Recommendation for which Asian Lathe to buy.

rajhliux

rajhliux

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Anyone have any recommendation which metal lathe is a good one from alibaba or what not?

Applications that I'll be using the lathe for:
-Precision gears
-Precision water connector with threads of all kinds (Both American and British)
-Quick Connectors
-Hydraulics

Note: I do not want to play with the lathe gearing system just to change simple threading. The lathe machine needs to have an automatic gearing system to change threading pitch.

Budget: $1,600.

Thanks for any recommendations!
 
Anyone have any recommendation which metal lathe is a good one from alibaba or what not?

Applications that I'll be using the lathe for:
-Precision gears
-Precision water connector with threads of all kinds (Both American and British)
-Quick Connectors
-Hydraulics

Note: I do not want to play with the lathe gearing system just to change simple threading. The lathe machine needs to have an automatic gearing system to change threading pitch. I'm not that person that likes to open the box and touch oily gears... :)

Lathe Size: Benchtop type.

Edit:
Budget: $5K.

Thanks for any insights!
 
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You're about to get a lot of replies suggesting you stay away from Alibaba machinery. The import costs will be much higher than you expect. Also don't forget to put a price on service and availability of spare parts. Something will be broken on any machine you buy. You will break something yourself in the first year or two. How will these issues be resolved? Finally, many overseas machines have metric threads and gears. That might not be an issue for the rest of the world, but I would go nuts trying to use a metric lathe.

You failed to mention the size of lathe you need for the work. small gears and fittings might be fine on a 10" lathe, but you'll be changing gears. A 12-14" lathe will have better gearbox options and will be much more rigid in a cut but will weigh and cost more. If you are doing larger work, or want to take heavier cuts, then you need a bigger lathe.

I'm worried about your budget...

$1600 gets you a small hobby lathe (bit bigger than a toy) with no tooling.

$2500 gets you a medium sized quality lathe with basic tooling

$4000 gets you a nice 12" lathe (first chance at a totally enclosed gearbox)

$6000 gets you a nice 14" lathe (Totally enclosed gearbox)

If you haven't collected measuring instruments, cutting tools and accessories yet, expect to double your purchase price - especially on the smaller machines. You'll need some basic quality measuring instruments, probably a quick change tool post (some higher end lathes will come with one), and some cutting tools and holders (including drill chucks and centers).

Do you have a maximum size and weight restriction?

If you are sticking to $1600, check out the entry level lathes from Grizzly.com. That are decent machines at import prices. They stock spare parts for decades and have great service. If you are willing to flex on the budget, then next recommendation you will get is Precision Matthews. There are a ton of happy owners of their machines on here and the service and quality is top notch.

www.grizzly.com

Lathes - Metalworking

Grizzly Industrial, Inc. is a national retail and internet company providing a wide variety of high-quality woodworking and metalworking machinery, power tools, hand tools and accessories. By selling directly to end users we provide the best quality products at the best price to professionals...
www.grizzly.com www.grizzly.com

 
macardoso said:
You're about to get a lot of replies suggesting you stay away from Alibaba machinery. The import costs will be much higher than you expect. Also don't forget to put a price on service and availability of spare parts. Something will be broken on any machine you buy. You will break something yourself in the first year or two. How will these issues be resolved? Finally, many overseas machines have metric threads and gears. That might not be an issue for the rest of the world, but I would go nuts trying to use a metric lathe.

You failed to mention the size of lathe you need for the work. small gears and fittings might be fine on a 10" lathe, but you'll be changing gears. A 12-14" lathe will have better gearbox options and will be much more rigid in a cut but will weigh and cost more. If you are doing larger work, or want to take heavier cuts, then you need a bigger lathe.

I'm worried about your budget...

$1600 gets you a small hobby lathe (bit bigger than a toy) with no tooling.

$2500 gets you a medium sized quality lathe with basic tooling

$4000 gets you a nice 12" lathe (first chance at a totally enclosed gearbox)

$6000 gets you a nice 14" lathe (Totally enclosed gearbox)

If you haven't collected measuring instruments, cutting tools and accessories yet, expect to double your purchase price - especially on the smaller machines. You'll need some basic quality measuring instruments, probably a quick change tool post (some higher end lathes will come with one), and some cutting tools and holders (including drill chucks and centers).

Do you have a maximum size and weight restriction?

If you are sticking to $1600, check out the entry level lathes from Grizzly.com. That are decent machines at import prices. They stock spare parts for decades and have great service. If you are willing to flex on the budget, then next recommendation you will get is Precision Matthews. There are a ton of happy owners of their machines on here and the service and quality is top notch.

www.grizzly.com

Lathes - Metalworking

Grizzly Industrial, Inc. is a national retail and internet company providing a wide variety of high-quality woodworking and metalworking machinery, power tools, hand tools and accessories. By selling directly to end users we provide the best quality products at the best price to professionals...
www.grizzly.com www.grizzly.com

Click to expand...


