In article ,
Brad Brigade wrote:
On Fri, 17 Oct 2003 01:02:31 GMT, (Gary Coffman)
wrote:
How small? The Sherline is *tiny*. It is really a *micro* lathe rather
than a mini lathe. They're fine little machines, and there's a ton of
accessories available for them, but they are *tiny*. A similar machine
is the Taig (which I own). Neither will natively cut threads, though
there are ways around that.
Then I'm guessing it won't do. I'll have to find something else.
Agreed.
I was looking at the Emco machines as well as the ones sold by harbor
Emco or ENCO? Big difference.
Had no idea there was Emco and Enco. I was referring to the modular
lathe/mill/drill unimat thing. But from what I heard, it's pretty
cheap, so I dismissed it.
That is only one of the machines made by Emco. My Compact-5/CNC
is another, the Compact-8 is a nice sized machine sort of half-way
between my Compact-5 and my Clausing 12x24".
[ ... ]
Well... I actually WANT to make the gears. Any of the stuff I've made
over the years I could have bought for far less money, but that was
never the point.
O.K. A lot of us can relate to that.
And I wasn't suggesting doing it on the lathe, but
with the mill and rotary table as you mentioned. But forget the
Sherline, is there ANY mill that can make decent gears for around
$600? If not, then screw 'em.
Yes -- a lot less for the mill (but not counting the cost of the
dividing head needed to index the gears.) I got a Nichols horizontal
mill (with my name, how could I resist?) for $200.00 from eBay. (Of
course -- with shipping, that about doubled the price. :-) It would be a
very nice machine for making small straight-tooth gears, and I'm
actually setting up to make some. :-) But I already had the dividing
head, which might cost you more than the mill.
Note that the Nichols, as a small (but solid) horizontal mill,
weighs in at about 1000 pounds.
[ ... ]
You really need to tell us more about the size work you're going to do.
If you're familiar with Battlebots, give us the class closest to the size of
[ ... ]
My aim is to build a small, two-motor, autonomous robot, probably one
foot long at most, ten pounds maybe. No saw blades, or cannons, or
spiked balls, just wheels. I also would like to be able to machine
parts to modify paintball guns and other small mechanical devices.
And then, in my search for a lathe I've also come across various
examples of small steam engines and so on, built with small lathes and
mills, and I now have an itch to try that out too.
O.K.
I really want to be able to make threads and gears. If I can't do
that, it's not worth it for any price. And I mean to make gears on a
mill. I'm actually in the market for a lathe AND mill, I've just been
saying lathe a lot cause I'm lazy. Sorry.
So I'm gonna back away from Sherline. Now I'm thinking of getting an
Atlas or Craftsman as suggested by Bob May, or a Grizzly 7x12. I read
somewhere that the Grizzly and Harbor Freight 7x12 were almost the
same machine, but the Grizzly has more features. So any
recommendation there?
I would go for the Atlas or Craftsman. At least 10" swing. As
used machines, you'll have to look a bit to find them, and you should
read Dave Ficken's web page on evaluating used machines, but you will
get a more capable machine. (And one problem which I have read about
with the import machines (Grizzley and Harbor Freight and similar) is
that it is difficult to get the spindle speed low enough for reasonable
threading to a shoulder, given normal human reaction time.
And as for the mill. Grizzly and Harbor Freight have a mill too. Any
comments on those?
I'm hoping to spend about $2000 on a lathe, mill, and tools.
With used machines and tools, this may be do-able, but beware
that you will want better measuring instruments and such, and you *will*
get above that price -- eventually. But you can start out for less, as
witness my Nichols mill for $200.00 and my Clausing 12x24" lathe for
about $1700, IIRC. Down at the 10" swing size, you should be able to do
better -- as long as you steer clear of the South Bend lathes. (Not that
they are *bad* -- it is just that they have name recognition in the
hobby world that the others do not, and as a result the used prices are
noticeably higher.
Best of luck,
DoN.
--
Email: | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. |
http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---