What's new
What's new
By:
Advanced search…

Want to buy new lathe

B

Bob Johnson

Aluminum
Joined
Jul 25, 2004
Location
Coupeville, WA, USA
I may be buying a lathe in the 13x40 or 14x40 size for a home shop and looking at those in that size from Sharp, Acer, and Precision Mathews. I would appreciate learning your opinions and experiences with these brands. I am favoring a new lathe as I do not need any more projects, other than plug and play (including setting up, leveling, etc.).
Thanks in advance
 
Bob Johnson said:
I may be buying a lathe in the 13x40 or 14x40 size for a home shop and looking at those in that size from Sharp, Acer, and Precision Mathews. I would appreciate learning your opinions and experiences with these brands. I am favoring a new lathe as I do not need any more projects, other than plug and play (including setting up, leveling, etc.).
Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

Precision Matthews <<< Old Iron. This much I know already. Getting used to some quirks and being careful about backlash, etc. is way less hassle than the lack of guts that those sheet metal lathe-shaped objects will frustrate you with continuously. I don't recommend Precision Matthews if you are looking to cut anything stronger than Delrin.

I briefly looked into Sharp, mostly liked what I saw outside of price, ended up going old iron.
 
A quick search shows the Precision to be about half the price of the other two so that might say something, but I have never ran that brand...

I have ran a Sharp and it worked well enough. No problems with finish or tolerances. What are you looking to do with it? Tinker, or run some light production? If its just for a few things here and there I might go with the cheapest (although that could backfire if it's junk).
 
I bought a Kent TRL-1340 a few years ago, with Newall DRO, for home use. This is a re-badged SunMaster ERL-1340 and I think very similar to some others. Same factory as Turnmasters I think.

I got it because I wanted a Colchester 13" but couldn't find any in good shape and needed at least one lathe that wasn't a project. :)

Overall it has been fairly decent machine so far. Some annoyances, relatively poor support from Kent USA, but overall a solid machine. Issues like the taper attachment didn't install properly and needed to be completely removed and alignment pins removed so it would be level. Lots of deburring required. Etc. Vibrations in the machine on cuts where I would have hoped it would be more solid. Crossfeed not very smooth, backlash on the carriage handwheel, etc. With some tinkering some of this stuff can be adjusted... but ideally shouldn't be needed on a brand new machine.

It is pretty capable, e.g. I have hard turned HSS or RC60 linear shafting and it doesn't complain. The spindle is certainly acceptable in terms of runout. The tooling included with it was adequate (taiwanese not chinese).

It's a 2400lb machine, with cast iron plinth blocks.

I had also looked at and ran Acer machines... they seemed about the same more or less, but somewhat lighter weight and with sheet metal plinths.

-Phil
 
I have a Sharp 1640LV that I purchased new about 12 years ago. Love it. May not be supper High quality but has never had a problem. It has the Digtal Variable Speed drive that I wouldn't buy without ever again. No levers to move to change seeds, just turn a dial. It may be up for sale soon as I'm contemplating retirement and won't have room for it if I do.
 
I wonder, if someone made a nice new lathe, nothing like a monarch or pacemaker but let's say equal to the 15" clausing colchester, would anyone buy it ?

Lots of talk about "cheap chinese crap" but if that's all the market will bear, whatcha gonna do ?
 
The Taiwanese made iron seems to be significantly better quality than the Chinese stuff and from what you read some very good lathes come out of Korea. That said my only personal experience is with a Taiwan made South Bend 13 x 30 that has been excellent for the 5 years that I have owned it and comparing it to the Chinese lathes that look like it it was worth paying 1/3 more (I think now the Taiwan lathes and mills seem to be almost twice the price of the Taiwan machines). The South Bend has Japanese bearings P7 and Allen Bradley contractors and switches. I never priced a European lathe and expect they would be significantly higher than Taiwanese.
 
