Comments on: Weekend workshop upgrade

By: thelip

thelip — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 05:18:36 +0000

for those anal types and those of us in a profession that require precision (instrument manufacturing), the Micromark lathe has standard screws instead of all the other china models that are metric and require ugly conversions on the dials.

http://www.ares-server.com/Ares/Ares.asp?MerchantID=RET01229&Action=Catalog&Type=Product&ID=82710

By: g0d

g0d — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 20:50:11 +0000

as if.. princess auto thats where my electrical teacher did all his start of skool shopping.. good old PA.. j/k we didnt call it that

anyways..

By: teefa

teefa — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 17:37:58 +0000

cool

By: bEN JACKSON

bEN JACKSON — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 03:58:31 +0000

Buy some spare fuses. Especially if you’re working with brass. The fuse will protect the lathe (and you, to some extent) but it’s really annoying to be in the middle of a project without the right fuse…

By: will o'brien

will o'brien — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 01:38:31 +0000

I considered the 8×12, I really did.
But, The electronic speed control and weight meant I went for the 7×10.

I’m avoiding the really heavy gear until I own my workspace.

By: Brian

Brian — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 23:43:49 +0000

STOP! Return the lathe before you use it, and get the 8x12 model (http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=44859) The 8x12 costs about the same, but is a MUCH better lathe. The 8x12 is considerably more rigid (and heavier), and is much more heavy duty than the toy 7x12. You might think the only difference is 1' of swing, but that's just the beginning. Check out http://www.fignoggle.com/machines/8x12lathe/firstlook.htm

If you ever plan to add CNC to the lathe, the 8x12 is much more suitable than the 7x12

-Brian

P.S. I bought my 8x12 from HF

By: dan

dan — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 17:14:56 +0000

"You can construct a weapon. Look around, can you form some sort of rudimentary lathe?"

:)

By: rogue

rogue — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 06:36:36 +0000

Funny, I work for the company that buys stock from hf in Canada. If fact, it’s one of the reasons they won’t ship to Canada. If your a Canadian DIY’er, you can find some interesting buys (Try the “Surplus” section). Enough plugging for Princess Auto. (BTW, that same mini lathe here is about 800$ CDN regularly, though it was on sale recently)

By: pretorious

pretorious — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 00:59:11 +0000

hey, all the “read” links for every article over one month old have disappeared….

By: strider_mt2k

strider_mt2k — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 20:35:27 +0000

I really could have used this when i was building my wheeled ROV!

Cool stuff to be sure!

(blanket party at first post's house)

By: Eric

Eric — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 10:17:22 +0000

The hf mill and lathe are amazingly good (for the price.) I just bought the mini mill and if you have an entertainment book lying around (they’re pretty easy to come by) it had a 20% off one item at Harbor freight coupon that saved me a bit on the mill at ~$450 dollars. Theres alot of sites such as thelittlemachineshop mentioned that give pointers on gettnig the best out of these machines and doing mods. The Grizzly model pretty much is this one just different branding there all the X-2 mill from china I believe.

By: knuckleberger

knuckleberger — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 09:13:40 +0000

i recently got a different HF device (44142-3vga) -one of the things they may have in common is that the grizzly manual for a very similar device may be far superior than the HF one, http://www.grizzly.com/products/G8688
and there is a very active yahoo group

By: blip

blip — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 08:59:46 +0000

Nice new lathe there! I’ve been tempted to get one of these but I just can’t think of anything I’d actually get around to using it for. (Though I am going to need some new speaker stands soon… hmmm… $400 tool + $50 in materials = one confused girlfriend… I might have to take the risk though!) I think I need a mini-mill more.

Tell us how it works out!

By: steve

steve — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 07:30:20 +0000

will, if you’ve used the lathe at all – even simply for practice or screwing around – how well does it work? is it worth the money? sturdy enough? decent power, etc?

By: voyager1713

voyager1713 — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 06:48:23 +0000

first post?