Compare Chineese Lathes

[EE_Bota]

Actually, they do make my 3-1 still, and it is here.
- Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices

 

[dfkrug]

It would be great to have a southbend lathe and a Bridgeport mill but most of them are 3 phase, weigh a ton or more and take up a lot of space.

I hear ya, Bill. I agonized over this for years before I decided to get a new
9x20 Chinese lathe from Grizzley. I seriously considered an old used lathe,
but I have limited floor space, I want to run on 120V, and some of the
older ones I have seen are really beat up. They ARE cheap, however.

Am I satisfied with it? Sort of. But it was a trade-off. If I needed collets
or more capacity, I would consider the bigger units from Grizzley, or a
well cared for older US unit. There are a lot of old guys out there with lathes
at home who are a vanishing breed. As they are being sold off, they
come up all the time on Craigs.

 

[vbrent]

I'm buying a lathe to upgrade my shop capability

Hi, RedDirt, Just my two cents.

I've bought several differing quality Chinese made woodworking tools over the years. While I can say they get the job done, they are extremely frustrating to use. Think Yugo compared to basically any other car manufacturer. Yugos were hand built and the parts from one car never quite fit another.

I find Chinese tools are sloppy, difficult to set up, and parts break easily. Precision is not their forte, price is. Usage is subjective rather than objective. When I set the table to 0 degrees, it ain't quite zero, I have to play with it a while to get true zero. Never the same set up twice.

That said, as I get older, I replace my tools with American or European brands, and my pocket get lighter, but my blood pressure heads back to normal and I have to split more wood for the woodstove.

BTW, in the mid 80's a Porsche dealer in Ft. Lauderdale was giving away free Yugos with the purchase of a new Porsche. LOL, I remember driving past the Dollhouse and seeing a stripper getting out of her brand new Yugo...

 

[drivadesl]

I haven't purchased any large machine tools as you mentioned from Harbor Freight etc. so don't have first hand info on the comparisons. Read up on the 3n1 machines on the Home Shop Machinist Forum, they have a dedicated forum for these.

Originally I was looking at the HF line, but after investigating it, I decided old US iron was a better choice for me. From what I've read, the east coast has more old used equipment than the western states, so finding something used wasn't to hard to do. If your not in a rush, you may find some craigslist deals, or look at used machine dealers, or small repair shops that may be looking to liquidate. I was able to find a pretty decent 10" South Bend, with boxes of tooling for $1K. I then decided I had to have a Mill, so looked for a Bridgeport Knee Mill and found a great deal from a model shop who was closing up. This one below had a DRO, power feed, Kurt vice, and oiler for $1200. If you can wait and have patience, I would recommend going used, since the tooling costs as much as the machine and quickly adds up. Anyway, best of luck in your decision, let us know how it works out. I love having the capacity to custom fab parts when needed.

 

[Kernopelli]

I have the HF 3-in1 posted here and paid about $300 off Ebay for it from a freight recovery company...pretty easy purchase. If I had the choice, I would have a larger shop and the biggest separate lathe and mill I could find/afford. I don't have that much shop space and at the time I had zero luck finding one of those $400 Southbend lathes w/tools rumored to be floating around . With a little tweaking and time spent, the HF will do small things with Ok accuracy, I'm sure a more knowledgeable machinist could get more out of it. However, we have used the snot out of it and it has paid for its self many times over.

I didn't want to spend much when I started looking for one and eventually will put some money and effort into upgrading. If I was going to plan on spending $1700 plus tooling right now, I would start searching for an old larger separate lathe and mill that would definitely be better quality And comes with some tooling. I think this would be the best money spent.

 

[whistlepig]

I haven't purchased any large machine tools as you mentioned from Harbor Freight etc. so don't have first hand info on the comparisons. Read up on the 3n1 machines on the Home Shop Machinist Forum, they have a dedicated forum for these.

Originally I was looking at the HF line, but after investigating it, I decided old US iron was a better choice for me. From what I've read, the east coast has more old used equipment than the western states, so finding something used wasn't to hard to do. If your not in a rush, you may find some craigslist deals, or look at used machine dealers, or small repair shops that may be looking to liquidate. I was able to find a pretty decent 10" South Bend, with boxes of tooling for $1K. I then decided I had to have a Mill, so looked for a Bridgeport Knee Mill and found a great deal from a model shop who was closing up. This one below had a DRO, power feed, Kurt vice, and oiler for $1200. If you can wait and have patience, I would recommend going used, since the tooling costs as much as the machine and quickly adds up. Anyway, best of luck in your decision, let us know how it works out. I love having the capacity to custom fab parts when needed.

How refreshing to see a picture of a genuine Bridgeport! I've spent a few hundred hours running Bridgeports. I've spent a few hundred hours running Chinese and off brand lathes and mills also. There is a huge difference. The lead gears on the off brand lathes have slop in them. When chasing threads the lead gears won't repeat and each pass of threading makes very poor threads. As far as the mills go there is so much slop in the ways that the cuts won't lap. It's very hard to get a smooth finish. For making trinkets an off brand lathe or mill will do. But if you want to make something of real precision and is a true pleasure to operate buy one of these here Bridgeports. Made in USA.

 

[FlaDon]

I used to hang out on that home shop machinist board that Charlz recommended and you'll find out more than you want to know about these lathes. The one thing that I do remember is the idea that most of these similiar machines are made in the same factory and that the more established sales organizations (like grizzly or jet) get first pick of the machines. Presumably they are willing to pay the premium for that privilege and it shows in their price. The lesser machines go cheaper to the mid tier distributors and so on. I don't know if that idea is fact or theory but it would explain the spectrum of prices, along with higher customer service commitment.

You didn't say if you have much experience with a lathe but you did say you wanted to turn shafts for tractor related projects. Check out the maximum stock diameter that will fit thru the headstock. A small lathe will limit you to small diameters, even if you are just turning one end of the shaft. A workaround would be turning it between centers, which is limited by the lathe bed length, plus its hard or impossible to turn, face, or drill the shaft end while its supported by the tailstock. Sorry if you knew this- it's just that I have a 14 inch lathe (max turning diameter) and sometimes its too small for my tractor projects.

John

Back when the 4 rings on a car meant Auto Union and not Audi, DKW did about what you are talking about. Every engine went on the dyno. The racers got the ones that produced the best results. The top of the car line got the next level. And what was left went into the run of the mill cars.

As for lathes, we have two. Both are 12X36. Both are Atlas/Craftsman. One is a bench model and the other is on a stand. Don't know what we'd do without them. We've had the one for almost 30 years and it was used when we got it.

 

[EE_Bota]

I agree. A solid US machine with some tooling with it is definitely the way I would go if...I only had the room. And I don't use it that much. But I think if I had a better machine, I would use it right much more. Room is the key. The machine I have is better than nothing, but is not even a reasonable comparison to the old US machines.

 

[charlz]

If you are going to look at older US or Euro lathes then lathes.co.uk has all kinds of info on various manufactures.

 

[roamrdb]

this isnt really about chinese lathes, but i thought some of ya'll might find this interesting. i stumbled upon this a couple years ago. it is one of the most ingenious ideas i have ever seen. it amazes me the ideas some people come up with. the yahoo group, you have to join in order to view. this is all open source, no plans to buy, they are available to all. hope you find it interesting too.


multimachine : Open Source machine tools

here is about a 40 minute video on building it and seeing it run,
Multimachine Video : Open Source Machine
...................................................
at the bottom of this page you will find a pdf on building the multimachine,
Open Source Machine
.........
its worth joining the yahoo group just to see the pictures of what others have built plus there is tons of info