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Metalworking lathe recommendations?

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Starhead:
Hi folks, I am considering buying a used metalworking lathe, any tips on what to look for/avoid? It seems to me that the favourites are Boxford and Myford, are these the best? How do they compare to modern lathes such as Clarke? Any common faults I should watch out for?

Initially I want to turn aluminium and plastic up to 6" diameter.

John Rudd:
Firstly, what is your budget?

When looking at second hand machines, see what tooling it comes with, if any.

Issue with older machines is the cost and availability of spares if required.

What to look for: Wear is the biggest issue.....slideways wear, check the fit of the saddle up and down the bed, if the lathe has done a lot of close up work, there will be more wear towards the chuck end...
Check the crosslide, should be smooth with minimal backlash, same with topslide....

Drivetrain, is it noisy? Worn bearings or something else....

Some of the other guys will chime in with their thoughts, these are mine off the top of my head...

Generally buy a machine that is in good condition if you are starting out....or if you can stretch to it a new one...but be warned a new machine will mean buying tooling too.

Starhead:
Thanks John, very useful thoughts and tips.

I think my budget will be somewhere between £500-1000, but not just yet. I am currently trying to weigh up between a used Myford or Boxford lathe or a new cheap Chinese mini-lathe. I've seen a few Chinese ones around with a 2-axis DRO which I think I would find useful.

I guess one of the reasons to choose an older style lathe would be the auto feed for thread cutting, which often isn't included on the modern mini lathes, but this is a feature which I don't think I'll be needing.

One thing which I do need to be able to do is ball turning with a rotating toolpost.

PekkaNF:
Problem is that when you buy about your third lathe, you know enough what are your needs, how you like to work and what do you want from lathe.

My first lathe was Minilor TR1 bought from UK, before EU. Paid freight, customs, VAT and all the works before EU benefits (cost more to import that 50 kg lathe than last year 300 kg milling machine).

http://www.lathes.co.uk/minilor/

Looks good on the picture and spesification, truth is that lot of parts are zink/aluminium or such mystery metals or plastic and the accesories I bought were next to useless. Any modern minilathe is uglier but better, there is nor comparision.

Cost all up tooled about the same than Myford Diamond 10. I later used a little Myford diamond 10 and owend chinese copy of and both were superior to that first lathe.

Most afordable Myfords here were old imperial and overpriced for a MT2 spindle bore and capacity. It is very light weight lathe after all.

So I bought my third lathe. I insisted of inspecting and trying it on person before I buy it and seller agreed. It was chinese again, because new ones are here industrial size or you need a second morgage and then German products are better anyway.

Just after buying of house I was "a litle lean on green". I bought CQ9325 (very generic name and lathe)

http://phelum.net/info/CQ9325/



Spindle bore is 26mm and the taper is MT4, pretty good for this size lathe. Chuck is unusual 130 mm diameter and 100 mm register.

V-belts were crap, shed rubber and vibrated, refused to died, but needed replacement.

Tailstock is MT3, very good because I have two milling machines with MT3 taper spindle (see where this goes?). The guill store is closer to 25 mm that advertized 50mm, the thread just will not push any further....chinese specks.

Don't get me wrong, it does pretty much all that it is asked to do, least after a little tweaking and coaxing. Cost me about 1000€ with minimal toolsing (most notably rotating centre on tail stock and MT4/MT3 centres).

Good news is that spindle bore is good and I have made the tooling I need and was missing or hard to get for this one. bad news is that it is a semifinished product when it arrives.

Myford seems to have many accessories of different quality and price, but lot of plans and accessories looks outdated. I might have a different take if I were building Hemingways kits, most of them seem to cater Myfors, but I don't.

Screw cutting is very essential part of tha lathe. I really would have liked to have a screw cutting gearbox. I was about to buy a lathe with a norton threading gear box, but the importer didn't mannaged to order one - price was right they sold out.

My next lathe most likely will not be chinnese and most likely 400 - 1000 kg, used but good, when I'll mannage to get one.

That's my story, everybody has different story and different tint on glasses.

Joules:
6" is quite a swing for a mini lathe and ball turning is going to put some load into that small carriage.   I would opt for your older machines, Myford tends to be overpriced, but you can still buy overpriced parts for them  :D

You might fall lucky on a machine with some tooling if it's a private sale.  Expect to spend the same again tooling it up.

LOL as mention, I bought my fourth lathe for making plastic parts, but it ended up being a Warco 1236 as I needed the rigidity even for small parts and a spindle bore I can pass stock through.  The Myford Spindle bore out back is only 15.8mm, the Warco 38mm.

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