Chris Veitch
Western Thunderer
I’m hankering after a new lathe and I’m interested in opinions and recommendations. I currently have an ancient Unimat 3 and a Chinese 7x12 which I bought new from one of the large machinery dealers a few years ago. The Unimat is a great lathe and I love it, but it turns 40 next week and is now rather worn. The Chinese lathe is big, heavy, poorly finished, and not particularly accurate. I’ve used it only a few times and while I realise they can be fettled into a decent machine this would take a lot of my time - it’s liable to be shipped out of the way into the garage shortly.
I do work in 2mm scale and 4mm NG, but also dabble in 7mm and 16mm scale NG so may want to work on reasonably large workpieces. I have a smallish home workshop and a lathe would need to fit into a space about 70cm long and 50cm deep. I think what I’m looking for is a decent machine between the size of my current two and if I ignore the sellers of badged Chinese products and look at well-known brands I find:
So does anyone have any comments or recommendations on such a machine? Am I being unfair to any of the ranges mentioned above (given that none of it’s based on first-hand experience)?
Regards,
Chris
I do work in 2mm scale and 4mm NG, but also dabble in 7mm and 16mm scale NG so may want to work on reasonably large workpieces. I have a smallish home workshop and a lathe would need to fit into a space about 70cm long and 50cm deep. I think what I’m looking for is a decent machine between the size of my current two and if I ignore the sellers of badged Chinese products and look at well-known brands I find:
- Schaublin - nice, but ludicrously expensive;
- Wabeco - look good but a bit expensive, but the smaller machines have a round bar bed which doesn’t appear too robust;
- Cowells - excellent, but only a single model which seems a bit small for some of what I want;
- Proxxon - well made and accurate, but lots of aluminium which makes me doubt their durability.
So does anyone have any comments or recommendations on such a machine? Am I being unfair to any of the ranges mentioned above (given that none of it’s based on first-hand experience)?
Regards,
Chris