Mini lathes?

I'm gonna throw this out there for anyone interested enough to follow through.

https://surplus.gov.ab.ca/OA/ItemDetail.aspx?AuctionID=17195&FeaturedAuction=Y

Not the be-all of lathes, by any means, but a far cry better machine, and way better equipped, than you would buy at Busy Bee these days.

As a minor point of reference, surf ebay and see what an Emco Rotary Table sells for on it's own! Or the vise. Or the steady rest. Or the gear set. Etc.
 
trevj said:
I'm gonna throw this out there for anyone interested enough to follow through.

https://surplus.gov.ab.ca/OA/ItemDetail.aspx?AuctionID=17195&FeaturedAuction=Y

Not the be-all of lathes, by any means, but a far cry better machine, and way better equipped, than you would buy at Busy Bee these days.

As a minor point of reference, surf ebay and see what an Emco Rotary Table sells for on it's own! Or the vise. Or the steady rest. Or the gear set. Etc.
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No tail stock ?

Grizz
 
Mini lathes I've seen are toys that can't be anything close to reproducible.

Also the accessories for them are often hard to get, proprietary, not up to par and overpriced.

To be useful, they need to be "real" mid size machines and have the accessories of same grade that you'll need. I'd get one of those or take a pottery class to objects of rotation making out of the system.
 
JoKa said:
Tail stock is shown in one of the pictures
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This. In several of the pictures, actually.

Gotta have a long ponder at all the pictures.

Nice thing about the Alberta and BC Auction sites is that hey are live auctions, rather than sealed bid sales. You can see what the price looks like, and you can bid accordingly if the price does not seem too dear.

Oh yeah. eMco, made in Austria, by people who took some care with what they were doing, rather than eNco, the far Eastern made goods, put together by fresh-off-the-farm Chinese labor, who had only a basic understanding of concepts such as 'precision'.

Good reading here, including some references to the generally weaker points, and a few warnings about what wears if abused. http://www.lathes.co.uk/emco/page2.html
 
was told by an old fellow who owned and used out of necessity the lathe/mill combo machines that they will work but you have neither a great lathe or mill
 
pmatuk said:
was told by an old fellow who owned and used out of necessity the lathe/mill combo machines that they will work but you have neither a great lathe or mill
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Very much true, for the most part. But you would have both a lathe, and a mill, as opposed to not having either.

There have been a for really decent quality combination tools made. They were not cheap, especially once kitted out with a reasonable amount of accessories that they could be used to cover off the eventualities that may come.

The Golmatic universal machine tool comes to mind as one. The Astoba as well.
 
trevj said:
The Golmatic universal machine tool comes to mind as one....
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That name rang a bell. Gottfried Prechtl (Golmatic) also makes some very fine rifles and aperture sights. As to tne mill/drill, can't seem to find N.Am. prices but one UK website had one listed at about £12,000. Here's a demo vid. In the comments someone says the basic model is $17,000 US. If you have to ask the price....

 
these Emco are decent machines, they are more a lathe than a mill, I have one at the lake for odd stuff and passing time, a handy machine for the odd screws, fittings, bushings, parts for the boat and UTV, looks like its complete a little newer as it appears to have a Vee bed
 
josquin said:
That name rang a bell. Gottfried Prechtl (Golmatic) also makes some very fine rifles and aperture sights. As to tne mill/drill, can't seem to find N.Am. prices but one UK website had one listed at about £12,000. Here's a demo vid. In the comments someone says the basic model is $17,000 US. If you have to ask the price....

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thats a neat machine, sure seems to hog the chips but I would find it a little tedious changing the setup, the lathe setup would be awkward working with and for the cost one can get a decent lathe and mill with tooling to boot
 
Many people who buy the asian mini lathes, make many improvements to get them to the point of functionality, for example the cross slide mods. In essence, the lathe itself becomes the hobby.

Thats fine if one desires a self feeding hobby, but anyone who wants a decent quality piece of machinery that will work for them, would be well served to purchase an older used lathe instead.
 
Are you buying a lathe to work with, or work on?

The problem you may encounter with some of the older lathes is the amount of 'work on' to do 'work with' is higher. If you don't know what you're buying, you may regret what you get.

If you're lucky, you'll get a cheap used older lathe that only needs a bit of elbow grease to clean up, tidy up, and get running.
 
josquin said:
That name rang a bell. Gottfried Prechtl (Golmatic) also makes some very fine rifles and aperture sights. As to tne mill/drill, can't seem to find N.Am. prices but one UK website had one listed at about £12,000. Here's a demo vid. In the comments someone says the basic model is $17,000 US. If you have to ask the price....
Click to expand...

Very much an example of building up to a specification, rather than down to a price point.

Like as not, you'd be well into the range of the price of a really nice, brand new truck off the lot, kitting one of those out nearly fully. But I really doubt you would feel that you did not have the capability to do anything within it's size range.
 
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