Best cheap ish lathe for this?

Hi all,

So I’m doing a model project that means I finally need to get a lathe. The longest length I think I’m ever going to do is about 180mm on a 19mm round bar.

Most of the modelling lathes I’ve seen are overkill; with like 500mm between the centres, weighing at 100kg+ and being too big to realistically fit in my shed.

Then I found a super adept lathe on eBay for about £100, which seemed perfect before I went on lathes.com and found it has about six inches between the centres so too small for what I need.

Is there a cheap-ish lathe you guys can recommend that’ll have something like 200mm between the centres, is light and compact enough to fit on a 500mm length of workbench in my shed and not cost me nearly a grand? I don’t mind buying vintage so long as everything moves freely so if there’s a slightly larger equivalent to the super adept that’d be perfect!

Thanks in advance!

A Sherline Tabletop Lathe (there should be similar lathes in the UK) will take 8” between centers, but they’re not cheapish. A 7x12 Mini-Lathe can be found for a range of prices, but the low end ones will require a lot of work to make them usable for most applications (and the high end ones can also benefit from “tuning”).

If you can share some details of your specific project we will be able to provide more help.

Welcome to the Forum!

Depends what you want to do with that bit of 180mm x 19mm round bar and to some extent what metal it is

Will the ends need facing? In which case you may need to hold one end in a chuck and support the other with a fixed steady and then position the carriage to the right of that which is going to need more than 180mm.

How will you drive the bar if just turning between centres, may need extra length to grip it. or if using a chuck that will take 50mm or more of the CtoC distance

Adddd said:

Hi all,

So I’m doing a model project that means I finally need to get a lathe. The longest length I think I’m ever going to do is about 180mm on a 19mm round bar.

Most of the modelling lathes I’ve seen are overkill; with like 500mm between the centres, weighing at 100kg+ and being too big to realistically fit in my shed.

Then I found a super adept lathe on eBay for about £100, which seemed perfect before I went on lathes.com and found it has about six inches between the centres so too small for what I need.

Is there a cheap-ish lathe you guys can recommend that’ll have something like 200mm between the centres, is light and compact enough to fit on a 500mm length of workbench in my shed and not cost me nearly a grand? I don’t mind buying vintage so long as everything moves freely so if there’s a slightly larger equivalent to the super adept that’d be perfect!

Thanks in advance!

Click to expand...

Haha 100 kg . I am not saying that a small lathe does not work (I really do not know). I would guess when you add a zero you are still far away from "overkill" .
That nice little Hardinge weights in at about 800 kg (1700 lbs)
https://www.lathes.co.uk/hardinge-hlv-h-catalog/

Depends on what you include to the weight and what the machine can do. ( the metal base of the hardinge is included)

Distance between centers can be misleading.

• Chuck backplate,
• chuck thickness
• center in the chuck (not wanting to take chuck off everytime)
• Lathe dog
• live center
• quill out to be able to drive the carriage in front of the workpiece. (under live center)
• If the spindle through hole is too small you will need a steady rest. (then you need to park the tailstock and still have the carriage between tailstock and steady rest.

Suddenly 500 mm is shorter than it sounds.

Greetings Timo

Adddd,​

Adding to what ChazzC said, there is also the TAIG (Peatol in the UK) lathe:

Here in the US, you can order a basic kit to put together a lathe and then add only the accesories you need to complete your order.

These folks in the UK may be able to provide more information:

http://www.jeffree.co.uk/peatol.html​

--

As others have said, you will need more size for working around your material while making various parts and you will also need a motor with enough power.

Lathes in the very small sizes are more likely found being used to make watch, clock, and instrument parts.

There are also a few very cheap micro-sized lathes being sold online that are really toys and not capable of much more than demonstrating what a lathe does and turning only wood, plastic, and other soft materials.

In my opinion you would have a hard time finding a good old used machine at sufficient savings now that everyone can set a value of what they sell based on information online. You would also be open to challenges you did not expect trying to make a damaged or abused machine workable as a beginner. You also have to decide whether you need a lathe to make a model or whether you would enjoy spending time and money restoring something as your actual goal. The same can be said about trying to build a lathe from scratch based on plans you might find.

--ShopShoe

The TAIG, similar to Sherline, would fit the bill. Nice and precise. If you order with the ER16 spindlenose and a set of high precision ER 16 collets you can do small precision parts. I would recommend a DC motor with speedcontrol up to 6.000 rpm. with the standard beltdrive this will give you revs up to 18.000 revs.

Welcome to the forum!

Adddd said:

Hi all,

So I’m doing a model project that means I finally need to get a lathe. The longest length I think I’m ever going to do is about 180mm on a 19mm round bar.

Most of the modelling lathes I’ve seen are overkill; with like 500mm between the centres, weighing at 100kg+ and being too big to realistically fit in my shed.

Then I found a super adept lathe on eBay for about £100, which seemed perfect before I went on lathes.com and found it has about six inches between the centres so too small for what I need.

Is there a cheap-ish lathe you guys can recommend that’ll have something like 200mm between the centres, is light and compact enough to fit on a 500mm length of workbench in my shed and not cost me nearly a grand? I don’t mind buying vintage so long as everything moves freely so if there’s a slightly larger equivalent to the super adept that’d be perfect!

Thanks in advance!

Click to expand...

Here I have works great
Install a Aloris tool post too.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/8x14-225...Motor-for-DIY-Wood-Metal-Work-More/5116832219

Dave