chinese lathes, are they any good

chinese lathes

I bought a 12"x36" lathe from house of tools about five years ago and have found it satisfactory except for the motor. The starting points are only tungsten coated, and when the coating wears through these points are either fused together or will not make connection. Should be no big problem but House of Tools is no help at all. They refer me to an electric motor shop who say" Why do they keep sending people to us? We can't get parts for these motors." And neither can anyone else that I have been able to find. But I did get help from a small electric motor shop in Vernon, BC, who supplied me with a set of points that I was able to adapt for the original Chinese motor. But this was after several weeks of down time and frustration.
The machine is fine otherwise and an American motor would solve the problem. Any problem can be solved if you throw enough money at it.
I am not very impressed with anyone from House of Tools
jclayton
 
chinese lathes

I bought a 12"x36" lathe from house of tools about five years ago and have found it satisfactory except for the motor. The starting points are only tungsten coated, and when the coating wears through these points are either fused together or will not make connection. Should be no big problem but House of Tools is no help at all. They refer me to an electric motor shop who say" Why do they keep sending people to us? We can't get parts for these motors." And neither can anyone else that I have been able to find. But I did get help from a small electric motor shop in Vernon, BC, who supplied me with a set of points that I was able to adapt for the original Chinese motor. But this was after several weeks of down time and frustration.
The machine is fine otherwise and an American motor would solve the problem. Any problem can be solved if you throw enough money at it.
I am not very impressed with anyone from House of Tools
jclayton
 
British made Colchester

Rick, Colchester's lathes have been made in Tiawan for 10 -15 years, they are being sued in the UK for forgetting to tell their customers! This is not uncommon with machine tool manufacturer's, Bridgeport castings are made in Brazil.
 
Rick, Colchester's lathes have been made in Tiawan for 10 -15 years, they are being sued in the UK for forgetting to tell their customers! This is not uncommon with machine tool manufacturer's, Bridgeport castings are made in Brazil.
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I hear what you are saying, mine was made in 1972 IN England (says so on the back) I have not kept up with who is made where, jumped on this 1 instantly when I saw 1, the condition, 2, size (17x84) and that it was made somewhere I have been and respect their machine tool making.
I have had to call England for a few parts, their service is incredible.
I noticed in the monthly rag from Pyramid Machine here in town they have a few Dean Smith and Grace and some Colchester lathes in the smaller sizes right now. :mrgreen:
 
Hi sharpsguy -

I am very leary of buying chinese made machine tools at House of Tools without examining the spacific machine. Some of their lathes that I have looked at seem tight and others are very sloppy.

Modern Tool, Pyramid, and Thomas Skinner offer similar machines in the same price range that would be worth checking out - all have locations in Calgary.

As a side note - Tiraq mentioned the equipping of some of these machines with a threading dial indicator. I have used one of the more expensive chinese machines (brand and importer shall remain nameless, as I still do business with them) which came equipped with a threading dial that was utterly worthless. None of the subsequently provided ones could be made to be accurate either. I guess the point is that quality does not seem to be consistant with these machines, so don't expect it.
 
How much runout is acceptable on the head stock in a new or used lathe? I'd likely bring a mag base dial indicator to check it. A machinist friend of mine likes to take a four or five foot bar and chuck it up and give the head stock a good shake when checking bearings on a used lathe. He says he gets some nasty looks, but when your spending a few grand, you should be able to do these kind of things.
 
How much runout is acceptable on the head stock in a new or used lathe?
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It really depends on what the lathe is for. On a new small* lathe, runout of .0005" would be ideal. You would want no more than .001" - .002" on an used lathe.

If you want high precision on a used lathe, you probably would be doing a rebuild depending on how racked off it is. Surprisingly enough, I have seen a few used lathes with lots of bing marks in them and they're still accurate. On the other hand, you can kill a lathe by hitting it just right, just once. Accuracy also doesn't stop at runout of the headstock. You have to check out the other components for being true and slop free.

Ripstop

*I consider a small lathe to be under 12" X 36".
 
Splatter, Westicle is right on with his weight limit. Remember, there is also a brokerage fee on top of that, and you have to pay someone in england to load it for you.

Sharpsguy, runout on lathe spindles have set limits by manufacturers sometimes, the US government at one time had spec's for lathes also. They vary according to swing and type of lathe. A 12" engine lathe is around .0003 thou runout, a 24" swing around .0008 thou. Real toolroom lathes have tighter spec's than engine lathes.

Be aware, lots of manufactur's call their lathes toolroom models, but they don't meet the spec's for one. European lathes use a different grading system for accuracy then the American's did.

Any decent new lathe comes with a test sheet showing several accuracy tests and the results. This includes decent chineze- tiwaneze lathes. Spindle bearings are the least likely things to wear out on a lathe unless its been run at a higher rpm than designed. Usually the bed beside the chuck, and the crossfeed and coumpound screws are wore out long before the spindle bearings wear out.

Buying used machine tools is a real minefield, if you want to make things instead of repairing your machine to start off , you are much better off buying new stuff. Chinese stuff is much better than it used to be, but buy fron a dealer that backs up their stuff with a guarentee. I know House of Tools has a one year, no questions asked, return policy on their lathes.
 
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