# Metal lathes from Harbor Freight



## rjwolfe3 (Feb 4, 2010)

If you were looking to buy your first metal lathe for under $700, which lathe would you choose?

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=93212

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=93799

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=44859

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=45861

TIA:biggrin:


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## skiprat (Feb 4, 2010)

If you could get the last one but without the geared head, I'd go for that.
Selectable geared lathes are limited in the variety of threads you can do.
The lathes with change gears that you swap around yourself have an *almost* infinite variety. You can also arrange them to make spirals etc.


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## Russianwolf (Feb 4, 2010)

I'm going to poke fun at you Skippy. 


Isn't a spiral just a thread with a lot of space peak to peak? :tongue:


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## BRobbins629 (Feb 4, 2010)

I would definitely cross off the 7 x 10.  Not that its a bad lathe, just that you would be sorry that it could be too short for many applications.  You lose valuable space when you add things such as collet chucks to the head stock and drill chucks to the tail stock.  You will probably want to drill on the lathe so a chuck and drill bit take a lot of space.

I have often said that the number of pens seen on this site that couldn't be made on a 7 x 12 are very rare, which leaves the decision on how much room you have, how heavy a piece you can lift and how much you can afford.  If I had the room, the money and the help to carry, I might go for the 9 x 20, but I am very content with the 7 x 12 I do have.  Remember to save for tooling and accessories.  

With any of these, you can be sure that a whole new world of penturning awaits you.  Enjoy your purchase which ever way you go.


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## skiprat (Feb 4, 2010)

Russianwolf said:


> I'm going to poke fun at you Skippy.
> 
> 
> Isn't a spiral just a thread with a lot of space peak to peak? :tongue:


 
LOL, give the man a Noddy badge:tongue::biggrin:
But you can't have only one spiral or thread over the length of a pen with a fixed gear lathe. 
You also can't cut many of the threads common to pens. I just spent hours trying( and got it!! )  to assemble my gears to find a 2.25mm thread that can then be divided to get a 3 start 0.75mm thread. Try that on a fixed gear!!:tongue::biggrin:

BTW....your avatar makes me dizzy!!!:tongue:


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## randyrls (Feb 4, 2010)

skiprat said:


> You also can't cut many of the threads common to pens. I just spent hours trying( and got it!! )  to assemble my gears to find a 2.25mm thread that can then be divided to get a 3 start 0.75mm thread. Try that on a fixed gear!!:tongue:



What kind of lathe do you have Skippy?  My 9x20 can make quite a few non-standard threads.



> BTW....your avatar makes me dizzy!!!:tongue:




Me too!!!!!:giggle:


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## lorbay (Feb 4, 2010)

45861 for sure. That;s a 1300.00 lathe here in BC.

Lin.


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## randyrls (Feb 4, 2010)

rjwolfe3 said:


> If you were looking to buy your first metal lathe for under $700, which lathe would you choose?
> 
> TIA:biggrin:



I would go for either the 8x12, or 9x20.

The lathe specs are not all measured the same way and so you cannot directly compare them without knowing how the size measurements were taken.   A lathe can be measured from dead center to dead center and yield one size,  or from spindle nose to tailstock taper and get another result.

Joining some of the YAHOO groups like 7x12lathe and 9x20lathe is a good idea to understand what the trade-offs are.


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## skiprat (Feb 4, 2010)

randyrls said:


> What kind of lathe do you have Skippy? My 9x20 can make quite a few non-standard threads.


 

Randy, mine is nothing special, it's a Chester DB10VS 10x21.5 ( Chinese clone )
When I went out to buy a lathe, I was a bit daunted by the change gears and would have bought the fixed gearbox version if they had one in stock.
Now that I know a little more about it, I can honestly say that that was the best thing that could have happened. If I'm not mistaken, then a lathe with loose gears is cheaper than the fixed version too.

One of my favourite books is Martin Cleeves' 'Screwcutting in the Lathe' 
Number 3 in the Workshop Practice Series. This book not only shows how to cut threads, but also deeply explains how to set the gears to get the required pitch. Not just the standard ones printed on the front of the machine. I couldn't remember where I put the book till now so got my gear setting the hard way:redface:

In the book he references a Prof D H Chaddock who calculated how many possible thread combinations there are with a full set of changable gears.

