Recommended Lathe

[Steamcoaster]

Hi

I'm thinking of getting a small lathe and have been looking at Proxon. Any advice or recommendations? I'd love a Myford but don't have the space or need anything that big.

Cheers

Rupert

[Big Jim]

Proxon are good and the spares back up is excellent.
Your other option is something like a small Axminster.
The small Clarke one sold by Machine Mart is not too bad as a beginners lathe. But you may be limited if you want to do anything with odd size threads.

Second hand is a possibility but can be mine field if you don't really know what you are looking at. There are companies that sell second hand machines and will advise accordingly. I have heard of machines being pulled out of schools and going for scrap. These tend to be things like Colchester Student machines and can be a very good buy as they don't normally have a lot of use on them. It might be worth asking around local scrap merchants. Although things like these tend to be on the large side.

I have a 1936 Drummond Round Bed and it is a wonderful machine but you have to hunt for things like change wheels and if you want a back gear set up you will have to make something yourself. (it was very cheap though!) Spares are obviously no longer available new.

No matter what you buy, it will not be large enough!

Look for accessories such as a vertical slide as this will allow you to use your lathe as a milling machine.

Combined Lathes and Mills IMHO tend to have all the disadvantages and non of the advantages of having two machines.

Avoid ebay Chinese copy specials unless you have a really good sense of humour and be wary of the unimat 6 in 1 machines as they are very limited in what you can do with them.



Try Lathes.co.uk for information.

[GTB]

I'm thinking of getting a small lathe and have been looking at Proxon. Any advice or recommendations? I'd love a Myford but don't have the space or need anything that big.

First question is what do you plan to make with a lathe?

If you want to get into loco building and/or making rolling stock wheels, the two Proxxon lathes are both underpowered for that sort of work.

If it's just for making detail parts for rolling stock, then a Proxxon size lathe could be suitable, but rather expensive.

I've not used either, but the cheaper one strikes me as not even as capable as an old Unimat SL. The more expensive one is descended from the Toyo lathes and would be equivalent to the Unimat 3/4 models.

Steer clear of anything second hand, unless you have the trade skills to restore it. If you don't have space for a Myford, the only small ex-education ones around in Australia are usually used and abused Sheraton and Hercus copies of the 9" South Bend, which are larger than a Myford. Second hand Myfords are around, but good ones are in demand and usually expensive.

Assuming you are still located in Perth, here in Oz the smallest available option for loco building in the garden scales is a Chinese made 7x12. Other brands of small lathe like Taig and Sherline don't seem to be available now in Aust.

I know Hare & Forbes have a Perth branch. They recently stopped selling the Sieg C2 and now stock a couple of small lathes from Optimum. This is a German company, but the lathes are made in China. At least you can walk into H&F and do some tyre kicking before handing over the money.

Carba-Tec are also in Perth, but seem to have stopped selling Sieg lathes and mill/drills recently. Presumably Ausee in Melbourne have proved to be too much competition, as his prices are a lot cheaper.

When I retired and set up for loco building, I bought a Seig C2 lathe and an X2 mill from H&F. They have now made two and a half locos and getting on for 100 wheelsets. The cheap bench drill I already had turned out to not be up to the job, so it was eventually replaced with a Seig X1 mill drill for drilling metal parts. Each machine uses about 1m x 0.4m of bench top, plus a shelf underneath for accessories.

I've also got my 40 year old Unimat SL, which was originally bought for scratchbuilding in HO, but it still gets fired up now and again for working on small parts that I can't grip in the bigger lathe's chuck. I also used it for precision drilling until I got the X1 mill/drill. It was OK for small drills, but was limited in the size of the workpiece it could handle.

Used Unimats are fairly easy to find, but tend to go for silly prices for what they are. Sherlines were originally made in Aust. and early ones turn up from time to time as well.

Unimat size lathes have been used for building small live steam locos, but it would be excruciatingly slow, as they can't take large cuts and parting off can be a problem, especially when working on steel.

The other thing to realise with machine tools is that the machine is only part of the cost. The tools and accessories needed to do anything useful with it can easily add up to the same cost again, especially for a mill.

Regards,
Graeme

[Big Jim]

Sorry I did not look at your location. Please ignore what I said about things being removed from schools and Machine Mart as they probably don't apply.