Busey Bee Tools

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RT

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Ive been using a buddys mill and lathe and am finally starting think about getting my own stuff?

I was looking at the Busey Bee stuff and it seems to be reasonably priced! Anyone have any experience with their tools, service ect.
 
I have bought lots of tooling from them and got very good service. I am not sure of the quality of their machines, but they have some attractive prices on nice packages.
 
If you don't know much about machine tools, get a machinist to consult with first. Some of their lathes don't even have the ability to change chucks and change from chucks to turn between centres. I had a friend buy one of these and he ended up trading it on a used Standard Modern lathe.
 
The Busy Bee "Craftex" mills and lathes are made in taiwan and are better quality than the House of Tools brand which are made in China. You usually get what you pay for when it comes to machine tools. For the hobby gunsmith I think Busy Bee is fine. Watch for their flyers,or go online, they have stuff on sale quite often.
 
I have a Craftex mill and a 12x36 lathe from BB. No complaints at all. If you get a mill, consider a vertcal knee mill as opposed to a "mill drill".
As a side note I see Princess Auto has a cute miniature lathe for I think 5 or 6 hundred. Might be hard to get acc. for.
 
I was recently looking at Busy Bee "Craftex" and House of fools "Force" machine tools, I was told "Force" was Taiwan not Chinese. The Force machines seem to be slightly more polished machines, with some tooling packages compared to Craftex. Anyone have any experience with Force machines?
 
No canadian dealer but shiping rates seem very reasonable. I am not sure if you can actually get 3o between centers, better confirm.
The low speed kit and milling fixtures also seem like a good buy.
 
I have some busy bee tools in my wood shop. They are OK for light use but I don't think they would hold up under heavy usage. For gun work you may want to save a little more for better equipment.
 
I'm running a Sherline 4400 Lathe, (17"x3") with the milling machine arm attachment.

Handy, small, big enough to do lots of little projects, not big enough to handle rifle barrels (spindle inside diameter is less than .5") It's quite accurate, and I'm pretty impressed with it. Also upgradeable to CNC when money allows.

Has threading attachment, and in my view, the $14-1500 or so that I've dropped into it so far (including the brik-n-brak bits like collets, mill arm, 3 and 4 jaw chucks, risers, mounting board, etc...) has been good value.

Remember, if you buy a bigger lathe/mill/etc, you're going to also pay much more for your accessories too. I got a package of twenty 1/4" end mills on e-pay for $30. My 4 jaw chuck cost me $125 or so....how much does a 4-jaw chuck cost for the bigger lathes?

If you don't need to go big, think small. I can put my lathe on a shelf in the workshop and free up the bench-space again when I need it.

NS
 
http://www.sherline.com/4400show.ppt

vmc1pic.jpg


This is the 4000....the short-bed. Mine is actually the 4400 with the long (24" LOA) bed, but this image shows the vertical milling column well.

4400pic.jpg
 
Absolute newbie question about lathes, isn't it a good idea to have a hole behind the chuck to hold longer pieces out the back end of the jaws, like barrels? I don't see that on the lathes shown in the links.
 
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