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Hi

As another citizen of the UK considering the purchase of a mini-lathe I was
interested in the price comparison. Now Chester UK advertise the machine at
340 GBP ex-VAT so the US equivalent, before local sales tax, is around 540
USD. By the way this does include delivery with the UK.

There are any number of reasons for the UK/US price differentials, including:

Bulk buying - the US market is 4 to 5 times bigger.
Property is relatively cheaper in the US so company overheads are lower.
Similarly for some labour costs, usually the ones the employer pays.

But remember, at the end of the day the price a company sells at is the price
it believes it can extract from the customer. Also, there needs to be plenty
of competing products. To the best of my knowledge, in the UK the source of
cheap lathes is limited. In the US there may be others.

Right, now the economic lesson is over the actual lathes actually seem
reasonable. So a question, does anyone use one as a production machine as
part of making their living?

Thanks for that advice.

Looks like a day out in Chester before I buy. I am over the Pennines from you
near Keighley.

if you are cosidering a mini lathe can i give you some advice? i bought a
chester conquest and out of the box it looked good. however when i got it up
and running it was a horror story. none of the slides was adjusted and it
ran rough.

i rang chester several times and was given plenty of help from a great
salesman called gareth.in the end i stripped it completely and started
again. the lathe would not have run long in that condition. there was no
grease in the headstock at all, everything was dry. i adjusted all the
slides etc after giving them a good greasing . the motor was out of line and
the belt was slack.the 2 large adjusting strips under the slide were split
and would not clamp. once i had spent a week of spare time sorting it out i
now have a good little lathe.

i spoke to gareth recently and he assures me that all lathes are now
stripped and checked before despatch. if you are able, then go and pick it
up from chester yourself and have a look before you buy. if not telephone
first or better e-mail and get them to tell you it has been checked over

i am thinking of buying a cobra micro mill from them, but i will ask plenty
of searching questions before buying. i am not running down their products,
just be prepared to do a bit of work before you use it

P.S. WHERE DO YOU LIVE?


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