Jason Silliker
Member
I actually have five of them in my cart right now. What about a good set of 5/8” tooling?
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Machine Considering Buying a King 1236ML Looking for Opinions
- Thread starter Jason Silliker
- Start date
Machine
lots of us run stuff from aliexpress, same stuff you end up getting from amazon, but cheaper, takes longer to get to you, 1-2 weeks on average in my experience
Jason Silliker
Member
Yeah, I kind of figured that I use both a lot. I’ve got a set of tooling and holders and a 10 inch machinist level although it won’t be super accurate it’ll do for what I need. Just waiting to get the lathe home before I order. It’s shipping on Amazon For stuff that’s not needed right away I might use Temu or AliExpress, etc. not gonna be a high end guy, but at the same time not scared to spend a little more for the right stuff.
Proxule
Ultra Member
Outstanding. Keep us posted. Gluck on safe loading and unloading.
Many hands many light work.
More info here when you are ready!
Proxule
Ultra Member
Hands down. Aliexpress for most if not everything. Load up your cart
Collect coupons. Watch sales. Collet coins. Save save save.
Jason Silliker
Member
Thanks. He has a fork lift there and I have a ceiling mounted hoist. I was also thinking hockey puck style mounts or scrap stainless to avoid rust.
Dabbler
ersatz engineer
When I got my 14X40, I didn't have a gantry crane yet. Hand loading with a comealong into a rented home despot trailer. 
Sounds like you have it well in hand.
I used solid steel feet. You can prevent contact rust by sacrificing a crazy carpet for a foot/concrete interface. Nowadays I have lots of aluminum, and would use that.
Sounds like you have it well in hand.
I used solid steel feet. You can prevent contact rust by sacrificing a crazy carpet for a foot/concrete interface. Nowadays I have lots of aluminum, and would use that.
@Proxule pretty much spoke most of what I was going to say as we have the same model King 12x36, his just a few years newer. He's done some very cool mods to his, some of which I may emulate at some point (time/budget permitting), but mine is almost totally bone stock.
And I CERTAINLY would not claim to be a "guru," especially as I now would NOT try to "roll crimp" the feet themselves to the jack screws on the bases I made for mine . . . It wasn't the greatest idea in the long term . . .
Yes, it's done a lot of work for me but mine also had some "import quality quirks" that needed working out. Like the motor drive pulley that never had a set screw installed over the key, so the pulley tried walking off numerous times. Till I installed one, breaking a tap off in the pulley, which then was followed by a couple hours of quality time with my Dremel and carbide burr . . .
But yes, for the price point they are ok for home use, and if selection is limited in your area then it is unlikely to depreciate much in a few years if a machine that tickles your fancy more crosses your path, lol.
Ler us know how it works out for you!
And I CERTAINLY would not claim to be a "guru," especially as I now would NOT try to "roll crimp" the feet themselves to the jack screws on the bases I made for mine . . . It wasn't the greatest idea in the long term . . .
Yes, it's done a lot of work for me but mine also had some "import quality quirks" that needed working out. Like the motor drive pulley that never had a set screw installed over the key, so the pulley tried walking off numerous times. Till I installed one, breaking a tap off in the pulley, which then was followed by a couple hours of quality time with my Dremel and carbide burr . . .
But yes, for the price point they are ok for home use, and if selection is limited in your area then it is unlikely to depreciate much in a few years if a machine that tickles your fancy more crosses your path, lol.
Ler us know how it works out for you!
Jason Silliker
Member
I seen your post on the pulley. The only other major when I seen was one where the change gears weren’t shifting all the way over to align properly.
I am not a fan of these sets. There is no such thing as a GOOD set. I bought a set and then ended up only using two of them. The parting and threading tools were pure junk. The rest were not far behind. A set looks really attractive in a nice wooden box, but.... Even my favorite tool in the set (A RH WNMG) was eventually replaced with a good one that really does work WAAAY better. Even worse, those sets don't come with a box of inserts for each tool. But you will end up buying a box for the tools you use. Now you have spent good money on a set of tools and a few boxes of inserts that you won't like.
My personal opinion is that you are better off starting with HSS and then when you want, buy higher quality insert tools one at a time based on your needs.
When it does come time to buy, you don't need to buy Kennametal or Dorian or Sandvik. Although I would if I could afford them. Intead, you can buy from Amazon or Ali or Accusize and still get an excellent tool that you will be very happy with.
I have a King 12x36 bought it new about 8 years ago. It's been a good machine not one issue with so far. For that price I don't think you could go wrong. My came with D-1-3 3 and 4 jaw chuck, 10" back plate, live and dead centers, steady and follow rests. The steady reast is a little small so I made a new one that will hold 6 dia stock.
Dabbler
ersatz engineer
There isn't one, not really. There are perhaps hundreds of sets on offer, but possibly only 1 or 2 would be worth buying. When I bought my 12X37, I spent (a little embarassedly) 275$ for a single tool holder (TPMG 322) and 10 inserts (kennemetal). I used this as my primary turning tool for the first 5 years. I had a HSS parting blade, and several HSS 1/4" tools I had manually ground.
