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Unread 26-08-2002, 00:20
Lloyd Burns Lloyd Burns is offline
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FRC #1246 (Agincourt Robotics)
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The only metal lathe I found on the grizzly site was a 7" x 12" machine. There are two things you want to check: quality and size.

There are a lot of these machines imported into North America, made across the Pacific, in many cases. Some of them are excellent sources of rough castings to make a lathe, and preassembled to save including instructions on how to assemble them. The ground surfaces on some need filing to break the really sharp "flash", and the slides need to be checked that they don't tighten as you screw them from one end to the other. Gearboxes may leak a treat around the shaft ends, once 'home' and filled with oil. Your example has inch and metric dials - but the threads for the slides are one or the other, and the dual dials are hard to get used to.

As to size, in your 7" x 12", the first number is the outside diameter of the largest workpiece that will fit over the ways below the chuck, but this is not usually machine-able, because the tool must be held by the holder mounted on the saddle: to machine close to the chuck, the saddle must slide under the workpiece, or the tool must extend around the outside of the work.

If you wanted to bore a hole in a disc, the jaws of the chuck would probably have to hold it on its outside edge, and if the radius of the disc and the length of the jaws' upper step exceed 3.5", the jaws will hit the ways.

This 7" diameter might not be big enough for some of the things you might want to do, but it be ok for much of what you need to do, though you may need to have access to outside machining for a few bigger pieces.

The 12" distance from head to tail stock may not allow much more that 10" of useful length. If you were trying to turn the end of a shaft longer than that, the diameter of the hole in the headstock spindle (which turns the chuck) limits the maximum diameter of the shaft. It might get cramped in there.

You pays yer money ...

As Matt points out, used equipment can be a good deal, if you have someone with experience to check out the 'gem' you are considering. You may even find auctions in your area, and you might get a bigger machine for the amount you have to spend.

You've probably seen some of the "equipped" teams with machines like these at First events: my guess is that these are what they could transport, that they usually use much bigger machines before the "ship date".

And new or used, buy as many accessories as you can afford when you buy your machine, because they may not be available for your machine when you need them, down the road.

Another machine tool you might consider is a mill: there are many small, inexpensive mills out there, looking like reinforced drill presses with a long moving table for your workpiece. Used on workpieces that are non-cylindrical, they can make flats and slots (even key-slots in some shafts), and make sides of things parallel.
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