), again depending on skill and jigging. But is a hell of a lot cheaper.

The same applies, to an extent, to a lathe and a hand drill. There was a time that all I had was Pop's hand drill clamped up in a vise. With files and the like for cutting tools. But at 12 years old, I didn't have the skills I have today. The few parts I did succead in making weren't much good, but they worked (more/less) for what I wanted at the time. A drill press was way beyond my means in those days, but I wanted my models and figured out a way to do things.

Sanding was a piece of 2X4 and some sandpaper. Now-a-days it's a belt sander on a stand and a tool grinder. All a matter of desired tolerances and skills. And money~~~

A jig saw was a blade in a (home made) wooden handle. Now-a-days it's a scroll saw and a cute motor driven tool that's available at any hardware store for $50.

The machine shop capabilities aren't really important until you're building a small engine from scratch. Gasoline for you, steam for me. But years ago, the skills were there but the machines weren't. Yet the originals got built, even without the machines. Like a friend of mine, Carlos Rivas, calls a file a "Puerto Rican" milling machine.

Carlos was a mill motor inspector, like me. But the skills and knowledge were there, again, like me. We did what was necessary to get the job done. Often long before OSHA ever existed. I worked a UniMat DB-200 for years. Todays equivilent would be a Taig or Sherline. The cost of the machine is not so great as the cost of the tooling. You're looking to spend as much or more for that than the machine itself. Here it all comes down to the budget for what is at this point an experiment. All I can really say here is to use that budget wisely.

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Kids, work, I'm still here. Unfortunately duo busy I just noticed a 3 day old post on Craigslist for a Taig mini lathe. I emailed the seller, hoping it's still available.
 
Kids, work, I'm still here. Unfortunately duo busy I just noticed a 3 day old post on Craigslist for a Taig mini lathe. I emailed the seller, hoping it's still available.

Did you get the Taig?


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No answer from seller. I'm still watching Craigslist and reading. I don't think I need a vey big lathe.
 
Still reading and researching. Lots of recommendations from other rc airplane enthusiasts to look into larger lathes.
 
Thx, haven't looked much at that line. Will do now.
 
Having purchased a Micromark 7x16, my advice would be to skip the Sieg-style import lathes and either get a smaller, more precise lathe like the Taig or Sherline, or track down a used domestic bench-top lathe like a Logan, South Bend, Atlas.

People have done great work on the Sieg-style lathes but they are not a good first lathe, especially for someone with no prior machining experience (a detail that is often overlooked by those that recommend these machine).

It is often pointed out that the Sieg-style lathes are "a kit", meaning that they need some work done on them in order to achieve any sort of rigidity and precision, and this is very much the case. What this means is that the buyer of one of these lathes must:
a) be able to identify precisely what is wrong with the lathe
b) have the knowledge of how to resolve the issue(s)
c) have the skills to implement the solution
d) have access to machinery capable of producing parts required by the solution

When I acquired the Micromark, I met none of the above requirements, and was operating under the assumption that the Micromark was a turnkey lathe ready to be bolted down and cut some chips. It was not. After acquiring a 14x40 Logan, I learned how lathes are *supposed* to work, and then was able (with the help of a mill, either my Bridgeport or Taig would do the job) to get the Micromark to a usable state. It now will happily cut chips, though it is still a long way from being precise (the saddle is a huge weak point, even with new gibs).
 
The correct choice of machine is one thing. Another, is the savvy of the operator to operate the machine. You can put a seasoned operator in front of a crapy lathe and that person will work around the idiosyncrasies of said machine and make decent parts. There a people that can make better parts with a hand file than a person using a milling machine. Bottom line…it’s not all about "just the machine".
 
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