Middlesex County, Ontario | I have a small 10"x18" with a 1" bore that I bought in highschool. Its not glorious and its not big, but it will make all kinds of bushings, spacers, and shafts. For me the musts are a 3 jaw chuck, 4 jaw chuck, quick change tool post, centers, drill chuck, and a whole lot of tool blanks. I grind my own tools, never was a fan of carbide for the farm as its all small jobs and often questionable metal, welds, etc. Carbide does not handle interrupted cuts well.
Life without a quick change tool post is fine until you try one, after that not having one is honestly enough to make you dread using the lathe.
I'd go bigger next time but a small lathe is better than no lathe,
You don't need a DRO. I work with and without a DRO and I'm fine and just as accurate without. Backlash doesn't affect accuracy. Its nice to have a DRO but its not a big a deal to me on a lathe. On a mill I would say differently. |
used metal lathes
