Hi Pat,
You'll get lots of opinions on the small Chinese lathes - especially
around here.
My take is that they're not for everyone. Some call them a kit. In
my books they are, but not in a derogitory sense. If an experienced
machinist just wants a tool to use out of the box then I'd suggest a
more finished product. OTOH, some are happy with a Chinese lathe out
of the box. Maybe they don't need much or happen to score well in
the QA lotto that these things are. But a hobbiest or machinist on a
budget can finish one of the Chinese kits to be quite a cost
effective yet respectable machine. All the castings are there and
most of the machining done. They just need cleaning and checking
over for alignment errors, etc. The improvements to be had by fixing
any issues found are considerable. In the case of a hobbiest the
experience gained along the way is probably well worth while.
Each machine seems to vary. My personal path involved spreading the
feet (much more stable), lapping & adjusting the gibs (huge
improvement) and glueing some plastic (cut from an old CD) behind
the carriage to keep the swarf out of the apron gears. There will be
more refinements but that much got me underway. Starting from
scratch I spent a lot on accessories (DI, DTI, QCTP, scissor
knurler, centre drills, micrometer, callipers, etc.). However, you
may well have inherited a lot of these.
So if one thou tolerances are all that's required and you can live
comfortably inside the capability envelope without non-stop heavy
usage then you'll probably find the experience and trade-offs fine.
John
--- In 7x12minilathe@..., "Patrick" <patlamb41@...>
wrote:
Hello all, I want to introduce myself. My name is Patrick I'm in
Gaithersburg MD. I joined the group to learn something about mini
machining as I'm a novice.
I have a basic knowledge machining/metal work, and good book
collection
which helps. My father was in the tool and die trade and a foreman
in a
machine shop before CNC machines arrived sometime in the late 60's
early
70's. He left the industry when CNC machines started making it big.
He had the chance to learn CNC, I guess he wasn't interested in
it. It
was a shame because I think machining was his passion. He
passed
on before I could really learn anything about machining from him.
I have made some small metal parts on a small unimat, but I need a
machine thats a little heavier and stiffer than the unimat.
I want to buy a mini lathe and would like to know what the best ala
round models would be. Most of them on the market are Chinese and
some
say there decent machines. I would like to make small gears at some
point. Just one of those things I want to do. I've been reading up
on
gear terminology and the math involved.
There's something magical about cutting a part out of a chunk
metal............thanks Pat L.
