Which mini lathe....?

For the money the harbor freight little lathe is hard to beat with coupon and on sale.

For its size it is stout enough and it will give you something to use.

They support it well with parts so good there.

Tooling depends on what you wish to do but look for machinery dealers as some have an odds and ends and used department where you can find many useful things fair priced.

Estate sales too.
 
Good luck with your new toy.

I found these videos on basic lathe stuff very handy when I started out. He uses a Sherline, and some are specific to to that brand, but most are just general information that applies to any machine.

Mini Machining


There are tons of machining videos out there on youtube.
 
The LMS lathe is probably a good choice. I bought one from Micro Mark thinking it would be better quality than one from Harbor Freight. If I had to it over I would have saved myself a couple hundred and just bought the HF lathe. The MM lathe had the same issues with quality, fit and finish as all the others and in my opinion wasn't worth the extra money. Weird lead screws can be dealt with by adding a DRO which is a worthwhile addition anyway. No matter which 7 X ?? you buy you will need to go through it and make adjustments and improvements.

I ended up selling the Micro Mark and buying a slightly used Grizzly G0602 10 X 22 off CraigsList. After adding 3 phase motor with VFD, DRO, building a reverse tumbler assembly and buying some additional tooling I have a really nice lathe with about $2,000.00 invested.
 
The LMS lathe is probably a good choice. I bought one from Micro Mark thinking it would be better quality than one from Harbor Freight. If I had to it over I would have saved myself a couple hundred and just bought the HF lathe. The MM lathe had the same issues with quality, fit and finish as all the others and in my opinion wasn't worth the extra money. Weird lead screws can be dealt with by adding a DRO which is a worthwhile addition anyway. No matter which 7 X ?? you buy you will need to go through it and make adjustments and improvements.

I ended up selling the Micro Mark and buying a slightly used Grizzly G0602 10 X 22 off CraigsList. After adding 3 phase motor with VFD, DRO, building a reverse tumbler assembly and buying some additional tooling I have a really nice lathe with about $2,000.00 invested.

When I decided to get back into hobby machining, I too bought a MM lathe thinking that I was getting a higher quality lathe for my money. Ended up selling it shortly after buying it as I was having too many issues with it.
 
Chip speaks the truth. I haven't even made a decent dent in building my tooling inventory for my Grizzly lathe and I'm already trying to figure out how I can sneak a mill into the basement...
 
Thanks for all the input. I read all your suggestions etc, and did more research yesterday and today. I ended up pulling the trigger an hour ago and ordered the Grizzly G0765 7x14 mini lathe from Grizzly, for $754 shipped to my door in Canada.

I had already decided to buy the LMS 5100 in January, and have it sent to Montana. But after working the calculator, the LMS unit would have cost me $899 plus $165 in shipping costs to Montana, and another $30 to the place I have it shipped to in their fees, total of $1094. And then I would have to drive down to Montana to collect it, which was another 400 miles and $100 in gas, so about $1200 plus import tax.

I now paid $754 plus import tax, so saved $450. And I wasn't so sure the LMS 5100 was $450 nicer than the Grizzly. Maybe I will kick myself later, but there's $450 already to use for tools.

I am going order some tools from LMS in the next few days. Looking at their starter "kit" for about $198 and will order a 4" 4-jaw chuck with adapter for another $99 as well as a live centre and a few other odds and ends, for a total of about $350.
 
Heh, heh, like Chip said, now we got you!

Congrats on the new lathe. You are about to find out that hobby machining isn't really about machining; its about personal growth. You will learn about different materials, tooling, oils, hydraulics, physics, electrical work, mechanical design, etc, etc. You will become more self-reliant and far more capable, and this hobby will enable you to do more in your other hobbies. And you get to rub elbows with the HM crew and enjoy the knowledge and camaraderie found here. Yeah, we're going to try to get you to spend your money but it will be done with the very best intentions ... :laughing:

Welcome to HM, G!!
 
I hope you have fun with your new lathe, I only joined the HM less than a year ago but soon found out that the old timers here are very good at spending newer members money :D so before they bring up other tools that you'll need let me ask you first, have you got a mill yet:big grin:
 
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