Hi everyone,

I’d like to introduce myself. I’m from the “dark side”. A woodworker, wanting to start up in clockmaking and model engineering. I know very little about the subject but have followed a number of feeds on this site and I thought I should join to get more specific advice. I hope you will forgive my ignorance and bear with me whilst I get up to speed.

My priority at the moment is getting the right lathe. I’ve researched micro lathes, Cowells, Sherline and Peatol. I like the Cowells 90ME and CW. The latter seems a lathe well suited to making small clocks but, perhaps not as appropriate for model making, so I would probably go for an ME, which may not be optimised for clockmaking but would give me flexibility. I am concerned that I may not be able to make the larger wheels on a Cowells e.g. that on the sort of clock featured in the Clickspring series of videos “How To Make A Clock In The Home Machine Shop”. I’m due to look at a used Cowells 90CW this week which has loads of accessories and the asking price of £2,250. It’s in good condition except for some marks on the bed which may or may not be a problem. I would welcome any comments on this lathe and micro lathes generally.

My other option is to buy something like a Warco WM250V with all the bells and whistles. It’s a bit large for my work area but looks like a goos machine for the price £2,500 delivered. My only concern about the Warco is it’s level of accuracy for making small clock parts. This is the essence on y dilemma, Do I buy a Cowells that may not be big enough to make the larger items in clockmaking or, but a Warco that may be too big and sloppy to make small gears and pinions. I appreciate that the obvious solution would be to buy both.

The Cowells is perfect in many ways, it’s small and manageable and has all the clockmaking accessories that I need. The accessories alone have a catalogue value of £2,700. The Warco is big, very heavy and just the starting point for expenditure.

Finally, I wonder if anyone could provide a list of accessories for clockmaking on a lathe. Do I need a milling attachment, indexers, dividing machines, I’m a bit confused and my clockmaking book doesn’t arrive until next week!

Any help will be much appreciated.

Graham

Thanks to everyone who has responded to my post. Interesting to note Steve's comments on the Sherline. I will certainly reconsider this as an option, especially in the light of Bizibiler's point about the bed on the Cowells 90CW.

Since posting, I have found the Ian T Cobb site which sells a book on the John Wilding clock that I would like to make. This may give me information on the size of the great wheel which I will need to make. It also appears that, as a last resort, I can buy the wheel from them for £95.

Any comments on the most desirable accessories for a clockmaker lathe?