Greg Haugen
Member
For those of you with metal lathes, what brand and model are you using??
Which metal lathe do you prefer?
- Thread starter Greg Haugen
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Curly
Member
Grizzly G4003G. I bought it as I felt it would suit most any purpose I could foresee needing. So far it has. Had I been looking for a dedicated pen lathe my choice might be different.
I have worked my way up from Unimat, Taig, Sherline, Atlas 6,10,&12 and I have just went to a Pm1236 for my main lathe.But as Curly states what else will you use it for/ For pens The 7 x 16 is a great size,
Greg Haugen
Member
I'm mainly looking for it for pens. Anything thing else, would be fine but mostly pens. I'm trying to improve the custom pens, by quality and quantity.
THe 7x14 is the minimum I recommend but others here find the 7 x 10 works for them. The 7 x 16 is another good choice, Depending on your budget, you may want to jump to a 9 x 20 or larger. Your lathe choice will be about half of what you will spend the other half is tooling.
lorbay
Member
I have the B Bee 10x18 B2227L
It works fine for me but I wished it had dials and levers for threading rather than changing gears.
Lin
It works fine for me but I wished it had dials and levers for threading rather than changing gears.
Lin
Lin, I'm very surprised that you say that. In my opinion, the fixed gearboxes are very limiting. You can only make a set amount of threads even though the set up may be simple. Change gears on the other hand are almost limitless in their combinations. You can even set them up so that if you work with the lathe off, you can make it do things like you can on a Beall Pen Wizard but with metal !!:wink:. Try and do one rotation of your spindle with three inches of carriage travel with a fixed box. :tongue: Ain't gonna happen unless you have change gears......:biggrin:
ChrisN
Member
I prefer the ones I can't afford! :biggrin: Now, seriously, I just purchased a HF 7x12 and it's coming early next week! I am confident I won't be dissapointed.
lorbay
Member
Oh really
I am going to have to look into this more. So I could actually turn acme thread with this.? Lin.
Lin, you may even be able to cut Acme threads with your fixed box. I don't know what your gearing options are on your machine but I suspect you should be able to get lower than 8tpi?. I haven't cut an Acme thread (yet :wink
but I believe that if you can get the gearing then the rest is just upto the cutter shape, which I also believe is quite critical. Have a go...:biggrin:
Greg, apologies for derailing your original question.
My answer to your question would be that unless you have some big bucks to blow, then any of the bigger Chinese clones are much of a muchness. In fact the vast majority are just rebranded identical machines. Chinese clone lathes don't deserve the bad rep they get. You will find that the people that whine the most about Chinese stuff, often don't know so much anyway.:wink:
Mine is a generic 10x21 and I love it.:biggrin:
but I believe that if you can get the gearing then the rest is just upto the cutter shape, which I also believe is quite critical. Have a go...:biggrin:Greg, apologies for derailing your original question.
My answer to your question would be that unless you have some big bucks to blow, then any of the bigger Chinese clones are much of a muchness. In fact the vast majority are just rebranded identical machines. Chinese clone lathes don't deserve the bad rep they get. You will find that the people that whine the most about Chinese stuff, often don't know so much anyway.:wink:
Mine is a generic 10x21 and I love it.:biggrin:
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Sorry Lin, I just realised that you said you have the change gears, not the fixed box. :redface:
Get a book from the Workshop Practice Series #3 - Screwcutting in the Lathe.
Great info and a great section on change gears. It shows you how to understand why and how the gears are selected for your desired thread. .
Once you catch on, youwill easily be able to select gears for any thread....metric or imperial.
I'm about to fly to Holland to work for the whole of Jan but I'll see if I can find the ISBN number before I go.
Get a book from the Workshop Practice Series #3 - Screwcutting in the Lathe.
Great info and a great section on change gears. It shows you how to understand why and how the gears are selected for your desired thread. .
Once you catch on, youwill easily be able to select gears for any thread....metric or imperial.
I'm about to fly to Holland to work for the whole of Jan but I'll see if I can find the ISBN number before I go.
Curly
Member
plano_harry
Member
I am a pen maker so I bought the HF 7x10. It does everything I need and I use it a lot. Sold a Unimat and bought the HF on sale with the money, and QCTP and collet chuck with the left over cash.