DIYbanter - PROXXON PD 230/E LATHE

I have one and have found it very useful for model-building, I have made
100+ guns for a model ship on it among other things. The biggest advantage
is that it is only 10 kilos and very small, so it can be stowed away when
not used. The biggest drawback to it is, of course, that it only 10 kilos
and very small :)

It is better built than your regular Chinese-made lathe however (the 230 is
German-branded, Japanese-designed and South Korean made, as I understand),
and the cast-iron bed makes it nice and rigid for its size. When you turn it
off it stops immediately, a rather important point when doing fiddly stuff
like my cannon - it saves having to wait for the spindle to slowly come to a
halt.

Proxxon stuff is rather expensive, the price of a new -230 in Germany is
around 800 Euros (~800 US dollars). You can pretty much get a 100-kilo
Chinese lathe for that kind of money, which is probably a better deal all
round unless you do not have the space for it, or unless you only want to
turn very small objects like model parts. In my view the 230 is more
convenient for making small parts than the larger lathes I have seen in this
price class.

The three-jaw chuck is not all that strong. Of course, it doesn't have to be
given the kind of work one would be likely to do on a lathe of this size.

What the 230 does, it does well. Just don't expect to be able to use it to
work on a three-inch bar of steel. Think of it as a beefed-up, Mercedes
Benz-version of a Sherline, with a price tag to match.

Staale Sannerud

"Cuezilla" wrote in message
om...
There is one of these lathes on ebay. I live about 5 minutes from the
seller So and I am thinking of bidding. I have a use for a small
lathe. Should I be considering this lathe. Anyone have any experience
with this lathe? What would be the maximum I should be willing to pay?
It is new. Thanks