Lathes

[clydeman]

I beliieve the machiniet Magazine that is being refured to is Machinist's Workshop and The Home Shop Machinist. They are both published by Village Press,Traverse City, MI. I have been getting both for about 30 years

 

[clydeman]

Village Press also puts out two other Magazinees magazines that maybe of interest to some of you- Digital Machinist and LiveSteam RailRoad

 

[Courierdog]

Ron Lunsford
I remember well the things we did to new apprentices, not all was truly instructive,
while learning to sharpen drill bits free hand can get a person by and is fast, I much prefer my Tormek DBS-22 jig. Not only is it accurate, it is quick to setup, simple to use, most of all repeatable. At my age the latter is extremely important, with age my ADHD become more pronounced, and i need the comfort and assistance jigs and fitting provide me.
This is just me and not meant as criticism of others technique and talents and abilities

 

[kop]

with age my ADHD become more pronounced

Like when you see one flute cut a bigger chip and take the bit back to the stone ?

 

[Courierdog]

I have to use the magnifying lens on the Tormek Jig to align the drill bit.
having both facets the same does make a difference..
I have friends who just apply more pressure on the drill, ugh
I think I am spoiled now that I have learned how to sharpen my drill bits all with a 4 facet point.
I have had some of my friends accuse me of being obsessive in this regard. I just fail to understand, why I would use anything else now.

 

[Courierdog]

To digress, If I had the time and expertise, I would like to find and obtain an older South Bend Lathe with was run from a central Overhead Shaft. The older units of the Shop Central Shaft Driven systems were a marvel of engineering. I am sure a paint to maintain and a safety hazard which snagged any wayward object. I have only seen a few working examples which were surprisingly quiet as they were aligned and optimized for a flat belt power transfer system.
Some of the examples I have seen are also well done, all the wheels, gears, pulleys, handles were highly polished for the visual impact more than increasing the accuracy I am sure. I was assured the working accuracy matched the visual appearance.

 

[Courierdog]

For me some of the older external belt driven lathes have an astethetics value that has to be seen to be appreciated. It is not that they were better or more accurate, It is just they recall a time in our history.

 

[Paul135]

i've been in contact with modern tool. canada. the sales rep quoted me between 12 and 16k for knee mills. i didn't ask about lathes yet. i see their website has quite a few new and used. i think they deal with commercial items mostly. quite expensive....

Stephan,

I have been thinking about your lathe choice predicament. In the other thread where you asked for advice, members suggested the Craftex CX701. Why not go for a lathe such as that one? There is the excellent thread of Brian on his and you can buy it in Canada with local support. I had a look at its spec and at 235kg it isn't too heavy to move around. My own lathe looks very similar and I did all its mounting on the stand and moving into the workshop single handed and I am not strong. I would suggest getting one of those engine hoists on wheels and you would be able to not just put it together where you live now but remove it from the the stand/bench and reassemble at your new place and have a very useful lifting device for the shop. That and some steel tube/pipe for rollers or a trolley and you will be fine.

With a vertical slide you could do some milling on it as well. To save you time and effort I wonder if Busy Bee would fit a DRO for you. After 2 or 3 years of non serious use on my lathe with the same 4 way toolpost now I am starting to use it more seriously I have fitted an AXA style QCTP to make changing tools easier.

Paul

Paul

 

[Gordon]

I do not want to rain on your parade but I think that you are getting too far ahead of yourself. You have never done any of this and you may find that it is really not something you want to do. You may find that spending all day or even several days making a piece that you can hold in your hand bores you to tears. You seem to have ample funds but just because you can does not mean that you should. The ideal would be if there is someplace near you where you could take a machining class and try the various machines. At the very least try to find a smaller used machine to try to find out if this is for you. You can always sell the machine even if it is at a slight loss. As I said in your other thread I would certainly take a good look at Sherline or equivalent and buy something like a small PM Research or Stuart kit and give it a try.

 

[mrbugbums]

Stephan,

I have been thinking about your lathe choice predicament. In the other thread where you asked for advice, members suggested the Craftex CX701. Why not go for a lathe such as that one?

Paul

Thank you Paul, that is very kind of you to take the time and encourage and give helpful advice. you are so right. I even looked at the local metal supply shop to spec out the parts to build an engine hoist to do just as you suggested.
It looks like the 701 comes with a DRO and the 707 does not? I finally got together with my long time BFF who just got separated from wife and kids and he went over in great detail him building our home from scratch instead of buying a home, so that would be amazing. and coming up fast. I get the payout in 2 more days. pretty crazy wild unbelievable to imagine literally designing to suit.

 

[mrbugbums]

I do not want to rain on your parade....
No worries Gordon. thank you for your exhortation, it is received very well. and no doubt good advice for most people. I'm quite different than most people. There is zero doubt I will be buying a great lathe and mill to put in my workshop, learn to use them, and build many things. I have a big list of things I want to make and throughout my life have done so many things and could have done them better and so much more if I had these machines long ago.

 

[Paul135]

Stephan,
Checking the 701 it looks like the digital readout referred to is the rpm display for the spindle. Loads of Chinese made lathes have what seems to be much the same display unit in roughly the same position just above the speed knob.

