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Building a New Lathe

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John Rudd:

--- Quote from: vtsteam on March 09, 2015, 09:41:49 PM ---
Any G4000 owners out there?



--- End quote ---
Yup I have the Chester equivalent the 9*20.....Great machine for the size....Modded mine by fitting a 3 ph motor and vfd.... :zap:

PekkaNF:
Ouch. Lathe blues...I have three lathes now and 1-3 of them has to go. I wish I could replace least two of them with Boxford AUD size lathe, but I really need proper metric machine. I don't care changing belt and such to change the speed, but to change gears and mess with feeds/screw cutting is getting into me.

I almost bought AUD from UK. Even after shipping that might be an option. Once in 1-2 years comes really nice Weiler or something like that on the market, but it gets snatched in nanoseconds. I have decided to save a little money and act fast when next one comes in couple of years.

Good new ones are expensive and they are not made in china. If you buy old or chinese you buy a project, it is just a fact of life. Ergometricly old western stuff seems to be better in every aspect. I have one chinese lathe and it is very hard to see at first anything wrong with it, but every control in apron is shaky, you can't get main slide close enough of the spindle if you use face plate instead of chuck, tail stock feed is advertized 50 mm (in reality it is 30 mm), stuff that should lock doesnt and stuff that should not lock seizes, screws are bad, belts needs immediate replacement, handwheels wobbles, most part cast iron is pretty bad. In paper capacity was better than in reality. You just can't trust numbers. I'm not saying it is useless, but that it's usefulness is unnecessary limited, even considering the price. At that time I had no space for anything bigger and no patience to wait for anything better.

I have passed some old ones because they are totally shot. But for VT a klunker might be just the right one. It would donote bed and other bigger parts. Not everything is worth restoration or rebuild.

Pekka

hanermo:
I have an excellent Chester Craftsman, 12x24 - in rigidity, power and overall results, apart from fit and finish.
This is the heavy model.
Most chinese lathes are available in light and heavty versions.

Thus-
A 9x24", same length, is available in about 120-200 kg versions.
The Craftsman is 350 kg, and thus makes a huge, huge difference.

I only work with steel, and make stuff / have made up to 12" in diameter.

I suggest you would be very disappointed in a 9x lathe - they are the weakest in the bunch.

vtsteam:
Well, the spec here is a benchtop lathe to replace a 7" x 12" Gingery in a tiny 6'x8' shop, and fit on an existing benchtop, so really big or heavy machines, while better for sure, don't fit the requirements. Within the range of 7 to 9 inch lathes, and 12 to 20 between centers, a 9x20 like the Grizzly at over 250 lbs is probably even pushing it.

The existing Gingery lathe is probably about 60 lbs with a 28" overall length. I suppose I could come down to even another 7 x 12, but then it would really have to be better than what I have now -- stiffness to part off surely, or do reasonable size profile cuts without chatter, and quick change gearbox (or NC thread cutting) would be the attractions, otherwise, I'm fond of the little lathe I built, and certainly can deal with the "spares" issue -- I have patterns for everything and a furnace!

John R. as an owner of that specific 9x20 model, sounds good and I trust your judgement.

I do know that what Pekka says is also true in general, since I own, and have tuned up/modded where necessary Asian machines (bandsaw, round column mill drill, 50" slip roll, tractor mounted wood chipper, listeroid diesel genset) so I'd be going in with my eyes open. I wouldn't expect everything to be the way I wanted it. But I would expect lots of cast iron for a benchtop lathe, straight hardened ways, a good size hollow spindle with taper and low runout, and a working quick change gear system.. Those are what I miss most in the Gingery at present.

I have read up about what the complaints are for the 9x20 specifically: needs additional bolts to fasten carriage (published mod), lacks tumbler reverse, slowest speed is 150 rpm, no back gear, quick change gearbox only accomodates 8 speeds without manual gear changes. Mods exist to solve most of these, and I actually have a treadmill motor and controller (a common mod), which can solve the speed and reversing issues.

On the other hand, I keep thinking about what I'd do in building my own lathe. I think about it a lot. Doing things exactly the way I'd want them. You'd know it fit the space, You'd set the specs you liked. And it would probably cost less than a new one and yet have good size and quality purchased chucks, etc. I think about, what if I do end up modding an Asian lathe -- how much time will that save over starting from scratch, and will the result be equvalent? There's also the pride in something you made yourself. That, even now, makes it hard to think about replacing the Gingery lathe.

vtsteam:
I guess if I were to build a new lathe, I wouldn't have to make the spindle. You can probably buy a ground and tapered and keyed spare and bearings to fit in the size range we're talking about here for one of the mini-lathes. That would greatly simplify building the lathe. That would also give a common fit for chucks and collets, etc. and obviously, replacement spares would be available if needed in  the future.

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