There is a false sense of versatility in those sets.
last year I wanted to upgrade my tooling to WMNG 400 series, so I spent just about 200$ on a tool holder and boring bar and 4 X 10 inserts in various grades. Both of these were 'higher quality' offshore tooling, as the Sandvik and Kennemetal ones were higher priced. Super happy with the cost/performance tradeoff.
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The moral of the wordy story is: buy quality holders, as you need them and build experience with each one. inserts can be had from anybody, and the selected and filtered offshore ones have performed well for me. I still buy Kennemetal inserts as the situation requires. I'm not made of money, but the offshore sets I've used (by borrowing or by using other guys lathes) has been very disappointing.
The problem is that the steel used is too soft, so the threads wear out. there is a LOT of pressure on these threads during cutting, and this will deform the threads over a fairly short time.
I am not a fan of QCTP tooling for beginning tooling. I truly believe that starting with HSS and grinding your own tools leads to better work and greater understanding of the cutting process. It isn't a shortcut to start with carbide on a small lathe, as it is very hard to diagnose problems with carbide cutters in some materials. (I'm looking at you 4140 and 4340)
If you want to start with carbide tooling, the start with a good general purpose TPMG tooling with positive rake. The TNMG, and WNMG variants require more horsepower and boldness to use well, and can contribute to delayed satisfaction in use.
Save parting with carbide for later as well. It took Clough42 over a year to figure out carbide parting, and he's been machining (intensively) for about 10 years.
so there it is - (big *sigh* after diatribe)
Tomc938
Ultra Member
I have a King 1236. Mine is significantly older, but other than some age-related quirks I like it. That age of machine at that price seems like a great place to start. Like someone said, you can always sell it later if you change your mind.
Tomc938
Ultra Member
I would agree. I use a QCTP, but use it with HSS. Not sure if my lathe is "small" but I consistently get better results with HSS vs carbide. With only a little practice you can get a knife sharp edge, and when it dulls, you can touch it on the stone and you're back to new. Once you have a piece of HSS, you are set for MANY re-sharpening, as compared to carbide that is constantly getting duller with use until you have to toss it out. (One other personal foible: I want to get maximum life out of the carbide cutters I do have, but I often get the used ones mixed up with the new ones and I can't tell what's what without an investment of time every time I change the cutter)
Jason Silliker
Member
Well guys sorry for pretty much abandoning this thread. Quite a story! The young fella I was looking to buy the lathe had a little mishap when he tried to move it by himself. It ended up swinging into the forklift and broke the cross slide handle and the carriage handle. I wasn’t concerned about damage to the screws or anything as it literally just swung a bit on him and of course the cast handles broke. I told him I was still interested and would give it a good check over but never really heard back from him. ANYWAY………..
Fast-forward to yesterday I picked up the exact same lathe but it’s a better deal for the same price…..
>Only four years old had very minimal hours
>All the original parts and pieces were there. (The other one was missing the four jaw chuck if you remember.)
>This one comes with a set of the turning tool holder set (KM-057) that I was going to order (mentioned earlier in this thread) also had a couple of extra quick change tool holders.
>All for the same price($4000) except $100 to go and get it. Plus with the other one I would’ve had to buy a four jaw chuck.
The guy bought it from was a welder fabricator by trade, but had recently got into renovating properties and flipping them so he’s selling off some of the tools. As always, I always ask what’s your best cash price and his reply was sorry man I’m already losing $2500 And I never used it other than making a few bushings. I said fair enough I’ll take it lol! Very excited!!!
I sent the first seller a message this morning telling him I found one….he still has the other one waiting on handles from King lol. I told him back then I had handles that were very similar and I was willing still have a look at it but I have a feeling he was probably a little embarrassed for the mishap and didn’t wanna sell it until it was fixed. That didn’t bother me other than the fact that he could’ve sent me a reply. Anyway, all good. (He bought a brand new PM-15/60...jerk lol)
It fits nicely into this corner of the shop. I removed the panel between the two bases because I have two of the cabinets showing in the picture which fit nicely underneath other than the fact that they are 1 1/2" higher but once it’s on levelling blocks, they’ll fit under there perfectly. I plan to paint them to match. They should do nicely to hold all the plastic cases of tooling etc. The levelling blocks will probably add a couple of inches to the height which will line up with flush with the window in behind as I plan on putting a plate on the chip guard for tooling storage as well. Some of the stuff to the left is being moved as well to make room.
Anyway guys, this is a super long post so I’ll end it here and add a couple more with questions. Thanks!
Fast-forward to yesterday I picked up the exact same lathe but it’s a better deal for the same price…..
>Only four years old had very minimal hours
>All the original parts and pieces were there. (The other one was missing the four jaw chuck if you remember.)
>This one comes with a set of the turning tool holder set (KM-057) that I was going to order (mentioned earlier in this thread) also had a couple of extra quick change tool holders.