Thanks for the insight, really helpful indeed.

Yes working on metric only system will drive me nuts too since I do live in the US, but I do need both metric and imperial for threading.

I will go with a 12-14" lathe simply due to the fact of automatic gearbox. But if I end up paying around 6K for a manual lathe I might as well get a used CNC lathe, wouldn't that be better in the long run?

Sorry for the nooby questions, but for the past few years for my customization needs in projects, I finally realized the solution is to just purchase a lathe. But I have no idea where to even start. I did gathered large amount of machining books about lathe machining, I don't think it would be too difficult in self teaching.

Thanks again.
 
rajhliux said:
Thanks for the insight, really helpful indeed.

Yes working on metric only system will drive me nuts too since I do live in the US, but I do need both metric and imperial for threading.

I will go with a 12-14" lathe simply due to the fact of automatic gearbox. But if I end up paying around 6K for a manual lathe I might as well get a used CNC lathe, wouldn't that be better in the long run?

Sorry for the nooby questions, but for the past few years for my customization needs in projects, I finally realized the solution is to just purchase a lathe. But I have no idea where to even start. I did gathered large amount of machining books about lathe machining, I don't think it would be too difficult in self teaching.

Thanks again.
Click to expand...

These things are just expensive...

A real entry level CNC lathe will probably run you $20-30k. You can buy an older used one, but then you have a project to get it running and learn it. You would need to be excited about refurbishing it as much as using it. They'll be very large and heavy and will most likely need 3 phase power. There isn't a huge market for CNCs designed for home use (especially lathes) and Tormach has cornered that market.

Tormach Lathes

CNC LATHES THAT LOWER THE BARRIERS TO BUY, LEARN AND USE. Cure The "I'm Starting-My-Machine-Shop-In-A-Few-Years" Cycle. This Is Your Time. Start Building Your Dream Projects.
tormach.com tormach.com

I have a 12" lathe I bought used ($1200 from a used machinery dealer). It has a quick change gearbox and change gears for metric threads. The head of the lathe is manually changed belts. I do not think this is a big deal and I don't often need to change the external change gears (couple dozen times in 3 years). With a given set of external change gears, the quick change gearbox will do 40 different threads. When I do change gears, it is a 5 minute job and is pretty easy. Your call how to spend your money, but changing gears really isn't a big deal. With 4 change gears, I can do a full complement of imperial and metric threads. Here is a link to a thread I wrote about my lathe. It might help you understand what is needed:

www.hobby-machinist.com

Enco 12x36 Lathe Rebuild (Picture Heavy!)

Hi All, I recently purchased an Enco110-2033 gap bed lathe from a industrial surplus business for around $1100. It's more than some have spent on a lathe like this, but it was available nearby my house and in beautiful condition under the significant amount of grime that had coated it. This...
www.hobby-machinist.com www.hobby-machinist.com

Precision Matthews is in PA and does demos of their equipment (unsure how COVID affects this). Might be worthwhile to take a trip to see them.

HGR is the machinery dealer in Euclid, OH (Cleveland area) I got my lathe from. Their inventory is constantly rotating. You can check what they have. Most everything will be used and often pretty expensive, but you can definitely get good deals. The price on stuff drops as time goes on so save items and check back. With used machinery you need to evaluate condition (wear and damage), as well as power requirements and spare part availability. Again, you're taking on a project when you buy used, make sure you are OK with that.

Used Industrial Equipment For Sale

Used Industrial Equipment For Sale https://hgrinc.com
hgrinc.com hgrinc.com
 
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In the link I gave you to my project log of the Enco lathe, there is a discussion on lathe tooling and measuring instruments on page 2. That should give you an idea of what you might need to be successful with any lathe you buy. You certainly should not get all of it up front, but you'll need most of it eventually. Do some research and add up those costs to plan for it. I have absolutely no issue with import tooling for a hobby. I do treasure the couple name brand measuring instruments I have and there is a huge quality increase over the import versions of those same items.
 
One last comment for now. There is a pretty good correlation between weight and your ability to cut quickly and accurately. More weight is better. My Enco is around 1000lbs and is probably at the lowest weight to make real use of the smallest insert tooling (I'm talking about cutting hard enough to actually engage the chip breaker). You can do nice work on smaller lathes, but it will take you longer to make the cuts and you'll have more difficulty holding tolerances.

Also remember that the published size is the absolute maximum capacity of the lathe between centers. The practical working size is much smaller once you add a chuck, tooling, and consider the swing over the cross slide. My 12x36" lathe has a reasonably useful capacity of maybe 7x24?
 
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