mini lathes

[haynes66]

been looking at unimat lathes as i dont have a big shed. any recommendations/suggestions about which small lathe to go for? i only need to make small items. any bigger, and i go to the machine shop down the road.

[matthewmosse]

I have a warco and I am very pleased with it, quality fine, after sales good. I would steer clear of clarke as my similar age bandsaw and bench grinder are both dead and machine mart didn't inpress me with their service. I think you might do well looking at older lathes, but do be aware that whilst quality can be excellent even on  ones over 100 years old, but parts / accessories like chucks can be pretty hard to come by for some if the spindle thread is a bit un usual. Myford have a good reputation. I bought something called an Oliver and whilst it is excellent quality and not that worn especially given it is over 100 years old - no worse than my 10 year old Warco that I bought new, but chucks are a real pain to get. I also found it is dual perpous and does wood turning too which means I now have less time for bikes.

[haynes66]

just looked up warco lathes. very nice but even the bench one is too big for me. my shed is approximately two and a half honda 750s long and one honda wide! bit of a squeeze with two bikes in there already!

[AshimotoK0]

This is mine, it's a really sh*tty picture but it has a milling head as well as being a normal small lathe. It was  made in Austria by Emco and  I think its an Emcomat 7. No expert on it as I did woodwork at school but it's invaluable for making or adapting small parts. I don't use it very often and so it has a tendancy to go rusty every winter. The 4-jaw chuck I got with it has never been used ! It does scew cutting etc.

http://www.lathes.co.uk/emco/page4.htm

Ash

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[corromant]

Myford 10 or a Hobbymat, couple of Hobbymat's on fleabay at the moment.

[StClair]

"and so it has a tendancy to go rusty every winter."

ACF 50   

[AshimotoK0]

"and so it has a tendancy to go rusty every winter."

ACF 50   

I said that out of total embarrassment really. It got left a couple of winters without me spraying it with something like that, when I wasn't feeling well. I intend using it a lot more over the following winters anyway so hopefully it wont get rusty in future. The beauty of it is that I would always more than get back what I paid for it and it came with tons of tooling. It's had very little use since new but evidently the thing to watch out for on a second hand one is the fibre gears in the gearbox. The later ones were not made in Austria and inferior quality.

Just checked and here is one similar to mine and about the same as what I paid 7 years ago for one.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Emcomat-7-lathe-with-Milling-head-/291518976286?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item43dfe2911e

[MikeSB6]

Hello,

  I've had a Hobbymat for ages and it's a very good little lathe, although screwcutting is very difficult (impossible) without making a hand crank to hand turn the spindle, rather than using the motor, which is too high geared. There is an accessory slow speed drive which can be fitted if you do a lot of thread cutting.They were made in East Germany and are well made-spares are available mail order on the internet.

   Cheers, MikeJ

[haynes66]

thanks. i'm just turning small items mostly. i tend to hand crank for threading anyway so a hobbymat would suit me well.