>All for the same price($4000) except $100 to go and get it. Plus with the other one I would’ve had to buy a four jaw chuck.
The guy bought it from was a welder fabricator by trade, but had recently got into renovating properties and flipping them so he’s selling off some of the tools. As always, I always ask what’s your best cash price and his reply was sorry man I’m already losing $2500 And I never used it other than making a few bushings. I said fair enough I’ll take it lol! Very excited!!!
I sent the first seller a message this morning telling him I found one….he still has the other one waiting on handles from King lol. I told him back then I had handles that were very similar and I was willing still have a look at it but I have a feeling he was probably a little embarrassed for the mishap and didn’t wanna sell it until it was fixed. That didn’t bother me other than the fact that he could’ve sent me a reply. Anyway, all good. (He bought a brand new PM-15/60...jerk lol)
It fits nicely into this corner of the shop. I removed the panel between the two bases because I have two of the cabinets showing in the picture which fit nicely underneath other than the fact that they are 1 1/2" higher but once it’s on levelling blocks, they’ll fit under there perfectly. I plan to paint them to match. They should do nicely to hold all the plastic cases of tooling etc. The levelling blocks will probably add a couple of inches to the height which will line up with flush with the window in behind as I plan on putting a plate on the chip guard for tooling storage as well. Some of the stuff to the left is being moved as well to make room.
Anyway guys, this is a super long post so I’ll end it here and add a couple more with questions. Thanks!
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Jason Silliker
Member
So first off I wanna give it a good cleaning then a light oiling
1. Recommendations for protective oiling. & way oil?
2. I wanna do an oil change on the headstock and the apron. Manual calls for Hydraulic32 for the apron, but doesn’t really say anything for the gearbox. Recommendations?
3. I’m going to order a so-called precision level from Amazon, but I’m probably gonna spend around the 80 to 100 mark versus several hundred. (Like I mentioned before anything I’ll be doing will not have to be to the extreme.) also have to make up a levelling set up.
Newbie here so it’s going to be a process not getting any hours at work like I had hoped. No fault of theirs. It’s just been hard to find the opportunity. There’s some changes on the way, so hopefully that will help. I feel like I forgotten a lot of the stuff I already know like speeds and feeds, etc. basically starting from scratch so be patient and don’t be scared to flood me with information lol.
1. Recommendations for protective oiling. & way oil?
2. I wanna do an oil change on the headstock and the apron. Manual calls for Hydraulic32 for the apron, but doesn’t really say anything for the gearbox. Recommendations?
3. I’m going to order a so-called precision level from Amazon, but I’m probably gonna spend around the 80 to 100 mark versus several hundred. (Like I mentioned before anything I’ll be doing will not have to be to the extreme.) also have to make up a levelling set up.
Newbie here so it’s going to be a process not getting any hours at work like I had hoped. No fault of theirs. It’s just been hard to find the opportunity. There’s some changes on the way, so hopefully that will help. I feel like I forgotten a lot of the stuff I already know like speeds and feeds, etc. basically starting from scratch so be patient and don’t be scared to flood me with information lol.
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Proxule
Ultra Member
First thing I did was run it for a couple of hours fwd/rev in every gear combo, But mine was brand new. Afterwards I drained the headstock and apron oils. Headstoack was okay, wee bit of sand, some metal chips and swarf from the new spur gears breaking in. I threw in some 1 inch diam neodymium magnets in the bottom of the headstock. The apron was different. It was loaded with casting sand. So a thorough cleaning with solvent was needed.
For the apron I went with ISO 68 as the 32 was too thin and noticed it took a very high feed rate to fling the oils around. The ISO 68 is considerately heavier and did a better job at sticking to the slow moving gears. I also noted the sigh glass half way mark seems low, at least in my opinion, so I filled it to the top marking of the sight glass. No harm done in overfilling the apron reservoir !
Gearbox does not get oil, as in its not a reservoir, You quirt it into the top tray and it flows down where it needs through copper pipes, the norton gearbox is open style, Messy bastard. but my favorite style.
Just my 2 cents, gluck on your new lathe!
Congrats on your new (used) lathe - enjoy 
While going through this thread I had a look at the video - sort of unrelated to the theme of this thread but -
While going through this thread I had a look at the video - sort of unrelated to the theme of this thread but -
Since lathe feet (leveling pads) are not really of interest to me, I skipped through Everett's video, but I REALY LIKE his setup using the lathe for taping (end of video)
Jason Silliker
Member
Sorry I said gearbox instead of headstock lol...edited. Way too long of an update lol. I was wondering if the 32 had enough viscosity or not. I think I'll try 68 to begin with. I think he originally put 30 non detergent in the headstock but I'm not sure. Either way it's a 2020 model with minimal hours but I don't know it was flushed before, so it's getting fresh oils so I know where I'm at. Keep the info & recommendations coming lol. I also re-read my thread and seen your earlier post lol....(Iso 32 for the oil, in the headstock, iso 68 for the apron.)
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