| Hello mankster
The big problem you find with lathes that are not bolted down is the bed trys to twist. I had an ML7 for some time that was mounted on a wooden bench it was never realy that clever. In the end it was taken off and put on a frame made from 3 inch MS box that was all welded.
When I set up in the US i bought a number of the chinese import machines mostly 14x40's and a few larger. The problems we had mostly revolved around poor build quality. One of the first had a cracked headstock that only showed its self as a tapper in a bar of around 20 thou in a foot.
The others just wanted bolts replaced and jibs set.
If you can buy your self some lumps of stelite to grind tools from. Dont waste your money buying these cheap tipped tools a, there not ideal for what you want to do and b, learning to make tools allows you to think about form tools for repatition work.
Chronos UK sell some good books on lathe work well worth a look.
Kevin |