# HQ 500 Lathe / Mill Combination



## ianh (Jan 11, 2012)

Hi Guys 
Anybody had any experience with the HQ500 Combination Lathe/ Mill? I know both Grizzly, Harbor Freight and Chester UK sell them . Any feedback would be appreciated


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## Tin Falcon (Jan 11, 2012)

Ian welcome to the board. 
In general combination machines are less user friendly that comparable individual lathe and mill. 
the milling table is small and you have to break down and change set ups more often. also the work area can get cramped quickly.
also please post a link to machines you are referring to . there are many different model numbers for the same machine it is easier to help you with a common point o reference.

Tin


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## vcutajar (Jan 11, 2012)

I've had the HQ400 since I started which is a smaller version than the HQ500. As Tin said it has its limitations but they are relatively cheap to start with. A well adjusted 3 in 1 will give descent performance. I've machined many parts with it.

I don't use the mill head anymore (or very rarely) since I got the X3 mill, but use the lathe section all the time. One needs to admit that a 3 in 1 has its limitations and work around them.

Vince


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## ninefinger (Jan 21, 2012)

I had to look up what a HQ500 was but when I saw it I recognized it immediately as the 3-in-1 I just recently sold. Mine was by Craftex - a Busy Bee house brand here in Canada http://www.busybeetools.com/products/LATHE%7B47%7DMILL-COMBINATION-110V-3%7B47%7D4HP-60HZ.html

I had owned this for around 6 years before I sold it so I'll give my review of it here:

As a lathe it is decent - it has an extra large swing compared to other lathes in this price range. The down side is its not rigid enough to do serious cutting because of this large swing and needs to be tuned 'just so' to not get chatter. It also lacks HP, mine was rated 3/4hp and I'm sure that was optimistic. Also, I burned up the lathe motor about 2 years ago and swapped the mill motor into its place (they are identical motors). On the positive side it has a power feed for both Z-axis (along the part) and cross feed (X-axis)

The Mill / Drill component: very frustrating to use was my experience. The quill has around 4" travel. If your setup doesn't place the part inside the reach of the quill with your selected tool there is not too much to be done but try and set up again to get the part up higher or lower. Or if you have a long drill then the other way might be a problem - not enough space to get the drill into place. Also as mentioned switching between mill/drill and lathe is a bit of a pain and means that you can't leave a mill setup in place while you do something on the lathe - this happens far more frequently than you would imagine (ie need to make a D bit on the lathe to do something in the mill, etc). Your work envelope is very limited too. 

My biggest gripe is with the design of the gibs. For the saddle it uses a plain gib strip and 2 screw to adjust which is very tricky to get just right. The cross slide uses a tappered gib which is good, but the locks for the cross slide act on the sliding surface of the gib - scoring it and then damaging the dovetail way.
Locking one of the directions of travel is necessary when milling - to prevent dig in and reduce chatter.

My best advice for anyone contemplating a machine like this is to seriously consider a proper lathe (ie a 10"x20" or even larger) and a separate small mill (ie Sieg X2) which has about the same capacity for milling but is actually far more versatile. At the end of the day the cost of the 2 separate machines is nearly the same as the 3-in-1.

I ended up buying a much larger mill (this here https://www.machinetoolswarehouse.com/xcart/product.php?productid=16133&cat=309&page=1) and converted it to CNC and as I said I sold my 3-in-1 recently and still need to buy my replacement lathe ...but that is another story...

Mike


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