What lathe?

Garpike said:
That has been on my mind. Most of my parts should be under .75", I make clocks.
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Sherlines are very popular with clock and watch makers. As long as your projects are under 2" diameter the size of the Sherline is not a major concern. I would recommend going with the long 4400 model with the 17" bed. I have never needed the entire 17", but I frequently would have run into issues with the short 8" bed.

The 7" lathes are suitable for a lot of small projects, but the out of the box serviceability of Sherline is much better, and Sherline has very good customer support. There is also far more specialized tooling available for Sherline, from Sherline. The Sherline lathes and tooling is not cheap, but that is mostly due to being made in the USA and being made to a higher standard than the no name tooling available for the import lathes.

The customer fan base for the 7" lathes is sizable and there are many tweaks shared, but many of these are oriented towards fixing flaws with the basic lathe. Sherline also has a large fan base, but shared tweaks are more oriented to special needs rather than fixing issues with the machine.

Obviously we all have budget restrictions which may limit our choices, but prioritizing budget over other considerations often leads to a poor selection. Sherline may seem the more expensive but going with a higher quality 7x16 like the LMS is going to run $1200 with minimal tooling (basically a chuck, and centers).
A Sherline 4400 with the C package is $1350 and includes a good selection of tooling to get you started. At the moment (until 7/31) Sherline is offering 20% off on many lathe and mill packages.

For full disclosure I am a happy Sherline owner.
 
I first bought a mini lathe (HBM DC300) and after some years, I bought a bigger lathe (HBM BF290). They can both turn to tight dimensions but it is easier to do on the bigger lathe. On both lathes I turn the same parts. Cutting depth is limited but even on the mini lathe, I take 0.5 mm cuts in steel without a problem. I could cut even deeper but that would bring to much stress to the half nut (yes, my mini lathe has only 1 half nut) and that would reduce the life time.
Both my lathes are converted to CNC and can be used manual.

What I like the most at the bigger lathe is the 38 mm bore size. Because it has a longer (600 mm) bed, I can keep the tail stock mounted all the time.
What I like the most at the mini lathe is the 80 mm chuck that is more suitable for clamping small parts than the 160 mm chuck of my bigger lathe.

In time, I need the space so one of the lathes has to go. I will then sell the mini lathe and buy a small chuck for my bigger lathe.

I don't think a mini lathe is wrong to get started. If you make a mistake, the damage is less because the power is less.
 
Another thing I will mention is I saved just over $70.00 shipping by picking up the lathe at the Fed-ex place instead of having it delivered to the house. It is only about 30 minutes from my house so it was well worth it to me.
 
Spelling mistake. That should have been a "taper attachment."
 
Sorry about the above post, I should have tried it in the practice section first but the point is a low power lathe probable saves a major incident because instead of braking the tool and having it fly who knows where it just shut off the lathe instantly. I had it set at a low speed, thankfully
 
Aaron_W said:
Sherlines are very popular with clock and watch makers. As long as your projects are under 2" diameter the size of the Sherline is not a major concern. I would recommend going with the long 4400 model with the 17" bed. I have never needed the entire 17", but I frequently would have run into issues with the short 8" bed.

The 7" lathes are suitable for a lot of small projects, but the out of the box serviceability of Sherline is much better, and Sherline has very good customer support. There is also far more specialized tooling available for Sherline, from Sherline. The Sherline lathes and tooling is not cheap, but that is mostly due to being made in the USA and being made to a higher standard than the no name tooling available for the import lathes.

The customer fan base for the 7" lathes is sizable and there are many tweaks shared, but many of these are oriented towards fixing flaws with the basic lathe. Sherline also has a large fan base, but shared tweaks are more oriented to special needs rather than fixing issues with the machine.

Obviously we all have budget restrictions which may limit our choices, but prioritizing budget over other considerations often leads to a poor selection. Sherline may seem the more expensive but going with a higher quality 7x16 like the LMS is going to run $1200 with minimal tooling (basically a chuck, and centers).
A Sherline 4400 with the C package is $1350 and includes a good selection of tooling to get you started. At the moment (until 7/31) Sherline is offering 20% off on many lathe and mill packages.

For full disclosure I am a happy Sherline owner.
Click to expand...
Thanks...helpful info to be sure!
 
I'm leaning toward the Sherline for your purposes. And I am loathe to do so. My 'off the cuff' answer is "one size larger than you can afford". Except that I don't endorse buying more than you can afford - just that most people can afford a little more than they expect things to cost. There's no such thing as a free lunch, and these smaller lathes require smaller (non-standard) tooling. And that can get expensive. Tooling can easily eclipse cost of the lathe (don't let your SO read this...) so plan ahead. A medium-sized lathe, that accepts common tooling may well be cheaper in the long run than a small machine with limited options. As someone else mentioned - you can do small work on a large lathe, but you can't do large work on a small lathe. Not entirely true. I suggest picking up a copy of Sparey's "The Amateur Lathe", but I'd still lean toward the biggest lathe available. That said, if you're *sure* that you're only going to work on clock parts... Well, Sherline is excellent, reliable, and proven, quality.

In short, and I doubt anyone will argue with this: buy the biggest quality lathe you can afford space for...

My first lathe was wholly inadequate, though I didn't realize it at first. I made a big step up and haven't ever looked back.

GsT
 
I'm not sure what "standard" size tooling you are referring to. A lot of tooling is specific to the machine. More general size based tooling like tool posts have a fair bit of flexibility. So sure the amount of tooling that will exchange from a Sherline to a 12x36 is fairly small, but the same can largely be said for going from a 9" South Bend, or a 12" to a 14".

I have a fair bit of tooling that can go between my Sherline, 6" Craftsman, 11" Powermatic and my Clausing mill.
 
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