Small Metalworking Lathes - Sieg / Axminster etc

alan2525 · 25-12-2006

I'm in the market for a small precision lathe to turn small parts and face up brass and aluminium tube etc. Brass Gun Barrels small cylinders etc.

I've been looking at the Axminster site and wonder if anyone can offer advice on what would be a good lathe.

I've been looking at the Aminster Seig 1 Micro Lathe,

Ideally it'd be small enough to be able to put away after use, approx 200mm + between centres with a bed height of about 60mm and 10mm through the headstock, and with a power feed.

There are a lot to choose in the 150 - 300 pound price bracket and obviously it's going to be an unbranded chinese import but wondered if there was any particular lathes which stand out in this price bracket?

**Bunkerbarge** · 25-12-2006

Alan, funny you should mention unbranded Chinese import. I looked at modelling lathes 18 months ago at the Harrogate model engineering show and I saw 5 lathes that were identical except for the colours and stickers, obviously all of Chinese origin.

I settled on one from Chester Engineering, as they offered the best deal, and bought one. Mine is probably a bit big though if you are looking at being able to put it away. Have a look here:

http://www.chesteruk.net/

If you want a small unit that can pack away easily one of the most versatile would have to be the Unimat. I replaced my Unimat with the Chester though as it would not do enough that I wanted it to but it is small and compact and can be built into a box easily enough. I think it's biggest failing is the fact that it used belt drives that are basically 'O' rings that don't last five minutes.

This is the model I had:

http://www.emcomachinetools.co.uk/em...es/unimat4.htm

The big advantage with the Unimat is that they are very common so spares (drive belts!!), accesories and after sales service is easy to get hold of. If space is you prime concern then a Unimat is worth considering but if you can stretch to a bit of a bigger machine I would go for something like the Chester Cobra.

alan2525 · 26-12-2006

I was just finding out about the various incarnations of 7x10 chinese imported lathes.

http://www.mini-lathe.com/Mini_lathe...s_other_7x.htm

It seems to be the same lathe but in 10 different disguises!

What has the experience of using your Chester Conquest lathe been like? Did you have to spend a while fettling with a dial gauge to get it to run true, how is it for backlash, replacing cheap chinese made socket head screws, use of plastic gears in the headstock etc?

Atleast with those lathes there should be plenty of choice where to buy accessories for it, Axminster, Machine Mart etc.

alan2525 · 26-12-2006

Chester have the Cobra lathe priced at £199.00 including VAT and UK Mainland delivery, but sadly in Imperial only!

That's not much more than the cost of a Marks and Spencers sandwich!

This looks like the same lathe but in white from Axminster:

Axminster Sieg C1 Micro Lathe
http://www.axminster.co.uk/product.a...sfile=1&jump=0

**Bunkerbarge** · 26-12-2006

The way I read it was that the special offer was on the Imperial machine only. You can still get a metric machine at a normal price.

As i said though this machine is available from any one of half a dozen differrent outlets.

I bought the metric machine with a set of imperial gears, just in case!

alan2525 · 26-12-2006

I saw one seller, stocking a Sieg C1 / Chester Cobra lather priced at £199.00 for the metric version who offer the item as "boxed" or "setup" for another £75.00 on top of the 199.

It sounds like these lathes come thrown together rather than "ready to use" is this correct?

**Bunkerbarge** · 26-12-2006

I'm not sure what you mean Alan by the two. The one I bought came in a box with a plug on it but was covered in packing and metal preservative that had to be cleaned off.

A lathe of this size really has to be fixed to a bench and is probably too big to be considered as portable so I would not advise mounting it in a box unless the base can be temporarlily secured or clamped when in use. If you had an out of balance item in the chuck this size of machine could start to move around with disastrous consequences so it must be firmly secured when in use.

When I had cleaned the wax off mine, bolted it to my workbench and wired it up it was ready to go. I cut the plug off so that I could run the cable neatly below my work bench but you could just plug it in.

It is about as ready to go as you could expect but you have to do a little bit to it first. You will also of course have to consider setting up a light, which, don't forget, cannot be a single flourescent tube lamp fitting.

Here's a couple of shots of my set up using one of these lathes:

alan2525 · 26-12-2006

The "boxed" version for the £199.00 is just the item as it comes from china in it's shipping crate. The additional £75.00 was for the machine to be degreased and stripped down and then reasembled and adjusted. I assume they must come with some kind of gloop applied to the bare metal surfaces to prevent corrusion during storage which you have to clear off prior to use.

The part that bothered me a bit was this site:

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/silkstone...inilathe01.htm

There seemed to be a lot of adjustments required, shimming etc and a lot of modifications to the Tailstock.

I guess it's like anything you buy, a bicycle from the shop will need to be dissasembled and adjusted prior to riding it, even though it is supposedly setup in the shop.

**Bunkerbarge** · 26-12-2006

OK Alan I see what you mean now, that is an excellent link and an interesting read anyway!

To be honest though he is only describing normal adjustments and checks that you will have to become familiar with through out the life of the lathe. As screws and slides bed in with age and use they will require adjusting, the frequency being dependant of course of type and amount of use. This is precisely why all these things are fitted with adjusting mechanisms to enable these tasks to be completed easily.

It is no more daunting than adjusting a pushbike or a motorcycle chain and is the same sort of philosophy. Things that are expected to wear have adjustments built into them and should be understood and attended to when required.

The only exception is the tail stock modification which is an obvious minus point to be weighed up against all other considerations.

I found my cross slide was a bit sloppy so I took it apart, cleaned it and degreased it all and reassembled it adjusting the fillet peice pressure as I did. It isn't too difficult but bear in mind that whatever lathe you buy you will have to become familiar with and understand it's adjustment machanisms.

I think overall his report is quite positive and reassuringly the two I had narrowed it down to were the Chester one and the Waco one.

Another point worth mentioning. A friend at the boat club purchased one of thier three in one machines and it arrived in a damaged condition. When he phoned them up they immediately replaced the unit without waiting for the faulty one to be returned. After sales like that is an important consideration.

dipstick · 26-12-2006

i thought about buying one of these modern small things, but then decided that after i a couple of weeks i would need to machine a part larger then what swing in the chuck. so i bought a old myford super 7, because they are reliable and parts are still about quite cheap.

the other good part about them is you can buy a vertical slide to attach to the cross-slide so i can do milling operations. and i have built most of the parts for this 3" burrell traction engine on the myford.

so if you have got the space and you think that you may want to go on to larger project that involve larger turning operations then i suggest you find something like a myford.

and i have to ask richard how do you keep a clean workshop? i have got model boat eveywhere, this part built traction engine on the floor. and various other projects that i am doing.

chris