Recommendation for which Asian Lathe to buy.

[ArmyDoc]

I'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 hate refurbishing stuff. Would rather pay a good bill for a new product that is ready to be used straight out of the box. I don't think there is any used lathe in the market which has a fully automatic gearbox for changing imperial and metric.

A good place to start is craigslist. Local hobby machinists are likely to list there. Also, you will see ads from machinery sales places, then you will be able to go to their sites and check their inventory, or go talk to them. I finally talked myself into an ~ $5000 budget for a new lathe. Similar to you, I didn't want to deal with gear changes. (Bear in mind on the PM new machines, you still need to swap out a gear when changing from imperial to metric) At $5,000, suddenly used industrial machines come into the picture. A 1000# PM 1236 is not going to hold a candle to a used #3000 industrial lathe, and these often come with extra attachments, if it is decent condition. There is a site near me that sells used equipment. It doesn't have the kind of warranty that a new machine has, but they do have a 30 return policy that makes buying used less worrisome. You are likely to find similar places near you.

 

[ArmyDoc]

I do have plans to make profit with the help of the lathe but more importantly before profits comes into play, not changing gears is important.
Does PM 1340 or 1440GT have a fully enclosed gearbox? Would I have to do a "5 min" gear change for different threads sizes for both imperial and metric? Is there any lathe that does not require for a "5 min" gear change?

Thanks!

I believe the PM- 1440GS will do metric and imperial without having to use a change gear. It had a dial that you turned left or right to choose between metric and imperial. Unfortunately it is currently out of stock. Talk to Matt. He would know a) when it's coming back and b) if he has an alternative that would work for you.

 

[darkzero]

@ArmyDoc The OP is no longer a member of this forum.

 

[addertooth]

I chuckle when I read through this post, and it got to one and a half pages before someone mentioned dies (taps may be needed to). When doing tapered pipe threads without a tap/die, there is a lot of set up on many lathes... the changing of lead screw gears is trivial when compared to setting up the right taper for the Internal Diameter tapered cut (unless you want your threading tool to do the heavy cutting while creating threads). This is why commercial locations use taps and dies to do tapered pipe threads (or CNC). They produce consistent results which are easy to master, with virtually no set up, other than to change the die (or cutting teeth in the die head). If I were going to be consistently cutting ten different tapered threads, a tap and die set, or a tap and die head with replaceable cutting thread inserts would be my method of choice. This method can even be done on a turret lathe (which will normally NOT have a compound feed for tapers, in a non-CNC production environment). Cutting an internal diameter to a taper is easy, the setup cutting a tapered thread is more complex.

On this website, take a peek in the "a beginner's forum", they have a sticky posting on cutting threads. You will note there is almost no mention of tapered pipe threads, as it is not considered a beginner's technique, without a tap and die.

 

[ttabbal]

I know it's at least theoretically possible to cut tapered threads on a normal lathe, but I would never bother. Too much setup etc for the benefit. Tap/Die if I really need pipe threads. If it's my own part, o-ring seals with straight threads. I despise pipe threads.