- Joined
- Dec 31, 2013
- Messages
- 17
Hi folks,
I'm new to the forum, so forgive me if this has been covered in the past (and please point me in the right direction if it was).
Let me set this up, after owning a 7x minilathe for the last ten years, i spent about a month and a half checking ebay, craigslist and any other classifieds that i could find for a small hobby/garage metal lathe. During that time i did a lot of research as well. I noticed every used amercian or new chinese lathe that i found lacked a feature or two that another might have, but was lacking elsewhere. i finally settled on a HF 8x12 as the best bang for my buck with most of what i was looking for, but it got me thinking...
what would i really want in a home shop/hobby lathe? what would you want in the same? i know many time i've owned something that i really liked but thought "if only it had this". i'm a designer by trade, so when i get some spare time, i could possibly model "our" lathe up for all to see. i figure this could be kind of fun and give us all a chance to dream a little. let's put our heads together and see what happens.
so, a few parameters to get things going. I'm thinking around/under $1500, small enough that a guy and a buddy or two could move, large enough capacity to be useful for potentially light industrial work... you get the picture, let's try and keep it at least in the ball park.
i understand that no one machine will ever do everything that an operator wants it to (without a lot of figuring out work-arounds) or will be perfect for every application (say gun smith vs. tooling maker), but let's see what we can come up with.
keep in mind that this is lathe currently doesn't exist, it's not a debate about who already makes or made the best. this is a clean sheet design and it's up to you to pick the features that are important to you. be specific where you can, saying "a wide bed" isn't nearly as helpful giving an actual dimension. belt driven, geared head, quick changes, power cross feed... let's hear what you have to say.
thanks for your time, i look forward to hearing from you guys. if nothing else, this should be interesting...
let the games begin!
I'm new to the forum, so forgive me if this has been covered in the past (and please point me in the right direction if it was).
Let me set this up, after owning a 7x minilathe for the last ten years, i spent about a month and a half checking ebay, craigslist and any other classifieds that i could find for a small hobby/garage metal lathe. During that time i did a lot of research as well. I noticed every used amercian or new chinese lathe that i found lacked a feature or two that another might have, but was lacking elsewhere. i finally settled on a HF 8x12 as the best bang for my buck with most of what i was looking for, but it got me thinking...
what would i really want in a home shop/hobby lathe? what would you want in the same? i know many time i've owned something that i really liked but thought "if only it had this". i'm a designer by trade, so when i get some spare time, i could possibly model "our" lathe up for all to see. i figure this could be kind of fun and give us all a chance to dream a little. let's put our heads together and see what happens.
so, a few parameters to get things going. I'm thinking around/under $1500, small enough that a guy and a buddy or two could move, large enough capacity to be useful for potentially light industrial work... you get the picture, let's try and keep it at least in the ball park.
i understand that no one machine will ever do everything that an operator wants it to (without a lot of figuring out work-arounds) or will be perfect for every application (say gun smith vs. tooling maker), but let's see what we can come up with.
keep in mind that this is lathe currently doesn't exist, it's not a debate about who already makes or made the best. this is a clean sheet design and it's up to you to pick the features that are important to you. be specific where you can, saying "a wide bed" isn't nearly as helpful giving an actual dimension. belt driven, geared head, quick changes, power cross feed... let's hear what you have to say.
thanks for your time, i look forward to hearing from you guys. if nothing else, this should be interesting...
let the games begin!