Thread: Lathe Mill info wanted

Im looking at buying a lathe and mill, possibly a combo unit due to space constrants. Keen for any advice people have as I know how to do the very basics on them but nothing about the gear itself

Short of buying something old of European or Japanese manufacture I would be looking at a Taiwanese lathe with DRO.

Originally Posted by MSL

Short of buying something old of European or Japanese manufacture I would be looking at a Taiwanese lathe with DRO.

+1

They were renown for making junk plastic toys, but if you wanted they could also make some very good machinery. Back in the 80's there were some very well made and accurate machines made and sold over here. I know, I bought one and am still regretting selling it about 24 years later.

Make sure that the movement of the slides is smooth throughout the entire range of movement. If it is very tight on the ends and sloppy in the middle then it is due to wear in the most used section of the bed. To test the lathe's headstock bearings you can clamp a bar in the chuck to get a bit of mechanical advantage and wail on it a bit and see if you can feel any slop. If they/you have a part off tool see if you can part off a decent sized piece of steel, stainless if you really want to challenge it. My lathe won't do it without chatter due to wear in the headstock bearings.
Milling machines tend to get droop in the bed at the ends of the travel due to the weight of the table, gets worse as they wear. I just got a milling machine, it is currently parked in my carport and I have not built the shed it is going to live in yet.

NOTE: I am not a machinist, someone else can probably give you better advice!

here's a picture of moving my mill just because:

Grousers are a bit worn
Sorry Res.

You just looking for a single phase unit?

Originally Posted by madjon_

Grousers are a bit worn
Sorry Res.

Only just worn in

You just looking for a single phase unit?
I've got an older Bridgeport, no not for sale, bought Auck about 6 yrs ago with some tooling, horizontal arbor attachment, parallels, collets, mill vice etc for $2000.00. Was out of a small engineering company and really well looked after, is three phase and I could change the main drive motor to single phase but not so easy to do the auto feed motors, these are a very nice home mill, keep and eye open for one.

Originally Posted by Maca49

You just looking for a single phase unit?

unfortunitly yes

Also as Im curently living in china I was thinking of buying something new here as when we return to NZ my wifes work will be paying for shipping all our stuff back- looks like some of the chinese stuff you can buy in NZ is half or less of the price in china

I can supply some lathe tools and milling machine collets, cutters etc as I have a few if and when you are set up.

Colchester (old original ones) are a good machine, I have a few.


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Originally Posted by res

unfortunitly yes

Also as Im curently living in china I was thinking of buying something new here as when we return to NZ my wifes work will be paying for shipping all our stuff back- looks like some of the chinese stuff you can buy in NZ is half or less of the price in china

You should, if your careful, get a reasonable Chink one, some are crap, but they're getting better, have a good look first.

The lathe/mill combination units are makeshift at best. They are very high from the saddle to the lathe spindle axis and can only be used to make light cuts to avoid springing. The mill table/cross slide is quite small and has very limited mounting for a milling vise. You would be far better off with a Bridgeport type mill and an older Colchester or similar. They are good, robust, and accurate machines and I get excellent service from my Colchester Student lathe (1 metre BC) and a Bridgeport style Luxcut mill that I bought new with a DRO. Equally good smaller machines are available it you wish to do modelling, etc. I strongly recommend having two separate machines. My machines are 3-phase but I purchased a single-phase converter (about $3500) that works perfectly and avoids all the extra costs associated with a 3-phase connection.

How big we talking?

Grizzly g0704, of whatever its called in China before leaving.
They're $1400usd here or there abouts and then under 1k to cnc it from memory.

Check it out on YouTube. The good ball screw kits are 0.0001 backlash

what are thinking of doing with it/them?
rather than the full blown knee mill ("bridgeport"), a mill/drill may suffice?
avoid the combo if possible unless living in a flat....

ps @systolic or others, is it ok to combine parentheses and quotation marks?

Originally Posted by Awaian

what are thinking of doing with it/them?
rather than the full blown knee mill ("bridgeport"), a mill/drill may suffice?
avoid the combo if possible unless living in a flat....

ps @systolic or others, is it ok to combine parentheses and quotation marks?

A good quality Chevalier mill drill is a good set up...


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