4 Advice to Choose a Metal Lath For Sale

I am not a machinist, I'm just a guy who has playing with machine tools in the basement for about 5 years now.

Since you really have no idea on where you want to go with this I'd suggest either a Chinese 9x20 or a 10x22. My reasoning is these are big enough to do some real work, but small enough that almost anybody can find a spot for it in the garage. The 9x20s weigh 250lbs so two big guys can move it, you might want an engine hoist for the 10x22, or get a couple of weight lifters from the gym to stop by and help. These are also cheap enough at $1500-2500 new, that if you just keep it for a few years until you know enough to actually have a dream lathe you aren't out a ton of money. Figure you can get 50-60% back by selling it.

The 7" and 8" mini-lathes are not bad, but really all they get you is small. A decent mini-lathe is going to cost you $1200+ (no the $600 Harbor Freight 7x10 is not a decent mini-lathe, at least not until you have put a lot of time, effort and money into it).

I started out with a tiny mini-lathe, a Sherline 3.5x17 and a whopping 35lbs. I love this little lathe for making model parts. It comes up short for making bigger things, but I use it more than any of the other machines.

Since then I've added a bunch of machines, most I bought used, most are 40+ years old USA iron but I had a little more experience by the point that I bought them. I also had met several far more experienced (real) machinists who could help me evaluate older used machines.

There are definitely some deals out there for used machines, but you do need to know what you are doing or you can end up buying scrap.

Again, I think the small 9" and 10" Chinese (or Taiwanese if you get lucky) machines are a pretty safe bet buying used as well. These machines are not likely to be found in hard core industrial use, at most maybe in a shop to do some light work. Most of these machines are sold to hobbyists, probably half get used a few times and then sit in a corner for a few years before they go up on CL during a garage clean up. The other ones get used by a more serious hobbyist who uses it for awhile, before learning enough to know what they really want. The result is they might be abused, but they probably won't be worn out. This is good, because wear is harder to detect, but abuse and neglect is pretty obvious even to the inexperienced. Parts are readily available for most of the machines. I have an Enco 9x20 made in the 90s that I picked up cheap. I was able to get all the parts I needed to fix it up, because it is still in production and sold under several different brands.

These lathes are by no means high end, and those that say a small Southbend, Logan or even Atlas is better, are not wrong. I would gladly swap my Enco for a nice Southbend 9A, but for somebody brand new I think these are a decent starting point to learn with.


Also agree with Downwindtracker, with a mill, lathe and welder it feels like you can do just about anything. I've had a lot of fun with mine.


Also be aware with a lathe, even a small one you will soon find you need a bandsaw and a bench grinder. The bandsaw to cut material (portaband works). You will want a bench grinder for grinding lathe tooling.

The book how to run a lathe is a classic and cheap, originally published by Southbend. Still in print, and available from a couple of publishers on Amazon for $5-10.

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If you’re looking for a lathe, then you’re probably already acquainted with the basics of what a lathe is, what it does, and the various uses it has for professionals and hobbyists alike. But if you don’t know much about lathes, rest easy! We’ll start with a basic history of the lathe, give some general information on what a lathe does, then move on to provide more guidelines on how to pick a lathe for a given project. 

Lathes, in their earliest form, were a two-man, manually operated machine. Of course, that early form was over three millennia ago in ancient Egypt, so things were understandably a bit more old-school.

Even the early lathes possessed the key feature of all lathes, from then till now; unlike other machine tools, in a lathe, the item being cut or shaped (the “workpiece”) is the thing that turns, not the cutting instrument. A lathe is the reverse of a drill; rather than a spinning cutting bit biting into a surrounding piece of wood or metal, a spinning piece of metal is shaped by a stationary cutting head.

Thanks to a lathe’s design, shaping a workpiece on a lathe is known as “turning” a piece. Nearly any kind of material can be worked on a lathe, though metal and wood are the most common ones. 

The development of the lathe

Lathes started as fairly primitive tools, but took a giant leap forward during the Industrial Revolution. Steam engines provided more powerful lathes; electricity would develop lathes even further. In the 1950s, servomotors added elements of control to the turning process, and today’s lathes are fully integrated with Computer Numerical Control (CNC), allowing them to be fully automated.

Along the way, craftsmen explored what could be done with a lathe. Lathes allow material to be removed to create rounded shapes; everything from metal shafts to wooden chair legs can be shaped out of irregular pieces using a lathe. Today, you’ll find lathes everywhere from fine woodworking shops to cutting-edge factory floors, serving different purposes but using the same principle; a spinning workpiece with a stationary cutting head.

Purpose of your new lathe

If you’re considering buying a lathe, you first need to picture the primary project or projects you’ll be using the lathe for. With the project in mind, here are some questions to ask which will guide your choice of a lathe.

• Are you cutting primarily wood pieces, or is this a metal-cutting lathe? 
• WIll it be in a personal workshop, or a modern tool-and-die shop?
• Do you need full automation, or is a simple machine better?

These factors influence the complexity of the lathe you’ll need. A fully CNC-equipped lathe able to handle industrial-sized pieces along four axis, with multiple heads for turning, drilling and cutting, is vastly different from a simple, two-axis lathe for turning furniture.

Components

When it comes to the parts you’ll be putting into the lathe, there are more factors. Basic components of a lathe consist, generally, of the following:

• Headstock with spindle
• Chuck (to hold the workpiece)
• Lathe bed
• Carriage and cross-slide
• Tool turret
• Tailstock

The specifications you’ll need for those components is determined by the general intended purpose for your lathe, and the dimensions of the pieces you’ll be working on. 

