lathe?

[BarryC]

I use a Sherline Lathe and Vertical Mill both are extremely well made and are capable of precision work. Not cheap but they will last a life time.

Now if I were only that good!

Barry

[Max-U52]

I happen to be a professional lathe hand. It's what I do for 10 hours a day, 5 days a week, and I can tell you first-hand that Chinese tooling is junk. We will not buy any drill bits, end Mills, or any other tooling that comes from China, and that includes machines. The quality is so sub substandard it's unreal. Stick with stuff that's made in the US or in Europe. And the Israelis also make some good tooling at Hertel.

[971wright]

Hi Max your spot on tool steel from China is so poor you might as well use a wooden stick,

regards pete

[Son of a gun-ner]

The Japanese make good stuff, but like a Tamiya tank, there's a price to pay.

I was trying to be gentle with my original post about this. But now I've read the other replies, I don't have too lol.

A lot of products are manufactured in China on western companies behalf, but the western companies keep an eye on the quality control. After all, the western companies have their reputations to keep.
Therefore purchasing these types of tooling should be safe one would think.
But not if they are purchased direct from a Chinese company without western influences.
The Chinese will get there with time, but the time is not now.

We had exactly the same thing with Hong Kong and Japan, it was mainly Japan that learnt manufacturing in a big way, and when they did, they helped destroy a lot of western manufacturing companies because Japan could undercut them. Ok, now some Japanese goods are expensive, but they're very good.

Now we have China, with lots of steel, and LOTS of cheap labour.
The time will come when China gets there, then see the repercussions of western greed, it will be Japan all over again but on a much larger scale.

[jarndice]

I use my Chinese machine bed with a German Power Drill on a Draper Drill stand with an English (Doncaster)Machine vise,
Everything firmly bolted down,
All my drill bits and Cutters are European or American,
I work Plastic, Wood and the softest of metals,
I tap threads using hand held Draper/Rolson Tap & Die sets,
None of the equipment is used anywhere near its limits so in my case its "Cheap is good" but I am very aware of its limitations and if I could afford a Decent "Myford" I would go for it although I could never justify the cost or most of its abilities.
My first employment was as an apprenticed Mechanical engineer before I joined the service so I am familiar with Machine tools although Digital machinery is somewhere I have yet to explore.
The whole set up cost about £150, The most expensive part being the Draper Drill Stand, It has a cast iron base, then the cutters which quite simply if you don't buy the best you might as well throw the most expensive Milling Machine or lathe into a skip.
In my experience if you don't have a stable solid mounting for your machinery then no matter how expensive your equipment your results will be reflected in a second rate output.

[Max-U52]

Mick, I know there are Western companies that keep an eye on quality control at certain Chinese manufacturers, but I don't care. I've had so many bad experiences with Chinese tooling that my general rule is now, if it's marked "made in China", I'm not buyin' it.

Now, some of that chinese-made stuff at Harbor Freight can be pretty good, but not anything that's designed to cut metal. I've got a couple of good carts that came from Harbor Freight, and I got a good Automotive battery charger there, but I would never buy a drill bit or an End Mill that was made in China and sold at Harbor Freight.

Like Shaun said, you can have the best machine in the world and if all you have is junk tooling you're not going to get a first-rate product.

[Son of a gun-ner]

Obviously Gary. Sorry, I wasn't thinking about drill bits or milling cutters or turning tools, I was mainly on the machine parts that hold those. As this thread is about that.
I definitely wouldn't buy drill bits, cutters etc with made in China on lol.

The point I was trying to make, can be summed up this way. Lego, they have a factory in China, they produce Lego products no different from their European factory, you can't tell the difference.
I'm sure Draper and Clark to name two lower end tooling manufacturers have a similar set up in China. Along with a few other companies. Therefore, good or good-ish stuff can come out of China providing they're kept an eye on.

See, western influence.

But other than that, no, I would NOT buy any non western influence made in China stuff apart from heng long etc lol.

[43rdRecceReg]

I've not used a lathe since engineering theory and practice classes at school, but if I had the money and space I might go for one of the British (but is it really?) products:
https://www.warco.co.uk/metal-lathes-me ... lathe.html
I looked for reviews and found a tidbit:
https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums ... p?th=93221 Here a problem of gear stripping might have been due to inexperience on the part of the user. But 'model-engineer' looks like a good resource for checking products out.
The problem with relying on brand names these days, as a guarantee of quality, is that many companies have been bought out, and butchered, by private equity speculators. Often the name and it's associated patents
will be sold off to Chinese firms, or even while the firm's HQ is allowed to remain in the US, UK, or whatever, the actual production is moved to China. There's a good chance that quality will then drop, for the reasons listed above.
Even if it doesn't, there's always the possibility of the punter being flogged a counterfeit copy of the product. China now makes most of the genuine products, and also most of the fakes too..
You have to hand it to the Chinese; they even managed to make a counterfeit Porsche 911 (with a Ford engine ), and virtually copied an entire British village- though that wasn't for sale later on Alibaba

[971wright]

Hi I have a mini lathe very similar to the warco (probably older version),had it 10 years and not had a problem with the lathe.But they are only for hobby use have to take lots of small cuts, not powerful enough to take large cuts,having said that they are accurate can reproduce items to within 0.001".


regards pete

[43rdRecceReg]

Hi I have a mini lathe very similar to the warco (probably older version),had it 10 years and not had a problem with the lathe.But they are only for hobby use have to take lots of small cuts, not powerful enough to take large cuts,having said that they are accurate can reproduce items to within 0.001".


regards pete

Thanks for that, Pete

I believe they're also good for cutting threads, reaming and more besides. As you say, they're really aimed at model makers; but then I suppose model making is a large part of what goes on behind RCTW's members' walls... Apart from the slurping, partner-appeasement, clandestine purchases and the like.