Should I buy a Mini Lathe?

Mines a bit bigger than that. Older too. In fact its a good bit older than me.

Never use it for anything larger than the one you are looking at would handle.
The largest thing I think was the cylinder from a Vespa scooter which my father rebored on it.

Id not buy one if I did not already have it but once in a blue moon it comes in handy.

Worth learning screw cutting

You will need a suitable grinding wheel for grinding your tool bits.


I wish i had a bench drilling machine and a bench grinder ... both would have been more useful than the lathe.

I'd have liked a wood turning lathe

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I also have a lathe about that size but mine includes a vertical milling head as well.

The one comment I could make is that 550 watt motor is not large enough. When I first got mine it had a 1.5 HP motor and any thing greater that a shave of steel would stall the lathe and would chip carbide tools which would then need regrinding. I increased the motor size to about 2 hp and that was then OK. The 1.5 hp I then fitted to my bench drilling machine and that then made that more usable.

You will need a bench grinder with a special green stone for grinding carbide tools. Normal stones used for sharpening drills ect. will not do but you will need a grinder with a normal stone as grinding softer material will ware the green stone away quite quickly. You will also need a live centre and a drill chuck and centre drill to use in the tail stock for turning hollow and long thin items that need support at both ends.

Just note once you start adding equipment does not stop. I don't use mine much now as I found a guy with all the equipment who can do small jobs for me but it was very useful when I was building my boat as I could make items needed quickly.

Next is argon welding, stainless polishing, tube and flat bending it goes on and on. I need to get rid of most of my equipment as it won't all fit on the boat and I want to go cruising hopefully.
 
YES buy it.

BUT you are going to spend lots more on tools and accessories.

I taught myself to use a lathe by building a model beam engine but I was working at a technical college at the time and used their equipement and always had access to very competent help. It was VERY satisfying when I got it to run for the first time.

So a kit with castings that can be completed on the lathe would be my suggestion.
 
Depends on what you think you might use it for. My advice would buy the biggest you can afford as all jobs usually will be to big for the the lathe you .Mine is a Little John 5" swing and many jobs I do are to large a diameter or 1/2" longer than the bed. Good luck, interesting skill to obtain.
 
Yes you will be in a new world of your own as said above a bench mounted Grinder and Pillar Drill will make for a good and versatile workshop the things you will be able to do may not eventually pay for the out lay which by the way WILL be on going once you start.:D
I have an old wooden boat and we would have spent a small fortune on machining if I had not got the Myford.
Don't be tempted to jump at the first thing you see, give a number of lathes a good looking at first there is a lot of junk on the market.
A myford ML 7 or it's derivatives ML 10 gap bed 10" swing in the gap and so will do most of what you will want in the small boat and Model engineering world.
Model Engineer shows are a good source of inspection and information go and ask a lot of questions of the stall holders, as is your local Model Engineers Society but they are all very steam loco orientated.
a link to 2013 shows.
http://www.model-engineer.co.uk/events/
a good place to start is ebay but if you really fancy one go and have a look at it before bidding or if blind just of it's add then only buy for cash if it's as the seller states if not walk away.
There is a guy on ebay who sells myford bits he always has the item displayed on a red & white check
back ground he can be trusted to give a good deal but not the cheapest.
 
I have an even smaller lathe, a Record alias Toyo ML210.
I have used it to make a few things, but it's a hobby basically.
One thing leads to another, I now have an X-1 milling machine too.
That's from Arc Euro, the lathe I inherited.

If I had space, I'd have a bigger lathe.
It turns into a bit of a 'collecting' hobby, there are limitless useful accessories to make and buy.
Materials seem to be expensive, but I have a few random bits of brass and ali to play with.
My baby lathe will do stainless steel, but it struggles unless the tools are kept very sharp.
It also flings bits of brass and delrin over a pretty wide area.

It can pay to look for a used one with lots of cutters etc on eBay, or the swarf-making forums.
 
I have a bigger version of a similar lathe. A chester 920 with a bunch of top quality tools including a ball turning attachment and a digital x/y display. All up for sale but for more than the orum allows free advertising for :)
 
A word of warning. As a wood turner a friend of mine who always admired the art fancied doing a bit himself. He did a couple of bowls from some blanks I gave him on his engineering/metal lathe. Bowls were fine but it completely fouled up his lathe and has had to be stripped and cleaned at great cost. Wood dust gets everywhere, in between gogs etc. eventually seizing the whole caboodle. Wood lathes are far simpler, more tolerant working on belts not gears.
Do not be tempted to do wood on a metalworking lathe.
 
