HI Group:

I attended the Inernational Hardware Show in Las Vegas this week saw a "new"
version of the Sakai ML 360 lathe and mill. This lathe was originally made
in Japan and got quite a bit of press in HSM with Rudy Kaughupt (sp??).

Rudy wrote several articles on the quality of the lathe and mill, and my
understanding was that the ML series was discontinued several years ago.
Why, I do not know. Price?????

Seem like a Korean manufacturer has picked up the rights and the tooling to
manufacture the lathe in Korea. They are looking to revisit the US market.

My question is has anyone in this newsgroup used the Sakai lathe, or have
any comments on it?

Is there any interest in a Korean made "mini lathe" that is supposedly has
much better quality than the now ubiquitous 7 x 10/12/14" Chinese Sieg mini
lathes? Size is basically the same.. 6 x 14.

This lathe will be in the 1500 dollar range, so expensive compared to the
Chinese made lathes, , but will be comparable (or better) than the German
made Prazi line.

I must admit the lathe and mill (especially the mill) looked and felt very
good. The paint color is an obnoxious green, but all the controls were
silky smooth.

Anyway, just curious is there is a market for a small precision lathe made
in Korea?

Steve Koschmann

On Sat, 15 May 2004 04:05:49 GMT, "Steve Koschmann" wrote:
HI Group:

I attended the Inernational Hardware Show in Las Vegas this week saw a "new"
version of the Sakai ML 360 lathe and mill. This lathe was originally made
in Japan and got quite a bit of press in HSM with Rudy Kaughupt (sp??).

Rudy wrote several articles on the quality of the lathe and mill, and my
understanding was that the ML series was discontinued several years ago.
Why, I do not know. Price?????

Seem like a Korean manufacturer has picked up the rights and the tooling to
manufacture the lathe in Korea. They are looking to revisit the US market.

My question is has anyone in this newsgroup used the Sakai lathe, or have
any comments on it?

If I recall correctly, that lathe has always been a Korean made machine.
Darn nice one too. Sakai was just slapping their name on it. When Sakai
withdrew from the US market, the metric version of the machine remained
available in Europe for some time (maybe still is).

There have been rumors for a couple of years that the Koreans wanted to
directly market the inch version in the US, but there was some sort of problem
preventing them from doing so. I don't know what that was. Anyway, if they've
sorted that out and want to re-enter the US market with the inch version, I'm
sure there will be some flush hobby folks who want a classy mini-lathe, and it
certainly is that.

Gary

On Sat, 15 May 2004 04:42:04 -0400, Gary Coffman
brought forth from the murky depths:

On Sat, 15 May 2004 04:05:49 GMT, "Steve Koschmann" wrote:
-snip-
My question is has anyone in this newsgroup used the Sakai lathe, or have
any comments on it?

If I recall correctly, that lathe has always been a Korean made machine.
Darn nice one too. Sakai was just slapping their name on it. When Sakai
withdrew from the US market, the metric version of the machine remained
available in Europe for some time (maybe still is).

There have been rumors for a couple of years that the Koreans wanted to
directly market the inch version in the US, but there was some sort of problem
preventing them from doing so. I don't know what that was. Anyway, if they've
sorted that out and want to re-enter the US market with the inch version, I'm
sure there will be some flush hobby folks who want a classy mini-lathe, and it
certainly is that.

I've seen Czech-made woodworking machinery and figure they also
make metalworking machines. What do you guys think of that source?
Any machines in particular you like?


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I considered the Sakai when I was looking a few years back. It did
seem to be the best deal of it's kind, but then I heard rumors of it
going away so I did not buy one. The last thing I wanted was an
orphan. That will be the biggest obstacle to its success now - the
worry the supplier won't be around for long.

"Steve Koschmann" wrote in message news:xGgpc.50852$536.8778455@attbi_s03...
HI Group:

I attended the Inernational Hardware Show in Las Vegas this week saw a "new"
version of the Sakai ML 360 lathe and mill. This lathe was originally made
in Japan and got quite a bit of press in HSM with Rudy Kaughupt (sp??).

Rudy wrote several articles on the quality of the lathe and mill, and my
understanding was that the ML series was discontinued several years ago.
Why, I do not know. Price?????

Seem like a Korean manufacturer has picked up the rights and the tooling to
manufacture the lathe in Korea. They are looking to revisit the US market.

My question is has anyone in this newsgroup used the Sakai lathe, or have
any comments on it?

Is there any interest in a Korean made "mini lathe" that is supposedly has
much better quality than the now ubiquitous 7 x 10/12/14" Chinese Sieg mini
lathes? Size is basically the same.. 6 x 14.

This lathe will be in the 1500 dollar range, so expensive compared to the
Chinese made lathes, , but will be comparable (or better) than the German
made Prazi line.

I must admit the lathe and mill (especially the mill) looked and felt very
good. The paint color is an obnoxious green, but all the controls were
silky smooth.

Anyway, just curious is there is a market for a small precision lathe made
in Korea?

Steve Koschmann

Did you see what name was on the lathe?
Tim

[quote=Steve Koschmann]HI Group:

I attended the Inernational Hardware Show in Las Vegas this week saw a "new"
version of the Sakai ML 360 lathe and mill. This lathe was originally made
in Japan and got quite a bit of press in HSM with Rudy Kaughupt (sp??).