Paul

 

[Shopgeezer]

As someone who bought the wrong lathe and really bought the wrong mill when I started out, I am in the position to tell you to phone Busy Bee and order the CX 701 lathe and CX 601 mill. I wish I could do so but just have to live with the choices I made before I knew anything. Get the power drive for the mill and DRO’s for both and you will have a dream setup for a home hobby shop. If you want to see them in action watch the Blondihacks series on You Tube. Those are the machines that she uses. If you decide that machining is not for you there will be a lineup to buy them.

 

[Courierdog]

I fully concur with this statement in Canada the BusyBeeTool CX701 and CX601 would be a wise choice and also if possible have the DRO installed by BusyBeeTools,I do suggest the DroPro Version as it has had the least complaints of any DRO I have been reviewing.
Buy the complete recommended accessories, tooling, clamping measuring packages they have and recommend.
when first starting having a complete set of required accessory can make life so much easier and while some tools or measuring item may require replacing after a while it gives the new user a place to start and an point of reference.
Having a good long sit down with a qualified machines at BusyBeeTools will provide the best means to achieving your goals and minimize any misunderstanding as to what is delivered. Insist of a complete part breakdown with pictures / illustrations and when you store items clearly label each location on your inventory list, this become extremely important when you go looking for that part that was delivered but cannot be located now. I know this from experience.

 

[gl99]

Don't have personal experience with buying lathes this size, but from what I've seen, Precision Matthews seems to be pretty well received when it comes to Asian import machines. Seems to be that they've got better features and more reliable support compared to some of the other importers. Not sure what their availability in Canada is though.

I'll second Shopgeezer's recommendation on the Blondihacks YouTube channel. In case you haven't found it yet, here's a link to her guide to buying an import lathe:

 

[Linz]

As someone who bought the wrong lathe and really bought the wrong mill when I started out, I am in the position to tell you to phone Busy Bee and order the CX 701 lathe and CX 601 mill. I wish I could do so but just have to live with the choices I made before I knew anything. Get the power drive for the mill and DRO’s for both and you will have a dream setup for a home hobby shop. If you want to see them in action watch the Blondihacks series on You Tube. Those are the machines that she uses. If you decide that machining is not for you there will be a lineup to buy them.

Sorry, but these are NOT the machines used by Blondihacks. She uses Precision Matthews models PM-1022V lathe and PM-25MV mill which are one size smaller than the PM-1127VF-LB and PM-30MV, which are similar to the CX-701 and Cx-601 respectively. While the PM machines are built on the same platform it appears that PM attempts to incorporate changes and upgrades to improve the performance of theirs, while BusyBee does not. You (perspective buyers) can study their differences on the dealer's respective websites. Also, Ensure the dealer offers a level of service that you are happy with. I've read that PM offers good customer service, although I have no firsthand experience with them. On the other hand, my experience with BusyBee, falls short in this department.

 

[jlchapman]

I just had a chance to test PM's customer service. My PM-1340 which I bought in 2018 had the DRO fail. Called PM, John had me perform a manual test to confirm the read head on the DRO scale was not working correctly. It failed of course. New part was ordered and received at no cost. I thought that was great customer service.

 

[Shopgeezer]

I think this is just badge engineering. Different colours same machine. The question is whether PM has upgraded boards and it would appear not. Blondihacks had her mill blow up and quit and had to go through the exact same process that Brian Rupnow on this forum just went through with his CX 601. She has a you tube video on the whole experience. All of these machines are made on the same assembly line in China. They are all the same machine.

And Brian’s customer service wasn’t bad. The tech at BB assessed the problem and it was repaired. The issue is distance. Unless BB is willing to put a service centre in every major city they can’t offer local repair on their equipment. No question that BB needs to work on this with their customer service and come up with a better solution for remote customers. Ignoring phone calls is not good customer relations.

 

[comstock-friend]

My experience with Precision Matthews was not favorable. I bought a close out power Y-axis feed for my Bridgeport ('for Bridgeport and clones'). Ad said not returnable but 'fully guaranteed'. Well first, NOT for Bridgeports, all shaft sizes and fasteners metric, and the bolt circle for the dial adapter was not correct. Then when plugged in, there was a puff and the magic smoke got out. Emails to PM to find out what 'not returnable but fully guaranteed' really meant. They had me disassemble and I found that a wire had been pinched between upper and lower die cast body parts, so obviously the unit had never been powered up after assembly. After a bit of back and forth, they allowed me to return the feed and sent another. Plugged in, this one was dead without the puff of smoke. Disassembly could find no obvious reason. After further argument, this one also returned and on the third try we got a unit that worked. By now, between the closeout price and the two returns I could have purchased one of the much better Taiwan made drives. After trying to decipher the Chinglish instructions for bevel gear backlash adjustment I ended up buying a USA Servo built unit. Pretty much not trusting any China made machines these days; tooling will be looked at with suspicion until finish/runout/etc has been evaluated.

 

[lathe nut]

that was a lot of information there but very hard to understand, talk a little slower and keep your hand from tapping things that get quite annoying, you seem to be knowledgeable so make the learning experience fun.