SpudFiles

The Seig lathes are good no matter which one you get. They are a good tool company.

It's very small. The longest thing you could turn and still have the tailstock on the lathe is around 5 inches. The combined length of the workpiece and any drills would be about 4 inches. I have a 14" lathe, and I STILL struggle with my Jobber length drill set.

Save up, and look on the used market. I got my 7x14 RealBull for $460, including a bunch of tooling. I got my Enco RF45 clone mill for $860, including a bunch of tools, a $380 rotary table, and a ~$100 vise.

As to building one, if you can cast (or maybe weld) it shouldn't be *that* hard, especially if you have a drill press. It should be relatively easy if you have a friend with access to a bigger lathe and, more importantly, a mill.

It will be time consuming, though. Generally, you weld together a temporary headstock, and use it to bore the cast (or heavier) headstock for its bearings.

I have a friend who has a giant lathe, maybe 8' long, and he rarely uses it. I may be able to use it at his house some time until I get my own lathe. Whats a good mini lathe? And a cheapish one (money wise)...

http://www.mini-lathe.com/mini_lathe/ve ... her_7x.htm

There's a navigation bar at the botton for the more "regular" versions. Keep an eye on craigslist for an old Rockwell or Southbend or something. Those are much more rigid, but might require some fixing up. (so will the above Chinese imports)

IMHO, Sherline lathes are only really good for very small parts.

warhead, realistically, do you have at least $500 to spend? Otherwise all this discussion is purely academic

And would your mother you are always complaining about even let you get one? Hahah

She said she would prefer I get a lathe then continue on with the cannon building... Mostly because I said it was also very math intensive (which it kinda is) and that it would help me with my math...

Jack, I do, but I don't. Know what I am saying?

If your looking for a lathe look for a hercus or a Sheraton they are Australian made metal lathes and they are clones of Southend, just recently i got offered and free Sheraton conquest lathe but i just need to build it.
go for something with a decent centre point and swing because if you buy some thing small and start to work with bigger materials you will be sorry.

Ok, I may be able to see about my brother getting me one from Australia. Thats where he lives right now so I might be able to get one from there, but shipping will be a pain in the ass...

I would not try to ship something that large transcontinental. Have you checked Ebay/Craigslist/classified ads?

irisher wrote:I would not try to ship something that large transcontinental. Have you checked Ebay/Craigslist/classified ads?

From the states to New Zealand 2 30kg subwoofers was going to cost me several hundred US dollars in shipping. I flagged that for local second hand ones.
You'd spend more on shipping the lathe than on the lathe itself.

Are you still at school or whatever? Is there a metal work class?
Provided you've done all your work (not hard for me considering how slow everyone else in the class is, apart from 2 friends) and you have a nice teacher you can generally make stuff for yourself if you provide/pay for materials.

3VIL, I wish I was for that reason. I am actually home schooled... Irisher, I know it will probably cost a alot, but if he can get one over there for like $25 usd, then I think it would be worth it, especially if its a mini.

I think it may be a little optimistic to think a metal lathe costs $25.

You have much better chances of getting something cheap here, but as jack said do you actually have any money to spend?

Like I said, I do but I don't. I kind of want an xbox, but at the same time I want a lathe. Its 50/50 for me, because I can either get really good at video games which will lead no where but alot of online glory, or get really good at machining which will lead to possibly a job and glory of being able to produce fine products.

My next newbie question, whats the difference between a metal and a wood lathe?