[macmillan]

Hey Everyone, I am considering getting a Lathe. I know they can get pretty pricey. So i don't want to make the wrong decision when getting one. That's where I need your help.

Things I need help with:

1.) Things to look for when getting a lathe.

2.) Best company to look at.

3.) What size to get (only plan on making parts as big a piston or a cylinder)

4.) and links would be awesome.


Thank you all.

Edit: Fixed Punctuation and Spelling

 

[woogie]

A few things to look at are these.....

What is your skill level?
Have you used a lathe before, metal or wood?
How much do you have to spend on the tool?
Remember that the tooling is going to cost WAY more than the actual tool itself.

Are you looking at only making the piston parts? Are you thinking you are never going to do anything larger? Don't just think about the "now", think about things that you may want to try, or do.

How much space do you have for the lathe, tooling, materials and everything like that?

Here is the lathe that I just bought..... Great lathe for the money, and just the right size for the airsoft parts, and the suppressors that I am planning on building.

http://www.harborfreight.com/garage-shop....the-93212.htm l

Though I would serriously spend a lot of time over on this site. Read as much as you can and do some serrious searching and review watching.
http://www.mini-lathe.com/Links.htm

The thing to remember is that when you are looking at the smaller sized lathes are generally all come from the same company. They are just painted differently and named for the company. The main difference is usually the "extras" that come with the lathe itself.

Just make sure that this is really something that you are wanting, and not something "in the moment". It really isn't something that you can just hop into. Though with some practice you will be able to get the hang of things. Just don't get discouraged if things don't go the way you expect them to.

 

[macmillan]

I do ALOT of things using tools, I'm coppersmith

But I have never owned or worked on a lathe.

I just noticed that mini ones aren't to big, and I have a lot of free time that I could use making parts and such.

What do you mean by tooling?

This isn't just a spur of the moment thing though... I have been thinking about getting one since the beginning of this year. And I have been getting alot of money through my job so, I think, after I get a car : I will get a lathe.

Edit: And the one you got is the one I have been looking at for a long while

 

[woogie]

For tooling....

Talking about your bits, Tool post upgrades, drill bits, center bits.


Basically all of the little things that you are going to need to get the lathe "cutting"



I honestly love my little lathe. I had a 9x20 Jet lathe about a year ago..... and that was way to much machine for me. Though this smaller 7x10 lathe is just about right. I would honestly suggest going with a smaller lathe, just to make sure it is something that you are going to want to continue to do.

Then as time goes by you can always upgrade the lathe. I know for the 7x10 that I have I can get an extended bed to make it a 7x18. So I would be able to turn much larger items.

 

[macmillan]

Thanks for all the help.

I will be getting the one you got in the not to distant future(hopefully)

 

[woogie]

If you need anymore help man just ask.

Good luck and have fun with her

 

[careful]

You can always look around for deals, I horse-traded with little cash involved (sub 1k) from a 7x10, to a 10x36, to the massive '57 Clausing 15x48 that I use now.

This one isn't mine, but it shows about the size of her. She weighs not quite 1200lbs without tooling.
http://www.stanford.edu/group/prl/prl_site/Content/Model_Shop/Machines/images/Clausing1.jpg

That being said, I do outer barrels, threading in any flavor from 4 TPI to 256 TPI (theoretically), receivers, hopup chambers, flash hiders, miscellaneous large parts for other hobbies, etc. so I can really enjoy the extra dimensions of the machine.

The small lathes are a great starting point, and for the scope of your projects in Airsoft will offer you almost everything you could want.

 

[woogie]

That is a nice lathe man.....


I miss the lathes that I used in college Big old HAAS mills and lathes Man were those things NICE.

 

[inthetallgrass]

That is a nice lathe man.....

I miss the lathes that I used in college Big old HAAS mills and lathes Man were those things NICE.

I don't do metalwork but in my secondary school (Irish equivalent of High school) There was a huge ass mill that the teacher got in, we wern't allowed use it but some of the stuff that came from it was pretty cool. The best thing was the laser engraver they have, you can do anything with that, 10W of super concentrated power! (The width or nm of it was tiny)

I like lasers and in laser terms that is extremely powerful.