Lathes, Mills

[Low Pass]

I'm considering buying a light to medium duty lathe or lathe/mill combo for the house. Anyone have direct experience with Harbor Freight/Central Machinery products? Other less expensive manufacturers or sources?

I've bought quite a few tools from HF, and generally you get what you pay for - and that's OK. I'm not looking for mass-production or Bridgeport quality. Just something at a reasonable price to perform reasonable light-weight work.

How about Northern Tools/Jet? I like NT, but their products are a little higher quality and a little more expensive, accordingly.

Smithy?

Please pass on your experiences. Thanks.

[Don]

Bryan,

I bought a Smithy combination lathe and vertical mill (model AT 300 as I recall) about 10-12 years ago. I wanted to use it for gunsmithing (yet another hobby). I expect you will be equally satisfied with either a Smithy or a HF product (I've seen the HF stuff and its similar quality). The products are made in China, the castings are substantial, the motors are not UL approved but mine has never given me any problems.

I've had two issues with my Smithy. The bed was not parallel to turning axis of the lathe and I was getting a taper (only a few thou but I could never figure out where it was coming from). A machinist friend stopped by and diagnosed the problem quickly and the folks at Smithy explained how to realign the machine. It isn't hard per se but its a precise setting to make. The other issue is the main screw that moves your cutting tools or vise has a metric thread but is calibrated in English (inches) units. This issue doesn't have a simple fix (although I worked one out in theory I never implemented it). As a result there are some discrepancies between what the wheel calibration shows and the resulting cut. The differences are minor and you can account for them (you just can't read from the scale alone).

I'd say the tool still exceeds my ability to use it and likely will for years to come. There's a fair amount of slack in most of the parts so you'll always need to 'take up the slack' before you start a measured cut. In short, you can do work to 0.001" with the lathe and/or mill but don't expect better, ever. Don't expect to do that well until you learn the machine. If you can live with that, the Smithy is a handy tool to have around.

One last thought, either build or buy a very sturdy bench for it. The tool weighs hundreds of pounds (it was more than 2 of us could lift - I took the mill and every accessory off before setting it on the bench). I dropped the bucks on a Kennedy machinists bench and while I'd never considered dropping that much on a bench before, I've never regretted the purchase.

Don

[RV_7A]

I too owned a Smithy about 13 years ago. I was very pleased with it and the service. The motor went out within 6 months and they sent me a new one with higher HP and I used the heck outa that little critter. Mostly machining small aluminum parts for R/C helis. I also like the quality of JET products. I would say they are equal to the quality of Smithy of the same cost. I have looked at Harbor Freight stuff and wouldn't give it a second look. I guess it all depends on how precise you want your work to be. Keep in mind its not the machine that is the main expense. Once you accessorize to machine a variety of things is where the cost comes in. I would say after I got tooled up to do most anything on my Smithy I probably had twice in tools and cutters as I did in the machine itself.

-Jeff

[rv9aviator]

You might also check Grizzly. They sell a lot of metal working tools besides the woodworking stuff.
You might check Ebay for older regular lathes like Southbend. You can do a lot of milling on a lathe with a few attachments. You should be able to find a good deal on an old Southbend or similar WW2 age lathe. These old machines will last a lifetime and are sometimes more accurate than a brand new Chinese tool.
Just a different direction to check into.

[frankh]

I.e not much money but the combo lathe mill is pretty good...Sure makes short work of all those alu spacers you have tto make for the RV.

Frank

[videobobk]

While I don't consider a lathe a "must have" item for building an RV, they sure are nice. I have a Taig mini lathe with milling attachment and it is big enough for everything I needed on my 9A. If you aren't familiar with them, it takes up about as much space as my keyboard. Very high precision. I made MANY parts on it.

Bob Kelly

[Low Pass]

Thanks for the info.

[Roadster]

Originally Posted by videobobk

While I don't consider a lathe a "must have" item for building an RV, they sure are nice. I have a Taig mini lathe with milling attachment and it is big enough for everything I needed on my 9A. If you aren't familiar with them, it takes up about as much space as my keyboard. Very high precision. I made MANY parts on it.

Bob Kelly

Bob, your post sparked my interest, since I've looked at Smithy's in the past, but decided not to purchase based upon their size. So I did some searching via Google for more info, and I found the following...

http://www.taigtools.com/mlathe.html

Looks like it's called the "Taig Micro Lathe II" (see below for details).

Thanks for the info!

MicroLathe II basic unit shown with optional 3-Jaw Chuck (1050), Boring bar (1097E), Tailstock (1150), Drill Chuck (1091), 1/4 HP 1725 RPM Motor (1021w), Motor Mount Bracket (1022), Mounting Board (1023), and Pulleys (1162 with 3M 500 belt). Price as shown $436.45

http://www.taigtools.com/mlathe.html

[ddurakovich]

Excellent info on mini lathes/mills:

http://www.mini-lathe.com/

Seems most of the Grizzly / Northern / Harbor Freight units are all made by the same factory.

[Low Pass]

Originally Posted by ddurakovich

Seems most of the Grizzly / Northern / Harbor Freight units are all made by the same factory.

Yep - the Peoples Republic of China!