The V8 Owners Forum -

Bill, got any more details, I may be intrested
Ian

A small one would do me fine really. This one sounds similar to one I delivered for Wayne, that weighed around 1.25 - 1.5 tons, couldn't move it with an engine crane, too big, but he's got an overhead gantry/winch. Too big for my workshop, would fit the other shop but that's being kept as a paint room.

Ian, PM on the way mate

Guys I have often wished I had a small lathe, but have no idea which lathes are good or not so good. I've seen small lathes made by a company called Warco, are they any good? Ian what would you recommend as a good small lathe for a starter?

Where do you start with buying a lathe, its quite deep subject, Its more dependant on what you want from the tool, and the needs, If you want to do things like drums and discs, dont even bother with a small lathe, even with a gap bed [a piece of removable bed to allow for a larger dia job] motors tend to be sized for the lathe, and a small lathe is unlikely to have enough of a motor to turn large dia jobs, even with a low gear the torque multiplication of the outer edge of the item machined will give the lathe problems
Buy the biggest you can sensibly afford or fit into your workshop. you can allways turn small jobs on a big lathe, but you cant turn Big jobs on a small lathe, If you were modelmaking I would say it dosent matter,, get a small one.
There are 3 normal types of bed, Round Bed, Flat Bed and V Bed, listed in my order of preferal, The V being the Best, screw cutting and power feed is a big bonus and desirable, and on many lathes in the small range lathes do not come as standard.
The lathes that I think Clarke sell are reasonable , my mate bought one and was delighted with it, But then he is not an engineer, If you want a small reliable lathe a Myford ML7 or super 7 is a good SMALL hobby lathe, the next size up would be the ML10, normally only have light use and ANYTHING you want for them is available, for that reason they do hold a preimum in the price stakes
There are plenty of other small/nid size lathes about, you just need to look on fleabay see what appeals, then google the lathe make and model, you will be surprised how mush info is there
Ian

The problem I have found with all of the new cheap lathes like clarke, warco is the slop on the slides/feeds is so much it makes them difficult to use for accurate work. I ended up paying the same money as a cheap new lathe on a good old lathe and have never regretted it. As Ian says the Myford's are popular if a bit basic another to look out for is a Raglan which is slightly bigger and has more features like variable speed and both slides have a power feed instead of just one. Course if you have the space a Colchester is a great tool and many have very little use as they sat in schools for decades hardly being used.

katanaman wrote:The problem I have found with all of the new cheap lathes like clarke, warco is the slop on the slides/feeds is so much it makes them difficult to use for accurate work. I ended up paying the same money as a cheap new lathe on a good old lathe and have never regretted it. As Ian says the Myford's are popular if a bit basic another to look out for is a Raglan which is slightly bigger and has more features like variable speed and both slides have a power feed instead of just one. Course if you have the space a Colchester is a great tool and many have very little use as they sat in schools for decades hardly being used.

Try finding a 30" Student for sensible money,

This my colchester student, served my dad for over 20 years - now seeing out its well overdue retirement in my workshop.

Its an old "round head" model,
http://www.mez.co.uk/dcam/DSCF1265.JPG

Ive seen these on ebay for under £500, there's a slightly newer one on ebay now for £899

Elliot, If you ever want to get rid of it????, I did my apprenticeship induction on a roundhead,

Now Im piss-d off, My son Just saw that picture of elliots Lathe and calmly said, we ran a couple of those in last week, He took one look at my face and said "Im off out now, bye" fookin numpty left in about 15 seconds flat, Ill find out more tomorrow.