The problem with European lathes as I see it is that the spindles used are proprietary and in that light, chucks and accessories are very costly. I'm pretty certain they are high quality machines, but the non-standard tooling puts me off because the machine itself is never more than half the real cost of the investment.
 
On another point, many Asian lathes are short on spindle speeds and available threads that can be cut in the QC gear box, so be very careful in selecting an Asian lathe. A VFD is no substitute to gear selected speed simply because with a VFD you sacrifice torque multiplication that comes with gears. It is also imperative to buy all the options for the lathe because they will rarely be available afterwards like TA and metric change gears.
 
Bob, found myself in the need for a machine in that size range, I will say this, "Dont Buy Those Crap Machines you listed".
The better imports are the Mori type machines like Webb, and Cadillac.
One here from a dealer in LA, on CL, the machines come in 14X30, but I would go for a little more swing.
WEBB 17" x 34" Engine Manual Lathe Turning Center WL-435 with...
Get ahold of one of those dealers down there and get a used one for less than the crap you are looking at!
Well, I beat the system "again" buying an Axelson 14"X30" in good shape! for half that price.
Always good resale value, and parts availability on the Korean made lathes, is a plus!
 
May I ask which tools you use?
I thought all were of the same standard.
Morse tapers, iso, R8 and Camlock style and so on?

Colchester - The world turns on Colchester lathes.
 
The new TL series that PM has started carrying look very good and similar to a few of the other current Taiwan offerings mentioned for a little bit less money. Heavy machines with all the modern features. I wouldn't hesitate to try them out if buying new. As much as the old iron gets pushed by some there are modern features that are really nice to have even in a home shop that some old machines just don't, like English and metric threading without changing gears, full enclosed and lubed QCGB, lubed carriage, etc. I just bought a very stout (14x40, 3500 lbs) Polish machine out of a maintenance shop that has all of the above. It's around 25 years old and looked like it had seen very light use and I paid less that $1/lb for it. Even with hardened ways there was a little wear in the ways near the HS in both vertical and horizontal direction which must be compensated for. For the price I paid I'm still very happy with it and would still have bought it for the price, but this quality of used machine could easily go for 3-4x the price, requiring even more attention/measurement while shopping used. When you get to that price range, a new machine starts to look attractive if it's a long term investment.
 
Hello all,

Thanks for all the great information and you have given me a lot to think about. One new lathe brand is Victor; they seem to say all the right things that have been listed here, above. I believe Takisawa is making manual lathes in my general size range. I've called and asked for price and availability of the TSL 550 or TSL 800. They may be way too expensive; does anyone have more info? Right now I am looking at used Mori-Seki lathes, but they seem also expensive. And nothing showing up locally.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

H
Suggestions for fixing magnetic scales to cross-slide of old Pratt & Whitney Lathe?
Replies
9
Views
314
harrilynch
H
A
Buying a 1st lathe, presented with a few options
2
Replies
24
Views
922
Doozer
Doozer
sfeile
New South bend lathe/machinery thoughts
Replies
12
Views
742
tnmgcarbide
tnmgcarbide
M
Does this lathe exist?
Replies
17
Views
1K
MatthewMachinist
M
J
Lathe spindle nose external taper out of spec
Replies
10
Views
683
rke[pler
rke[pler








 

ABOUT PRACTICAL MACHINIST

With more than 10.6 million unique visitors over the last year, Practical Machinist is the most visited site for metalworking professionals. Practical Machinist is the easiest way to learn new techniques, get answers quickly and discuss common challenges with your peers. Register for the world’s largest manufacturing technology forum for free today to stay in the know.

Learn more about us.

STAY CONNECTED

Facebook Instagram YouTube LinkedIn Pinterest Twitter Tiktok

Register Become a forum member. Register today.

Sign Up Sign up for our e-newsletter.

© 2024 Copyright Practicalmachinist.com. All Rights reserved.

Back
Top