The only downside I can see with a large lathe might be its low top spindle speed. Also perhaps the need to muck about with trying to get a 1/4" X 2" long tool rigged up in a tool post that was designed for 3/4" tools 4" long!

Frank.

When I go to work in my local office I can go by bicycle. But that isn't very suitable for the office 40 miles away so I use an 850cc car. It would be nicer to use a bigger car but it wouldn't be better to use a 7 1/2 ton truck despite its advantages for accasional heary lifting. So there are limits and it is just a question of setting a sensible upper limit.

When people recommend a bigger lathe it is to go up from a 2 1/2 or lightweight 3 1/2 Myford to a more solid 5in like a Boxford or perhaps if and only if they are into big stuff to half ton Colchester. It is over the top to go up to a 2 ton DSG for the average modeller and then only if they also have a small lathe.

What you should be doing is insulate your workshop so you can heat that too.

My first lathe was a Portass model "S" which was (still is) 3" x 12" or so and was easy to manhandle by a 15 year old (as I was at the time), so I was able to overhaul, modify, paint and mount it on a bench top myself. It gave me excellent service for quite a few years and I did all sorts of jobs on it, as is the true "model engineer way". The other candidate at the time was a massive (probably 7" centre height) Drummond with integrated drive. I always shudder when I think back to when I was on the verge of buying it as it would have been a mistake, lovely machine though it was.

As you and others say, it depends what you are expecting to be turning. My Bantam is sometimes not big enough for my needs but it's a lot better than an ML7 for my particular purposes. For others, a Myford is fine, if a little expensive perhaps. The other issue with going for a larger machine apart from sheer weight is the cost of accessories. If you double the centre height, you will be needing chucks etc that weigh something like 8 times as much (2 cubed) and the cost isn't going to be far behind, possibly higher as you are getting into professional territory.

One of the key considerations should be the availability (popularity) of compatible accessories. The great advantage of my Bridgeport clone milling machine is that the basic design seems to be common to the majority of medium sized machines and so there is a vast range of parts and accessories available. It may have been satisfying to preserve a "special" antique such as the large Drummond but it would have been very expensive and frustrating in the long run.

Of course, in the interests of science, the correct answer is to keep buying different sized machines to cover all the bases. And keep expanding your workshop to accommodate them as it would be sacrilege to sell any of them. That's certainly the way I see it!

Murray

As the advice to buy as big as you can fit/afford is generally given to a beginner to then suggest that they would be better off with two lathes would involve them in more costs and having to find space for two rather than one lathe.

There is also the fact that two machines will require two sets of tooling as the spindle nose & tapers will unlikely be the same. If one of those machines is to be kept as a house lathe then you really want another set of small tools to go with that as you don't want to be going out to the workshop every 5 mins to get another drill bit, tap, measureing tool. So again not teh ideal advice to be giving a beginner.

On the other hand for someone who has been in the hobby for a while I can see the advantages of a small and large lathe & mill provided you want to spend that amount on equipment and have teh available space to house it. But by then they would know what they want out of the hobby and what size machines would allow them to do that.

Edited By JasonB on 05/12/2014 11:01:55

When I first became interested in this malarkey, my initial requirement was for some small 00 gauge wheels. My lack of knowledge led me to buy a Unimat1 toy machining centre.

It didn't take long to realise my mistake so I bought a s/h Hobbymat – 21/2 in centre height.

This machine worked, but as time went on (and not much time at that), and my experience grew, I discovered firstly that it still wasn't big enough, and second, that facing was convex rather than concave.

I then bought a new Warco 220 (rebadged Mashstroy C210T). With a centre height of 110mm and dbc of 500mm, it is just about big enough: there have been times when either a gap or a larger centre height would have been advantageous, but I have managed, in one instance by cutting the bar in two, machining, and then welding back together. In another instance by allowing the tailstock to slightly overhang the end of the bed.

In all of these, the weight has gone up – the 220 weighs 125kg when fully assembled, and this was just about handleable by me when I moved house 19 years ago.

The 220 isn't perfect, but I am managing to do what I want with it so I can't see me changing it anytime soon.

However, based on the above experiences, I do think that either a gap bed lathe or one with a centre height of at least 5"/125mm would be better. Lengthwise, I can't see much more than 500mm being necessary, and in terms of weight, well it all depends on your facilities, but for a singleton worker, probably a maximum of 150kgs. provided one can remove various parts to lighten the machine whilst installing.

Of course, if you know that right from the start you are only going to build clocks, or 00 gauge stuff, then a small lathe may well be satisfactory, but for general amateur engineering I think the largest you can install/afford is still the best idea.

I have to say that I do sometimes wonder if an additional tiny lathe might indeed have some advantages especially for the small jobs that sometimes have to be done.

Regards,

Peter G. Shaw

John S, thats some girlfriend you have there as well !!!!. CNC mill in the kitchen, worlds first programmable cake icing machine

One thing that never seems to come up is the influence the size of your machine has on what you do with it!

For most of us, it's a hobby – rarely do we find we MUST make a particular item, we choose to. Those who aren't sure what they may end up doing shouldn't fret too much, as whatever size of machine they get, there is still an infinity of potential projects to be done on it.

I keep wondering about something bigger than my mini-lathe, but the only thing I'd be likely to want to turn that's too big for it would be an 8" flywheel. The mill or a temporary raising bloc would see that sorted.

Neil

I would dearly like a bigger lathe, and a smaller one, and a miller and … I have a 8" dia lathe, bought new and it is 98% perfect for my needs. I intended to start model making on retirement and am just about there. The first job I did on my new lathe was the repair of our old water pump, far too big for the lathe so drilled and tapped my new and pristine cross slide, then bored and sleeved, all worked well. I t was only afterwards that I thought about having to return it, but have had no problems and learnt a fair bit about bodging.

I've got the Clarke cl500m machining centre. works perfectly for my needs. Doing some mods but that is par for the course.