Quote; According to Prof D H Chaddock, 20 change gears can be set in 380 two gear combinations, 29 070 four gear combinations and 775 200 six gear combinations, a total of 804 650 ways. Allowing for 10 000 or so identical ratios arising from the same gears in a different order, the total possible ratios from 20 gears in 2,4 and 6 gear combinations is about three quarters of a million, but not if they are locked up in a gearbox. Instead of increasing the versatility of a lathe, a selective screwcutting gearbox reduces it.
End Quote

Even a lathe that is metric but has gears that can be changed around, can cut many more imperial threads than a fixed gear imperial lathe


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## BRobbins629 (Feb 4, 2010)

skiprat said:


> Randy, mine is nothing special, it's a Chester DB10VS 10x21.5 ( Chinese clone )
> When I went out to buy a lathe, I was a bit daunted by the change gears and would have bought the fixed gearbox version if they had one in stock.
> Now that I now a little more about it, I can honestly say that that was the best thing that could have happened. If I'm not mistaken, then a lathe with loose gears is cheaper than the fixed version too.
> 
> ...


Yeah, but go CNC and the possibilities are endless and there are no gears to change or levers to pull.  A used EMCO CNC5 can sometimes be had for $1200 to 1500.  That could be my next one.


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## hilltopper46 (Feb 4, 2010)

skiprat said:


> If you could get the last one but without the geared head, I'd go for that.
> Selectable geared lathes are limited in the variety of threads you can do.
> The lathes with change gears that you swap around yourself have an *almost* infinite variety. You can also arrange them to make spirals etc.



I have that lathe and it has loose gears in addition to the fixed gearbox.  Somewhere I have a spreadhseet that shows the 100's of combinations that you can stack up for lotsa different threads.

Out of the box, this lathe has no reversing leadscrew (can't turn LH threads), and a weak tool post mount.  Think about a 7x?? as it has more features even though it is a smaller lathe.


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## bitshird (Feb 4, 2010)

BRobbins629 said:


> Yeah, but go CNC and the possibilities are endless and there are no gears to change or levers to pull.  A used EMCO CNC5 can sometimes be had for $1200 to 1500.  That could be my next one.



Bruce, those Emco 5 lathes are hard to come by, I've been thinking about CNCing my Jet 920 which has a few HF parts in it, the are the SAME lathe. I hate changing the gears and screwing with the belt adjustment, bad enough just doing it for the spindle speeds, which really isn't bad, all in all for the money, the HF 9x20 or the Grizzly are decent  machines, one of my students bought the Grizzly and it came with a 3 jaw and a 4 jaw chuck,


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## BRobbins629 (Feb 4, 2010)

bitshird said:


> Bruce, those Emco 5 lathes are hard to come by, I've been thinking about CNCing my Jet 920 which has a few HF parts in it, the are the SAME lathe. I hate changing the gears and screwing with the belt adjustment, bad enough just doing it for the spindle speeds, which really isn't bad, all in all for the money, the HF 9x20 or the Grizzly are decent  machines, one of my students bought the Grizzly and it came with a 3 jaw and a 4 jaw chuck,


There's an EMCO on CNCZone right now for $1250


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## bitshird (Feb 5, 2010)

BRobbins629 said:


> There's an EMCO on CNCZone right now for $1250



Wish I had the $1250 . I'm looking at about 500 or better to do my Jet I have a 3 axis board. but the ball screws are pricey.


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## Daniel (Feb 5, 2010)

Bruce, I own the 7X12 and for pen related stuff I have not ran into any issues with things fitting etc. but if I go any larger than that and I do start having issues. so even though it says it is 12 inches long don't believe it, think more like 6 inches real working area. i can hold a pen mandrel in it though.
Otherwise I would go with the largest one or a variation of that. I say a variation because I did not buy my lathe from HF. I actually found a better deal from other places. Yeah can you imagine HF being undersold!!! From what I heard back then you can get some really sweet deals on those larger lathes that include a lot of the extras you will be buying soon after anyway.


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## rjwolfe3 (Feb 5, 2010)

Is there a better deal out there right now then that 9x20? I will pick it up so no freight charge. Also I will be using a 20% off coupon. The only other place I have looked at is Grizzly or Jet but I don't have that kind of money.


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## workinforwood (Feb 5, 2010)

All I know is that you shouldn't get anything smaller than a 9x20, and if you can just wait and save up more money, I'd get something a bit bigger.  Think of it this way...you have 20 inches of space to work.  How much room does a chuck take...just a 3 jaw standard chuck would use at least 2 inches I'd think.  I know you want to drill right...well you need a drill chuck...the chuck is probably 3 inches long, especially when you consider the fact that it doesn't just sit flush with the tail, the taper sticks out a bit, so now you have lost at least 5 inches of room.  What's the drill bit going to require..another 4 inches maybe? If so, now you have lost 9 inches, leaving you with only 11 inches to work.  Once you figure out how it works together, that 11 inches is more like 10.5 or less.  10 inches is enough working space to get by with, but if you can have more than that, life will be a lot more comfortable.
  I think you generally get what you paid for.  A Harbour Freight machine is probably just fine, although it is likely to need a bit more fine tuning before you can use it.


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