Recommendation for which Asian Lathe to buy.

[Nogoingback]

At $1600.00, your budget is pretty tight for any kind of machine with tooling, and it's not clear from your post what size machine you have in
mind. I would strongly suggest not purchasing a machine directly from China (alibaba, etc.). Product and warranty support is going
to be slim to nonexistent in most cases and if the machine is a dud, you'll probably have no recourse. A company with a presence in the
USA like Grizzly, Jet or Precision Mathews will be available to provide parts and support if needed which is an important consideration. The online prices may be seductive,
but in reality, you can't get something for nothing.
If you have a small lathe in mind (less than 10" swing) Grizzly has one on sale: https://www.grizzly.com/products/Grizzly-9-x-19-Bench-Lathe/G4000,
but keep in mind these are small machines with limited capability.

It's also not clear if you plan on using the machine for a hobby, prototypes or production, but it sounds like you need to bump up the budget
to start with.

 

[rajhliux]

The question isn't so much how often you'll change gears, but rather how often you need to switch between inch and metric. The cheapest lathes will change all the gears for each thread (that sucks), but the mid price ones (like mine) will have a quick change gearbox which covers many different threads and I only need to switch them when going from inch to metric or a really oddball thread. A fully enclosed gearbox is a real commodity and is only featured on production machinery. Gear change is usually only needed between jobs and can be put in the same bucket as tooling and work holding setup time.

But totally up to you. If you have the cash for a nice lathe then... a nice lathe is what you'll get.

Well before I would never thought I would need to play around with metric threading system, just recently I need to do a complex custom PC water cooling system. The PC water cooling industry all over the world including the US uses the "G1/4" thread system which is metric for the water fittings. So I'm sure in the future many projects other than PC water cooling will require me to change between metric and imperial more often since I'm a hobbisyst for the entire study of all mechanical, electrical and electronics engineering, literally.

 

[rajhliux]

Count me in for that road trip. I was all ready to head over there before all this COVID nonsense. I may never leave the building.

I still haven't left my building since february.

 

[bakrch]

I still haven't left my building since february.

I feel your pain through proxy. My wife's office is in Manhattan, she works from home so only there once a month to maintain presence when things were normal. I hear her coworkers talking about how NYC is almost on a daily basis. I can't even process what I hear, really.

 

[ThinWoodsman]

'm not a true machinist, just a straight up noob. I totally agree with the logic of buying a used lathe, but a noob like myself has no idea where to even begin on finding one and hassel with all the repairs or what not for a used lathe. A noob will be wasting so much time it will be a project to refurbish the used lathe.

I was in the exact same position a few years ago, and I started out by buying an import bench lathe, under the assumption that I could set it down and get to work. This is most certainly not the case, and will not be the case for anything in your stated budget. As is often pointed out on this site, import machines* are more of a kit than a turnkey system, and if you do not already have the machinist or mechanic skills needed to diagnose what needs fixing (and how to fix it) then you will be left with a useless POS.

When buying used, if you buy off something like CraigsList instead of from a machinery dealer, you can have the use of the machine demonstrated to you, you can talk to the current owner and get an idea of its history, and if you get along well with the guy then he will likely tell you what needs fixing and how to go about it. Many used machines do not have anything wrong with them - they are for sale because a machine shop closed down, or converted to CNC.

Finally, it must be pointed out that regardless or whether you buy new or used, you are going to be the mechanic who keeps that machine running. Just bite the bullet and accept that fact now.

* at least those in the < $3000 price range

 

[ttabbal]

PM has nice machines for a decent price. For a new purchase for hobby and small business, it's hard not to recommend them.

For threading, you will need to change a gear for metric threads. Or imperial if you get a metric lathe. So you need to consider how often you need to use which type. I'm in the US and usually use imperial simply because it's more available when I am able to get shop time, usually weekends. So big box hardware stores are about it. I can order stuff online, but it's annoying to have both systems around. Particularly when you try to thread a 1/4" bolt into a 6mm thread.

If you are up for the project, there's also the open source ELS from clough42 on youtube. I added one to my PM1127 and it's great. Instant feed rate changes and screw pitch changes. Including metric.

As for new/used, the pros and cons are pretty well covered. I will add that my PM was pretty much ready to go after the normal cleanup and alignment you would have to do on any lathe. My used Bridgeport mill needed a full teardown to clean out the grease and a few parts, nothing major though. So I have done it both ways and was satisfied both times. I do think having some time on a machine to learn about how they wear and run is helpful in evaluating a used machine though. I also agree that you are the one who is going to have to keep the thing running. Even with support from PM, that just means I can get parts from them and they can answer questions. I still have to do the work. Thankfully, I haven't had any significant issues. But it is a bunch of moving parts that need to be precisely aligned and working together to get good results. And at these price levels, you don't get someone coming over to fix your machine. That can be had from some machinery dealers, but you pay for it.