Headstock with spindle – Found on the left-hand side of the lathe, the headstock holds the spindle in place, usually with bearings. Usually with a motor and pulley, the headstock also provides the power to rotate the spindle and part, The size of the spindle varies, typically from ½ inch to 1 ½ inches in diameter.

The size of the spindle determines how big of a workpiece you can turn on your lathe. A one-inch spindle may be enough for smaller work, but for a spindle that’s sturdy enough to accommodate larger pieces without flexing, you’ll often need at least an inch-and-a-quarter spindle.

Other headstock and spindle considerations to be aware of: does the headstock allow outboarding? While pieces are intended to be mounted between the headstock and tailstock, over the bed of the lathe, outboarding allows the workpiece to be mounted away from the body of the piece.

This greatly increases the diameter of the pieces that can be turned. It’s not an ideal fix; there are good reasons why pieces are typically mounted over the bed of the lathe, where the tool turret is located and the tailstock helps to support the workpiece. Regardless, when you purchase a lathe, consider the size of the headstock and spindle, and the different positions the headstock allows. Some headstocks can actually be rotated, allowing outboarding more easily.

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Chuck – The chuck is the specialized clamp to hold a cylinder. The chuck holds the workpiece, and most lathes can secure workpieces between 5 and 66 inches. Many chucks also have a through-hole, allowing long pieces to extend through the chuck and out behind the lathe. Use the same decision-making process with a chuck as with the headstock; what size do you need based on the pieces you’re likely to be working?

Note that there are extra options with chucks also; most chucks are jawed, which are the movable parts tightened or loosened to fit the workpiece. Typical jaw arrangement is three or four jaws on each chuck, but some chucks have many more. The jaws may be tightened together, or moved independently to help hold odd-shaped pieces.

Lathe bed – The bed of the lathe is a simpler decision. There are two basic options; the British flat bed, or the American-preferred v-bed. The two kinds are self-explanatory, and each of the designs have their proponents. For smaller lathes (and correspondingly smaller workpieces), it rarely makes much difference to the performance of the lathe.

On larger, more industrial-oriented lathes, beds can also be rounded, and slant-bed lathes are increasingly common on fully-automated CNC lathes in industrial applications.

Tailstock – On many new lathes, the tailstock is an optional feature. Its purpose is a simple one – it holds the far end of the workpiece. While a tailstock may not be necessary for smaller pieces, for larger parts a tailstock is crucial. Using a tailstock reduces flex in the workpiece; too much flex can give a finished piece an undesirable warp or curve. If you’re going to be handling larger pieces, purchasing a tailstock from the beginning is a smart choice.

Carriage, cross-slide, and turret – These are the “business parts” of the lathe. The carriage is a set of bars, often two or three, running the length of the lathe. The cross-slide rests on the carriage, and holds the turret. The turret, in turn, houses the different cutting and boring tools to be used on the part.

While this sounds complicated, just now that it is the carriage and cross-slide which determine the number of axis on which your lathe can move, whether that be two, three, or four. The size of the turret, and the number of heads which it can hold, is determined by the size of the piece you want to turn. Larger workpieces require larger cutting heads, which in turn require larger turrets.

Further considerations

Size – In the US, you’ll find lathes described as “8 in. by 24 in.” lathes. The latter number refers to the distance between centers (i.e., the headstock and tailstock), or the longest piece of material that lathe can handle. The first number, in the US, pertains to the maximum diameter a workpiece can have and still be above the lathe bed. This is also known as the “swing” of the lathe.

In the UK, the first number is expressed differently; as the measure between the center of the chuck, so in theory the center of any workpiece, and the closest point of the bed of the lathe. An 8 by 24 lathe in the US would therefore be a 4 by 24 lathe in the UK.

Most hobbyists and craftsmen working on smaller pieces will find that a 3” x 15” lathe is typically as small as one should go, while about double that size, 6” x 30”, forms the upper end of what a home lathe can be.

Weight – Be aware that like many pieces of machinery, lathes can be quite heavy. The sizing as given is not the dimension of the lathe itself, but rather of the workpiece which can be accommodated; the lathe will be significantly larger. A 3” x 15” lathe can easily weigh more than 30 kg; a lathe double that size would weigh far more, and require an engine lift or small crane to move into place.

Power – One of the last things you’ll need to consider when buying a new lathe is the motor. While some lathes operate at a single speed, many will have multiple speed settings. There is also the matter of torque to consider.

For cutting larger pieces, your lathe will need more than just high RPMs; it will need the power to keep a heavy workpiece turning and cutting smoothly. Advertisers may proudly proclaim maximum RPMs for their lathes; but minimum RPMs can be even more important for operations such as screwcutting. 

Axis – Lathes have at least two axis of movement: an X axis (forward/backward along the cross-slide), and Y (perpendicular to the X axis). However, a high-end CNC lathe may have as many as 7 axis, from X, Y, and Z (three-dimensional movement) to rotating axis. So, axis X may have additional axis of movement A, which is a rotational along the X axis.

This may sound confusing; suffice it to say, that the more axis of movement a lathe has, the more complicated, expensive, and industrial it is likely to be.

Buying a lathe is a bit of a complicated process, but you’ll be helped immensely if you keep the project in mind as you shop. What are you intending to use the lathe for? With that project as the determining factor, the necessary complexity of the lathe and any size or weight restrictions will become apparent. You’ll be able to make a much more informed decision if you keep the needs of your project foremost.

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