Mini lathe

[93marshooter]

I saw one of those mini lathes for $350. At a local pawn shop. It has 12 in between centers. Do any of you here use one of these. Are these worth the time and price? I do not have space for a floor lathe even a small one.

[Mescalero]

I do not think so, but I already own a large lathe.
Might think differently if I did not.

[pwl44m]

I would like to have a Mini Lathe and 350 doesn't sound so out of touch. I have looked on E-bay and seen them for a lot more.
Perry

[Hawkeye2]

Go to Harbor Freight and check the current prices. Are any of the accessories with it or is it just the bare lathe? If everything is there and it runs it sounds reasonable. You can find parts and accessories here and they are great to deal with:

http://littlemachineshop.com/

If you do a search you will find lots of sites dealing with improving these lathes and there are one or two Yahoo! groups dedicated to them. The general consensus is that they are a handy lathe if you realize their shortcomings up front. They are quite handy for making special cleaning jags and small parts but they are quite limited as to the size of work you can do in one. I have one that was pulled from a dumpster and needed a control box. I bought a new control box from Little Machine Shop and have picked up parts and accessories from there and on eBay and now have a nice little lathe with some extras for far less than a new one.

[3t-]

I'll throw my .02 in here and this is not to be critical but based on experience.

Before you buy any size, quality, model of machine tool determine the work you will be doing with it. It's very much like buying a gun, what you are going to use it for makes all the difference and can greatly impact what you buy.

I've owned several makes, models and vintages of what I would call home shop lathes and mills up to lite industrial machines and very few of them are an all around machine. Again Know what your intended work will be for the machine.

As for a 7x12 or 9x20 class machine. Small projects can be produced with fair to good results. After you learn how to run the machine. If you've already had this training you are ahead of the game. 10, 11, 12 and 13 inch machines are much more suited for projects that might fall in the "gun owners" hobby. Again not all machines are created equal and like guns the less expensive machines will have less power, will not hold the tightest tolerances, and will lack many of the features and functions that you might soon find you desire.

Your best spent money would be at your local community college and go through their intro to machining classes with some possible additional classes specific to lathe operation. (if you have not already done so) This will really give you the information you need to make a good choice in machine tools.

[Griff]

Your best spent money would be at your local community college and go through their intro to machining classes with some possible additional classes specific to lathe operation. (if you have not already done so) This will really give you the information you need to make a good choice in machine tools.

Man, I couldn't emphasize that enough!

[20cows]

I have the 9x20 and enjoy playing with it. I`ve only had a little tutoring, but did a lot of web research before I got it. Much of the work I`ve done on it is to make upgrades for the lathe itself.

It does add another dimension to what I can do in my shop.

[pdentrem]

Mini lathes can do more than some are lead to believe. Over at Hobby-machinist.com there is a topic about a build up using a 7X12 lathe. Makes for interesting reading.

http://www.hobby-machinist.com/showthre ... mini-lathe

Pierre

[Chuck 100 yd]

Lathes are supposed to be precision tools and the made in China ones are not exactly precise but can be used to perform lots of tasks that need done .

The learning experience alone will be worth that much if you are new to operating a lathe and when someday you get a real lathe that one can be used as a back up to do little jobs like trimming a screws length. Jobs that are a pain in a large machine.
Have fun!!

My Jet does a good job for a made in China $4,000 <<< machine that would be 20K +++ new if made in the US of A . You gets what you pays for .... mostly.
Many happy hours spent making chips.

PS, in the picture, on the bench behind the lathe, is a home made lathe I made to turn base plugs for powder horns on. I now use it for sanding,polishing,screw trimming and a dozen other things that that little mini could do.

[handirifle]

Well I have a HF 7x12 mini lathe and I have done TONS with it. Nearly every project I do lately, seems to end up with at leat one part coming off the lathe. My only regret, is it isn't bigger. BUT, it is about as big as I can afford.

I say if you're an experienced machinist (which you're probably not since you're asking the question) it wouldn't be good enough. But for someone that learned by reading and doing (still reading and doing, and more learning than I could ever hope to accomplish) it has been great.

Even for the Chinese ones, if you can afford bigger, get bigger. to me it has been a great intro tool, and if you want to move up, you can prob get the $350 back later on.

[mod71alaska]

I have a Unimat 3 mini lathe made in Austria. I highly recommend it. The Unimat 4 was made in Taiwan and isn't near the precision lathe...basically junk in comparison. I think any of the German made mini lathes would be a real good find.

[Alphawolf45]

I have 3 lathes that get used a lot as I spend nearly everyday in my workshop.. (Presently building a Highwall in .45-70 from barstock for BPCR silhouette competition) ..Majority of my lathe work is making bolts and pins and other small parts that could be made with a very small lathe if it could cut threads..

Chuck100yards -Comment on the Jet lathe.. Friend of mine has a JET lathe and I've used it a couple times when visiting him.. That is a fine machine and substantially better than any lathe that I have.

[Nate Kiowa Jones]

I have two lathes and a lathe/mill combo. The smallest is the HF 7x10. it's not my best lathe but I use it a lot. I like it for small projects. It's not great for repeatability but if you measure as you good it will do. It has a rheostat speed control which is handy. I have broke drive belts and the plastic spindle gears but those part are available from
http://littlemachineshop.com/ They have steel upgrade gears too.