martinberryman
Aluminum
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2011
- Location
- Vancouver, BC
I've read the threads I can find on the forum about Mazak manual lathes, and they seem to be very well regarded. Are parts readily available?
Trying to decide between a Pratt and Whitney Type C (12 x 36), a larger Mazak Hercules-Ajax(18 x 78), and a Monarch C series (16 x 30 or 18 x 30).
The Mazak is by far the newest, has a taper and some tooling, and has seen the least use. I'd really like the length of the Mazak, and unless parts are tough to get, this seems like the right direction, if the vendor will come back to earth on the price. A lot of the parts I make are only a few inches long and are relatively small diameter (1" - 2") - is a machine of this size cumbersome for smaller parts? (i.e will I need to replace the crappy 12 x 36 import I have now with a proper small lathe?)
Also, with a DRO for a machine that long, is there any special consideration when ordering the scales? Does error accumulate over the length of the scale, or is a 78" scale with 0.0002 stated accuracy as reliable as a 36" scale with the same stated accuracy?
Thanks for any advice.
Martin
Trying to decide between a Pratt and Whitney Type C (12 x 36), a larger Mazak Hercules-Ajax(18 x 78), and a Monarch C series (16 x 30 or 18 x 30).
The Mazak is by far the newest, has a taper and some tooling, and has seen the least use. I'd really like the length of the Mazak, and unless parts are tough to get, this seems like the right direction, if the vendor will come back to earth on the price. A lot of the parts I make are only a few inches long and are relatively small diameter (1" - 2") - is a machine of this size cumbersome for smaller parts? (i.e will I need to replace the crappy 12 x 36 import I have now with a proper small lathe?)
Also, with a DRO for a machine that long, is there any special consideration when ordering the scales? Does error accumulate over the length of the scale, or is a 78" scale with 0.0002 stated accuracy as reliable as a 36" scale with the same stated accuracy?
Thanks for any advice.
Martin