![]() ![]() quiet - sounds a little dainty, but if you're sitting in front of the thing for hours, a noisy headstock grates on your nerves, and earmuffs compromise your ability to differentiate good from bad cutting sounds.ģ. quick, light, and sure engagement of the feed - a lot of times I need to stop the feed right now and a wishy-washy, finicky, or sticky engagement sucks.Ģ. What are some items that could be done to a new import either by the customer or by the manufacturer to ensure a quality machine?ġ. On a new Chinese machine, apart from racism, what makes so many of them to be called "junk"? Is the machine mass too light to be reliable? Are the bearings in the headstock no good and if so, does this cause runout and bad finishes? Could these problems be corrected with better bearings (some of the importers offer higher grade bearings on more expensive machines)? Is it just the general poor finishing of castings and painting? Are these machines labeled "junk" because they start our okay, but then wear down quickly? So could people chime in with Helpful, Objective, and Experienced input on what a person should look for in a medium sized manual lathe to be used for one-off and small (~50) parts runs or to supplement a CNC lathe in a small job shop? ![]() Apart from the milling function on the Smithy and the excess wear on the Hardinges, everything has worked okay to me. I have owned a few lower-end Chinese machines (HF 8x12, Grizzly 12x36, Smithy 3-n-1) and 2 old Hardinge HLVs that were worn to the point of uselessness and a nice condition SB Heavy 10 from 1978. I personally do not know where to get parts for an American lathe made in the 1940's but I can order almost any part from stock from Grizzly's website. Other arguments include that parts are plentiful for American iron and non-existent for anything Asian. I don't buy into these viewpoints and based on the volumes of machines being sold I don't think they can be right. I have seen posts condemning all Asian machine tools as junk and other posts declaring all American lathes to be nearly perfect forever. I have been searching and reading old threads about manual lathes and am just more confused about what makes a lathe either "good" or "junk"? From a practical purchase standpoint it is clear that someone with a budget of $1,000 to $15,000 today has either the option of purchasing a used American-made machine or a new machine made in Asia. I read a lot on this forum but this is only my second post. ![]()
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