Hobby lathe advice

[dern]

I'm thinking about getting a lathe for making up spacers and other small parts for the bikes/cars. I don't know whether to get one of these chinese mini lathes that get a lot of coverage on youtube and have a relatively small foot print or something more substantial. The mini lathes would be fine for the size parts I want to make but they don't seem to handle steel as well as softer metals. I really don't want some 2 ton prewar behemoth taking up half the garage just to make small parts. Any advice? Thanks.

[ZRX61]

The best one I owned was a '54 SouthBend Heavy 10. Managed to load & unload it by myself & move it across the garage. IIRC I made about $3k profit when I sold it.

[cheb]

The usual advice is the same as buying a 125cc bike, you're better of buying a major manufacturer used lathe than a new Chinese one.

How big would you put up with? Myford are popular but you'll pay for it. Atlas and their various clones are ok but all are old these days.

The other advice is buy one with tooling as that's the bit that can add up quickly.

[cheb]

Have you looked at lathes.co.uk for information, it's an excellent site.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Slight aside, but I do wonder how much spacing is actually needed when working on bikes and cars It's just the go to phrase people use when talking about lathes, but how many spacers does one man need?

[cheb]

At least two if fitting no standard wheels to a motorcycle.

Weeksy had two he didn't need too.

[demographic]

For making spacers an shizzle its gonna be a fuckload cheaper to establish a relationship with a local machinist and paying them.

[cheb]

But not nearly at much fun nor as satisfying. The first one is woefully expensive but they get much cheaper after that.

[dern]

Yeah, obviously it makes no commercial sense but where's the satisfaction at only being good at shopping and being a smart arse on the internet

[Eclipse]

Have a look on Ebay for secondhand Warco's.
Warco also have a website where you can buy new, secondhand machines and parts.
Here's mine, piccy taken just now.

warc.jpg (391.94 KiB) Viewed 865 times

[porter_jamie]

I really wouldn't bother, I'd cultivate a relationship with a machine shop and learn how to give them proper drawing instead. It will be faster, cheaper and more accurate and you will have more room in your garage. The cost of doing it properly make most people shit themselves. Tooling, measuring kit and all the rest of it. And then there's learning how to do it. If you are time served and know exactly what you are doing then you will already know what you want/need so that's different

[kendo57]

I've got a Myford Super 7 which i have used for making models ect , also one off parts for me and friends.
The plus side of a Myford is there are no end of accessories still being made and relatively cheap unless you
buy Genuine Myford.
The downside is most are very old now and many quite worn and in need of a regrind so you have to find
a good one which can take time.
Not had a Chinese one but many model makers use Warco lathes and seem happy with them.
Chinese lathes tend to have a larger Spindle bore around 30mm , my Myford is only about 14mm which
can be a pain as i have to cut any bar larger than 14mm down to fit in the chuck.

[dern]

I really wouldn't bother, I'd cultivate a relationship with a machine shop and learn how to give them proper drawing instead. It will be faster, cheaper and more accurate and you will have more room in your garage. The cost of doing it properly make most people shit themselves. Tooling, measuring kit and all the rest of it. And then there's learning how to do it. If you are time served and know exactly what you are doing then you will already know what you want/need so that's different

I want to learn these things, I'm interested in learning and then making stuff. I could farm out all my bike and car maintenance/building but I don't want to, I like knowing how to do it. That's what having a hobby is.

[porter_jamie]

Fair enough. Either get a brand new Chinese one and take it apart and fix it, or get a really old one that's worn out and take it apart and fix it. Anything old and decent will probably be best part fucked. I'd get a Chinese one. Get dro, get some quality digi calipers. Get some pukka insert turning tools, the difference between shite and good quality is night and day mate. Get proper drills, dormer split point hss colbolt, get nice chucks, get a decent clock and clock stand mag one, nogo ideally, finger clocks are nice, and most importantly do a fucking drawing first, for god's sake, before you start cutting metal. Plenty of resources on the youtubes.

Good luck!