 

[rajhliux]

I was in the exact same position a few years ago, and I started out by buying an import bench lathe, under the assumption that I could set it down and get to work. This is most certainly not the case, and will not be the case for anything in your stated budget. As is often pointed out on this site, import machines* are more of a kit than a turnkey system, and if you do not already have the machinist or mechanic skills needed to diagnose what needs fixing (and how to fix it) then you will be left with a useless POS.

When buying used, if you buy off something like CraigsList instead of from a machinery dealer, you can have the use of the machine demonstrated to you, you can talk to the current owner and get an idea of its history, and if you get along well with the guy then he will likely tell you what needs fixing and how to go about it. Many used machines do not have anything wrong with them - they are for sale because a machine shop closed down, or converted to CNC.

Finally, it must be pointed out that regardless or whether you buy new or used, you are going to be the mechanic who keeps that machine running. Just bite the bullet and accept that fact now.

* at least those in the < $3000 price range

I was in the impression where a machinist just like any other person wouldn't like to get bugged for something that they sold was "as is", plus I don't like bugging people. But due to my past history of buying used stuff and dealing with people always ended up bad... I'm sure there's good used stuff out there and using used stuff from the start is a wise choice. But I guess I might have to start looking around for a used lathe where I can customize it with an electronic lead screw not sure if this could be done. Note I have no Idea what is an electronic lead screw I just learned this term from this post.

Can you recommend which particular or companies I should look out for when considering a used lathe?

Thanks!

 

[rajhliux]

PM has nice machines for a decent price. For a new purchase for hobby and small business, it's hard not to recommend them.

For threading, you will need to change a gear for metric threads. Or imperial if you get a metric lathe. So you need to consider how often you need to use which type. I'm in the US and usually use imperial simply because it's more available when I am able to get shop time, usually weekends. So big box hardware stores are about it. I can order stuff online, but it's annoying to have both systems around. Particularly when you try to thread a 1/4" bolt into a 6mm thread.

If you are up for the project, there's also the open source ELS from clough42 on youtube. I added one to my PM1127 and it's great. Instant feed rate changes and screw pitch changes. Including metric.

As for new/used, the pros and cons are pretty well covered. I will add that my PM was pretty much ready to go after the normal cleanup and alignment you would have to do on any lathe. My used Bridgeport mill needed a full teardown to clean out the grease and a few parts, nothing major though. So I have done it both ways and was satisfied both times. I do think having some time on a machine to learn about how they wear and run is helpful in evaluating a used machine though. I also agree that you are the one who is going to have to keep the thing running. Even with support from PM, that just means I can get parts from them and they can answer questions. I still have to do the work. Thankfully, I haven't had any significant issues. But it is a bunch of moving parts that need to be precisely aligned and working together to get good results. And at these price levels, you don't get someone coming over to fix your machine. That can be had from some machinery dealers, but you pay for it.

Extremely interesting! This is what I needed to know, I am assuming your "ELS from clough42" (open source, even better) is an electronic leadscrew... anyhows I need this type of modification where one does not need to play around with gears for different threading and also for changing between metric and imperial. I will google search into this "ELS from clough42" stuff. I like how I can just type down the numbers on a pad rather than manually switching gears.

 

[macardoso]

I was in the impression where a machinist just like any other person wouldn't like to get bugged for something that they sold was "as is", plus I don't like bugging people. But due to my past history of buying used stuff and dealing with people always ended up bad... I'm sure there's good used stuff out there and using used stuff from the start is a wise choice. But I guess I might have to start looking around for a used lathe where I can customize it with an electronic lead screw not sure if this could be done. Note I have no Idea what is an electronic lead screw I just learned this term from "
macardoso".

I wouldn't say it is a common things to do, but there are a few people who have added one of these systems to their lathe. It is a DIY project, but there is good documentation.

Benchtop Lathe Gets An Electronic Leadscrew Makeover

The king of machine tools is the lathe, and if the king has a heart, it’s probably the leadscrew. That’s the bit that allows threading operations, arguably the most important job a lath…

hackaday.com

I've had good luck with used stuff, but you have to have 1) patience to wait for something appropriate for your needs to turn up, and 2) a willingness to clean it up and fix a few thing,

 

[rajhliux]

I wouldn't say it is a common things to do, but there are a few people who have added one of these systems to their lathe. It is a DIY project, but there is good documentation.

Benchtop Lathe Gets An Electronic Leadscrew Makeover

The king of machine tools is the lathe, and if the king has a heart, it’s probably the leadscrew. That’s the bit that allows threading operations, arguably the most important job a lath…

hackaday.com

I've had good luck with used stuff, but you have to have 1) patience to wait for something appropriate for your needs to turn up, and 2) a willingness to clean it up and fix a few thing,

Is it possible you can recommend some used lathe brands which will perfectly work with an electronic lead screw? I wonder if there is any used PM lathe out there...