First draughtproof and insulate your shed and get a dehumidifier or your lathe will turn into a pile of rust. Or if you are lazy get a pre-rusted lathe off ebay.

Colin,

Bede Tools, in Jarrow, might be worth a visit.

I've never been, but keep meaning to … Our children live in Sunderland and Newcastle.

MichaelG.

+1 for Bede Tools in Jarrow.

I bought my ML7 through them via eBay and they shipped it to me by pallet at cost well packed and in perfect condition.

HTH

Jon

Hi there, Colin,

Some folks may tell you that a wooden floor will condemn you to poor results and will advise you to cut a hole in the floor, dig a deep foundation and cast an in-situ concrete pedestal for your lathe.

I'm not saying that's wrong BUT I do suggest that you defer such a radical measure until you have gained some experience with whatever lathe you get.

My Myford ML7 is bolted to a home-made sheet steel and angle 'iron' cabinet stand that has a length of angle 'iron', web outwards, at the foot of each end. I used to have a workshop on scaffold boards and railway sleepers and the lathe cabinet ends sat on two strips of ½" hard felt on the floor. The lathe is mounted on the Myford raising blocks with built-in jacking screws for 'levelling'. Over a couple of years the cabinet filled up with accessories for the lathe and chunks of useful material (any old iron!) so there was quite a bit of mass there to stabilise the situation. I wasn't doing super precise work but that arrangement never caused me any problems.

So, get your lathe and get some practice & experience and then, and only then, pursue the ultimate lathe foundation, if it proves to be necessary. And not until you've decided definitely where in the workshop you want the lathe to be sited.

It's handy to have a pluggable hole in the wall in line with the lathe mandrel in case you ever need to operate on the end of something long!

I also suggest that you install and use an extractor fan (at least 9" ) over the kettle.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 15/07/2014 15:16:37

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 15/07/2014 15:17:51

It may be a bit of travel, but I'd suggest taking a 'pilgrimage' to Chester, Warco or Arc and comparing these machines side by side. Even the mini lathe will tackle 3" diameter or 300mm long but maybe not at the same time

Neil

Metric or imperial is a bit of a personal choice and depends on what you are most comfortable with.

If you work in feet and inches then may be the imperial m/c if on the other hand you work in mm/cm/meters then go metric but you will find that from time to time you have to work between the two.

I have no problem with either as it is easy to convert dimensions, like 1mm = 0.04" some dimensions you get used to like 1/4" = 6.35mm etc but that comes with time.

As to which m/c is the best I would always go for the one with the largest capacity so in this case the 920 wins as it will swing 240mm x 500mm apposed to the DB7VS at 180mm x 300mm. It is guaranteed you want to turn something larger than the machine will take and that is probably going to come sooner on the smaller lathe.

Check the specifications, but i think the DBVS has variable speed while the 920 machines have a relatively limited range of fairly high speeds (but our next issue of MEW offers a solution to that). As both a way bigger than what Colin gave as examples of the size he needs the variable speed machine might suit better. I stand by my suggestion – view before choose!

Neil

18mm Sterling board is not even any good for a potting shed, with the damp it will droop between the joist. Mount your lathe at right angles to the main floor joists and make sure that the cabinet/stand sits on a decent surface joist that bridges as many under floor joists as possible.

Frank

Well here you go:

For many good reasons, last year I bought a Chester DB7VS lathe. At the time I considered it a stopgap. My situation is a bit different than most, I have access to three different lathes of varying sizes and capacities – even John let me use his rather nice Chester with DRO's on every axis.

The main reason was that I didn't have to run down the street to borrow a machine just to turn down a cap screw or some similar trivial task if I had my own lathe in my workshop. I already had a nice Taig lathe that I use for plastics and it was just too much swapping chucks and setups to do a bit of mild steel.

Since the very first day I bought the machine it has performed every task I have asked of it. It has really, really surprised me with its heart. It is far more accurate than everyone told me a Chinese lathe would be and I don't regret spending anything on it. It will do anything a budding engineer would ask and frankly, the deal Chester has going at the moment is terrific. Echoing others here, be cautious when buying used second hand gear so early on in your engineering journey. I am seriously considering copying Neil and putting a VFD and three phase motor on the machine.

If there is anything I would change or have it is power feed on the cross slide, this will come with my next machine. And I am not sure I would sell the little Chester when I get a bigger machine and I certainly wouldn't hesitate recommending any of the well known small Chinese lathes to any beginner because I have had an opportunity to try quite a few now and all of the stories of poor quality may have been true ten years ago but they are no longer. Quality is good, reliability is good and there are a myriad of accessories available from the most modest to the most complex – up to and including overhead milling attachments.

graham.