I bought a decent Warco lathe, milling machine, etc, last summer to get back into engineering after a good few years just doing wood turning and woodwork

As also mentioned above;
Get as big as you can afford, don't forget they weigh a bit - my lathe was best part of 250kg when stripped down so you will need to build or strengthen a decent bench and be able to move it to and onto the bench - and get it properly level using an engineers level not a normal spirit level, mill is 65kg so not too bad

Allow at least the same money again if not more for a basic starter set-up of tools and ancillary equipment, I spent about twice what I spent on the machines on the tools and extras even though I had a lot of stuff as I wanted to get productive rather than learn

Get some decent books; search on amazon/ebay for the Workshop Series by Tubal Caine and others, look on ebay for videos as well

Get a selection of different materials and see what is easy to turn and what is not, I turn a lot of plastics and aluminium which are both nice to work, stainless is nice to work with the proper tools and some care

Learn screw cutting, its easier on the bigger lathes as they tend to be better setup for it, or better still get a lathe with a screw cutting gearbox

You will spend a lot of time making tools to make tools to make what you set out to make in the first place

Whatever size you get it will be too small for a job sooner or later, I learnt on machines that were four or five times bigger than what I have in the workshop now
Keep it clean
Its a messy, smelly hobby, so allow for it when deciding where to position the lathe
Get some good LED or halogen lighting over it
You will probably soon want/need a milling machine but you can do basic milling on a lathe with care​

My machines are used to make dive lights and battery canisters as well as general jobbing, its surprising how many times you will find a use for decent machines and how many people you will do odd jobs for

A lot depend on what you want to do on it, small machines are OK for small jobs, medium sized machines better for small and medium sized jobs, but most jobs are much easier on larger machines

I turn pens and small wooden items on my metal lathe but have the bed properly covered and a dust extractor in use to keep it clean and clean it after almost every job and after every time I turn wood

I have a wood turners lathe for sale on here with all the bits ready to go if anyone wants a decent Record wood turning lathe with extras and tools
 
That looks OK, and the review is good. As others have said, you will get involved with buying more bits for it, but IMHO the secret is to only buy another accessory or tool when you have a definite requirement for it, not just because it looks nice (they all do). It's also small enough to be moved reasonably easily: a bit of a struggle single handed, easy with two. While a bigger machine is always tempting, the weight goes up rapidly with size. My 6.5" Colchester (proper measurement: 13" in American speak) weighs around 700 kg and moving it is an interesting logistical exercise...
 
dash300 said:
A word of warning. As a wood turner a friend of mine who always admired the art fancied doing a bit himself. He did a couple of bowls from some blanks I gave him on his engineering/metal lathe. Bowls were fine but it completely fouled up his lathe and has had to be stripped and cleaned at great cost. Wood dust gets everywhere, in between gogs etc. eventually seizing the whole caboodle. Wood lathes are far simpler, more tolerant working on belts not gears.
Do not be tempted to do wood on a metalworking lathe.
Click to expand...

I would entirely agree that if the drive train gears are open then wood dust will combine with oil and get packed into all sorts of places where it will cause trouble. All of the main drive train and most of the leadscrew / power feed gearing on my lathe is, however, contained in sealed oil baths, and I've had no problems turning the occasional bit of wood. Additionally, my wood turning is purely functional, not decorative, so I don't use a tool rest with hand held chisels, gouges, etc. but normal toolpost held metal turning tools which tend to produce fairly coarse "bits" rather than dust. (Cue horror, shock from the purists.)
 
I would buy a secondhand one - for the same money you could get something like a small Boxford, and if you're prepared to wait for the right one to come up it will have some of the more expensive bits thrown in. Mine came with 3 and 4 jaw chucks, full set of collets, loads of tools and a few toolposts, milling attachment and a complete set of screwcutting gears. I had to buy a single phase motor to replace the existing 3 phase one.
Very useful for all sorts of boat work - cutless and rudder bearings made from Vesconite, making up odd things like extra large pennt washers for backing plates etc.
 
Dinghyman in post 14 has given you excellent advice
May i add that carbide tools do not get the same sharp edge as toolsteel & needs more power to turn it
You need to read up on how to sharpen tools
I fully agree that a metal lathe is not conducive to turning wood
Takes ages to clean & the metal turning tools do not do proper wood turning
I still have a metal turning lathe & will buy a bigger one soon
I initially had a Myford wood turning lathe i my teens so have done a bit of both
I would suggest you consider what you want to turn for a boat. Hardly worth buying for that
However metal turning is part of a great hobby & if you get hooked you will spend a fortune on bits & regret buying a mini lathe
The cheepo Clarke lathes are reported to be c..p
Buy a few magazines & read the test reports & get hints on using first.
Research engineering forums for comments on best equipment
 
nigelmercier said:
I've been thinking about buying a "Mini Lathe" for some time, but I have no experience of using one.
Click to expand...

Please forgive me, Nigel, but that seems an odd thought. What drives you want one?

What sort of work for it did you have in mind? What sort of materials, hence cutting tool arsenal. What sort of accuracy and repeatability do you require? Do you have the measuring equipment? Do you have the space for one? How do you plan to learn how to use it? Is it too late for you to start a 4 year Craft Apprenticeship?

I hate to play the HS&E card but, in the wrong hands............ I'm in India as I write this; yesterday I visited a machine shop and fabrication bay. Outside temperature was 38 degrees. Inside the building, OMG, hard to describe just how bad it was. The fabrication shop was using 6mm mild steel, flame cut, TIG welding in the open, guy on his knees, no shileding. Everyone was wearing flip flops. Floor was completely covered in swarf, off-cuts and other industrial detritus.

Back to the lathe. I had one for about 10 years and used it twice. Granted, I can usually get things made at work. Especially if you've never been trained to use one, I'm afraid I'm going against the tide and suggesting that it's not such a good idea.
 
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