Low Pass

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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.
 
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Smithy

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
 
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
 
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.
 
HF VERY GOD VALUE FOR MONEY

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
 
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
 
videobobk said:
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

lathe4.JPG
 
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I've run an older Smithy for about 10 years. Can't imagine getting along without it. I have purchased a lot of tooling here and there as needed to meet some particular job, and that will run up your total investment. However, the same is true regardless of what lathe or mill you buy and lot of the tooling will work with any future machine.

The Smithy is really useful for turning out small parts quickly, things like axle spacers, tailwheel bushings, wheel pant hangers, and bearing stops. I also use it a lot to simply square the end on a tube, or the end of a mandrel. These kinds of parts don't require extreme accuracy. When I need .0005 accuracy (like a perfect shaft fit in a bearing) I throw a rag across the bed to protect it and switch to abrasives for the last fuzz of material removal. A right angle die grinder running a 3M deburring pad can be used like a hand-held tool post grinder. Internal blind bores at the .0005 level can be done, but you spend a lot of time and cross your fingers for luck.

The mill function is useless for large surfaces. Not enough bed travel in any small lathe/mill. Also, all the lathe/mill combinations require that the part be elevated a good bit above the bed, which introduces flexibility.

The advertised swing is misleading. The practical limits are about 6"D for aluminum and maybe 3.5"D for steel. You can't slow the spindle enough to get a reasonable cutting speed. Smithy does sell a planetary speed reducer pulley, but it is junk. I killed two of them and started taking larger diameter jobs to a friend's house to cut on his big lathe.

Which brings us to a side advantage. Turn out nice parts on your Smithy and pretty soon the other lathe and mill owners in your area offer to let you use their larger machines when needed. A Smithy is a great training tool because you must think your way around how to get the job done, and as it is belt driven, gross cutting errors tend to result in belt slip, not broken parts.

None of the above is to say you can't turn out significant work. I've used mine to build a complete propeller speed reduction unit, an experimental viscous torsional vibration damper, wheel hubs for WW1 replica wire wheels, you name it.

I think buying one depends on what you see in your airplane future. I TC a lot of projects and assist with a lot of repairs, plus my airplane world includes custom tube and fabric. Right offhand I can't think of very many parts I've made for RV's.

Dan Horton
 
Follow-up questions

My next project is a Marquart Charger ( Two-place open cockpit biplane similar to a Skybolt or Starduster Too. Tube and fabric construction). I need a good method to notch tubing and it appears a mini-lathe would be adequate. I bought an Ol' Joint Jigger but I find that it binds on the tubing while being used in my drill press. Does a mini-lathe sound like it would be adequate? Other suggestions?

I'm not much of a metalsmith but I'm always looking for a new way to expand my workshop. My motto: "Always pick a project that requires the purchase of at least one new tool"
 
I would think a mill would be a better choice for notching tubing. You can do mill work in a lathe with the right attachments too though. A mill with a tilting head would be my choice.
 
Smithy

I have a Smithy 1220XL.

It came in real handy for making spacers and other odds & ends for my -9A build.

Its made in China but I think its pretty good.

The company is really good. I broke a couple of gears while trying to cut threads on some round stock. This thing does not have limit switches:eek:

Cutting threads on a screw cutting lathe will make you really appreciate a hardware store bolt you can buy for a buck or two.

Anyway, Smithy replaced the damaged gears for free.

My Dad & my wife went together and bought it for me about 10 yrs ago.

Dave
-9A flying
 
Bridgeport

The Mill will be much more useful than a lathe. Most anything that can be made can be made in a lathe can also be made on a mill. The oposite is not true. I have full size floor models of both and seldem use the lathe. I use the mill all the time. I personally would rather have a 30 or 40 year old Bridgeport than a new china made one. You can also invest a lot of money in tooling so it often makes sense to find a used one that is being sold with tooling. A digital readout is a must in my opinion.
There are a lot of cheap Bridgeports on the used market as they have been replaced with cnc equipment in large shops. There are a few things you need to look out for, so if you find something send me an e-mail and I'll point them out.