Does anybody here own a Sherline mini lathe? I saw a Jensen version of one at a swap meet a few months ago. I made an offer, but eventually passed on it. It sounds like they are very good machines. I'd like to hear about anyone's experience with one.
They're nice for making very, very small things. A problem is that they're not rigid in the sense that "real" lathes are, subsequently depth-of-cut is severely limited. Lest you say "s'ok, I've got time, I'll just sneak up on my final dimension .002" at a time" - that doesn't necessarily work.
A non-rigid machine deflects under cutting load, and it's load-dependent. So You dial in a .010" cut and get .007", but maybe dialing in.005" gets .002", or maybe not. You're hunting to end up at your number vs.a full size machine where you may do some number of roughing cuts, measure the work and dial in the finished diameter, and take the final cut at a lower feed rate.
Oh, feed rate!
They don't have feeds in X or Y, so there's no threading or fine finish cuts or cut offs.
In essence, little brass and aluminum one-offs, OK. But that's about all.
Planning on building some toy locomotives?
There is a threading attachment for the Sherline. I just glanced in my hobby machinist book on the Sherline lathe and mill and it shows change gears and some other miscellaneous widgets. Personally, I'd be looking at at least a 9" swing for playing around.
Good info.
I don't actually need to make anything, I'm just looking for a lathe to play with. I'm not sure that I want to give up the kind of space that a nine inch lathe would require.
My 1st lathe was a 4" Taig. Not as pretty as the Sherline but just as capable. Probably the most difficult thing I built was a set of backhoe pins. They took a while.
At this point I would I would probably pass on those and look at the Chinese stuff. HF has a mini lathe that looks pretty good. I'm sure it needs a ton of clean up and adjustment, but over all they look pretty stout. If I didn't already have a 9" South Bend, I would have one of these.
It will do 7" X 10".
I bought a Grizzly G0609 (advertised as a 10" x 22") earlier this summer since I don't have space for a 14" x 40" monster and I wanted to be able to get it down into my basement without a lot of grief. I'm still slowly acquiring tooling for it but hope to mess around with it more seriously this winter.
One of the first mods I've heard done on those HF 7" lathes is adding a thick steel plate to the bottom to increase rigidity. Caveat Emptor.
I was going to post a link to Lindsay Publications, only to see this:
Damn. Just ... damn.
Lindsay had books about doing and making stuff. Stuff of interest to GRM types. Like lathes.
So, instead, here's one of their authors' books:
Available HERE.
I have one of these guys Grizzly G9972Z that I picked up including some nice tooling, an 8" grinder and a big pile of steel and aluminum for $650. There are always a few on CL.
It took me some time to get it all cleaned up and adjusted to the point where it would hold a .001 but it's been cranking out all kinds of bushings and simple things for me ever since. It has the capability to make much more - but I'm still learning (and wasting about 30% of everything I make)
In any case, I don't see any reason to get one of those wee little ones unless you are working on watches or n-scale railroading toys.
Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: I don't see any reason to get one of those wee little ones...
Shop space...shop space, my friend.
I've heard the Gingery lathe is also too light and has issues with chatter. There is no replacement for mass (preferably the grey cast kind). :)
I have a pdf of the Gingery lathe plans and I bought a chinese lathe...
The best reason I can think of to get a little one is the 18" x at least a football field lathe at work doesnt have a chuck to do anything smaller than 1/2" in diameter.
An 18" swing lathe probably doesn't have a high enough spindle speed to get anywhere the SFM needed to turn smaller than 1/2" OD.
I have a 14x40 Turn-Pro in my shop. In it I can hold work:
Between centers w/ a dog and D1-4 face plate.
Clamped to a D1-4 face plate.
6" D1-4 3-jaw chuck w/ detachable/reversable jaws.
8" D1-4 4 reversable jaw chuck.
8" 6 jaw chuck w/ inside and outside jaws.
5C collet adapter / handwheel tube.
D1-4 5C collet chuck
I can hold .062 material in a 5C collet, I can hold an e36 M3 rear brake rotor by the inside of the parking brake drum. .062" is at my top speed of 2k rpm. Turning the OD of a Ford Aspire rotor down so it works on the race car is an the minimum spindle speed or 140 rpm.
Damn. Typing Grizzly Lathe into a CL search box is pretty darn dangerous.
The one at work goes to 2000 RPM or so. I think 1800 and change. Its a beast.
Probably the best thing I did to mine was convert it to variable speed DC. 2.5 HP with speed ranges from creeping to scary fast.
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