lathe for a novice

[ford34/2]

for sale

heres another couple, from a trader, a harrison L5 and a Round head Student both £595, pallet delivery available
http://www.bedetools.com/index.html

as mentioned previous,open the advanced search option in E bay,type in your search item, tick the "completed listings" box and then the "search" you can check previous selling prices for a specific item

 

[Wedg1e]

Well as someone who walked into work one day and found a Clarke lathe masquerading as a professional tool (boss is a cheapskate, expects us to produce quality work with no facilities ) and with a Boxford in my own workshop I feel qualified to comment however I think name and shame rules may apply so suffice to say this: don't buy one. For any purpose. Unless it's to wedge a door open.
With my Boxford I can turn parts accurate to a few tenths of a thousandth of an inch.
With the Clarke it's about 40 thou" (half a millimetre) - it's that good...

 

[gavuk]

With the Clarke it's about 40 thou" (half a millimetre)

Hmmmmmm .....You got a managers measure? they always read wrong .......I hated the clarke we had at work too...

 

[stormin]

heres another couple, from a trader, a harrison L5 and a Round head Student both £595, pallet delivery available
http://www.bedetools.com/index.html

as mentioned previous,open the advanced search option in E bay,type in your search item, tick the "completed listings" box and then the "search" you can check previous selling prices for a specific item

Those sound like fantastic prices from a trader for those two machines unless they're absolutely clapped out!

 

[GeorgiePorgie]

Colchester went for £1,170.00....c'mon own up who bought it.

 

[brightspark]

Colchester went for £1,170.00....c'mon own up who bought it.

i was only 170 quid out on price but it is ebay. if a 4jaw chuck had been thrown in price would have been rite

 

[ronan]

Just seen this post now and as a fitter/turner by trade feel compelled to comment , i can fully agree with the majority of the comments , having used some large professional lathes by decent manufacturers like colchester ,harrison , regal , tos etc , the likes of the clarke lathes are dreadful ,i have used a clarke (or clone) when i was out on site and forced to skim something , absolute dreck, buy an old british or european made one.

 

[mike os]

you should be able to pck up an old student for 4-500 & will be man enough to actually do some work rather than some model work without peeing around all day.


big, solid & lots of cast iron is what you want... "toy" tools are ok for light work... but on a farm I dont recall ever finding many toys. UNless really badly worn it will be accurate enough for real world stuff outside a precision engineering shop.

 

[dai]

Colchester went for £1,170.00....c'mon own up who bought it.

not me

 

[dai]

Just seen this post now and as a fitter/turner by trade feel compelled to comment , i can fully agree with the majority of the comments , having used some large professional lathes by decent manufacturers like colchester ,harrison , regal , tos etc , the likes of the clarke lathes are dreadful ,i have used a clarke (or clone) when i was out on site and forced to skim something , absolute dreck, buy an old british or european made one.

agree with you,i'll leave the toys alone

you should be able to pck up an old student for 4-500 & will be man enough to actually do some work rather than some model work without peeing around all day.


big, solid & lots of cast iron is what you want... "toy" tools are ok for light work... but on a farm I dont recall ever finding many toys. UNless really badly worn it will be accurate enough for real world stuff outside a precision engineering shop.

if i could get something for a grand all in in my workshop ,i'll be a happy bunny

 

[brookie456]

big, solid & lots of cast iron is what you want...
...and how, you can make solid one's accurate for relatively little outlay, but it's amazing how soon you run out out of machining capacity at the smaller end
The advice on here is good, best of luck with the search for a good 'un

 

[ronan]

You're probabily lucky enough to have three phase power being on a farm too , this is another reason to get a big professional lathe.

 

[dai]

You're probabily lucky enough to have three phase power being on a farm too , this is another reason to get a big professional lathe.

 

[mike os]

not hard, many go on ebay for 3-500, if you have 3phase then no need for inverter, leaves plenty for tooling & accessories.

only concideration is transport as a lathe of this type will weight well over 500kg

 

[RedOrZed]

I've had a Clarke one, got it cheap cos the board had blown, spent the money to replace it.

Never got on with it, never "wanted" to do any work on it. Got myself a nice 9" SouthBend, it's soo much better to work with. Sold the Clarke for about what it owed me & was happy.

I'm just a hobby machinist, but it's no hobby if it's no fun. There's a couple of other tiny lathes in the garage including a Rollo and they have more "life" and "feel" to them, gives more interest to the work.

For farm work a mini-lathe sounds like torture to me!

 

[jackjosh]

Try cutting a screwthread at the Clarke's min speed, it will look like a ploughed field, i had a Clarke cl300 that i used to make pens on, got rid because my Raglan can spin at the same speed and is still on the mark despite being 60 years old. there are decent Chinese lathes but they are also not cheap.

 

[M@tt]

what about an old british Raglan? i've got one although i've not done anything with it yet, consensus is that they are pretty good

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/RAGLAN-LITTLE...Home_Garden_PowerTools_SM&hash=item20badd320c

HTH

Matt

 

[dai]

what about an old british Raglan? i've got one although i've not done anything with it yet, consensus is that they are pretty good

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/RAGLAN-LITTLE...Home_Garden_PowerTools_SM&hash=item20badd320c

HTH

Matt

looks ok,might be worth a punt

 

[dai]

what about an old british Raglan? i've got one although i've not done anything with it yet, consensus is that they are pretty good

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/RAGLAN-LITTLE...Home_Garden_PowerTools_SM&hash=item20badd320c

HTH

Matt

so what wrong with it,why's nobody bidding on it?

 

[brightspark]

so what wrong with it,why's nobody bidding on it?

no one bids till the last half minute then they put automated bids on otherwise the price goes over the top on a bidding war early i bid 30 seconds before close every time and have an upper limit to which i bid