Lathes & Mills
 

Where is the best place to look for lathes/mills at reasonable prices. Had a look on the fleabay but surely there must be places that sell machines at reasonable prices that you wouldn't worry about condition?

I have just moved & have plenty of room for one of each & something that I have wanted to aquire for a long time. So bloody useful.

Nothing too big, but not tonka toys.

Any suggestions/recommendations??

P.

i would recoment a small harrison lathe and a small myford or bridgeport milling machine

wouldnt buy new not worth it unless its getting alot of use, you have already got my normal sujestion of ebay but that is certainly a good place to keep your eye on they come up from time to time

tilly

Try local colleges and schools. Especiasly ones that the government is forcing to become Merged or Academised...

TT

In terms of lathes I would generally avoid Myford as they tend to command good prices for what they really are. Harrisons are great lathes although watch out for the nose fittings on some like 140s - can be costly to get L00 and similar fittings. Smart and Browns are fantastically well built and sturdy lathes but tend to not carry a great throw. My personal all round favourite is the Colchester Student - a good do everything machine, particulalry a long bed version. Plenty of them around and easy to get hold of parts for them. In terms of the mill there is not much around that beats the versatility of a bridgeport. There are better machines out there but the bridgeport is just an amazing piece of engineering. If you can get a varispeed head and power feed on the table.

It depends what you want to use the machines for small hobby use or some thing that will take a brake disk,engine head? I brought a Colchester student for £375 from ebay, it's more than twice my age but with a near complete strip and regrease it's only problem is 5-10 tho back lash in the tool post. I'd say avoid the small £300-400 toy lathes they'll just annoy you after 20mins. A good clarke/myford type mill second hand you'll be looking at £500-700 but because they fit in a car boot they're sought after and they don't come up often, some times some thing the size of Bridge port comes along at £300-400but then you still need to move it.
As for ex-school stuff I'd say take with a pinch of salt, would you buy an ex driving school car as driven by the worst drivers of all?

i have got 2 harrisons eating up all my workshop space. infact i have been tinkering today.



made these for a chap on locost builders so he can respace his carbs

Did you not see the 2 mills for sale on here last week? 1 Bridgeport and 1 Ajax, I gave both away for 500 notes each. How much do you want to spend?

The more tooling you can get included in the deal the better off you'll be. I've already spent more on tools than I paid for my lathe. And worse since having the lathe I'm spending a huge amount of time making my own tools.
If you can weld, do foundry work and have a lathe then you can do quite a lot on a skimpy budget and you'll always be on the prowl for scrap.

I never did any lathe work but always wanted one so I got myself an old 1950'ish Boxford CSB. Did'nt want to lay out too much money in case I did'nt like it but I must say the bug has bitten.

Am saving for a mill or shaper. My requirements are quite modest so I may get away with building one myself if I can find the time.

Nice work Ash.

You might be lucky and find one local, but auctions are a better bet

http://www.machineryclassified.co.uk...s/Default.aspx

or specialists like these

http://www.rondean.co.uk/

Kind regards

John

Yeah I did, saw the thread after they had gone. Wouldnt have had the notes then anyways.