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[Tom Kitta]

Yes, it is a generic type of lathe sold and re-branded under different brand names. This does not mean a lathe from say Busy Bee is worthless.

 

[Brent H]

Good stuff @David_R8 - always on the hunt and recalled you were a Bender - I have all the blanks cut and sized for new feed gears for the old Uti - going to be machining gears next time home (9 days) hopefully, if that all works out, I can then start seeking out material for some other projects - like maybe metrics.....muuuahhahahahahahaha (evil laugh sort of thing) LOL

 

[Brent H]

@Tom Kitta, no some of the lathes are pretty good overall. I think in some cases the older ones more so than the newer ones. The "type" of lathe you posted has some info here: http://www.lathes.co.uk/taiwan/

Read to me like the Busy Bee and Grizzly copies were not built as nicely as the original type

 

[Tom Kitta]

Well best estimate of price would be to actually test that lathe and measure it - since its old it could be originally better made then some of the newer stuff - but it could have been abused. Anyways, since no one is interested in the lathe it is a bit of like beating a bush around - we don't even know if tailstock is missing or simply not on pictures.

 

[Dabbler]

Just a quick note: the Rex-Cut lathes are the Chinese clones of the Taiwanese clones of a post-war-era Colchester lathe.

 

[Tom Kitta]

Chinese from 1980s would indeed be pretty bad - like some of current "tools" from India. This is mostly a comment on smaller machines - larger machines seem to be done better even in China and even in 1980s - same for all other off shore places. Actual factory things were made in could also be a big factor - some factories that just started production made stuff that was terrible.

Colchester machines are OK. Nothing special. I own one. They did make design mistakes.

 

[Dabbler]

The version I have of that machine has a 82mm spindle with a 8TPI thread - yes really! I guess mixed units were the thing back then...

It took forever to accurately suss that one out, let me tell ya!

 

[Johnwa]

Chinese from 1980s would indeed be pretty bad - like some of

The mainland didn’t start ”modernizing” until the 1990s. Taiwan was making some pretty decent stuff prior to that. When the mainland started exporting Taiwan couldn’t match the prices and their quality dropped. I don’t know if their stuff is now any better than the mainlands.

 

[Dabbler]

my lathe is from 1982 (ish) and everything seems well made in it. I even had it completely apart: no sand, all good finishing in places people don't normally see, etc.

 

[Tom Kitta]

So I made an attachment for my shaper to do boring... I had 30mm taped 14 tpi. I thought about making it more imperial or metric but whatever, my lathe was set for imperial threading already.... I did not turn it down as it was then bored 5/8s of an inch.

I guess it did not go out of style

Back to the lathe there can always be surprises - you can have US made stuff that is crap and Chinese stuff that is well made... even in the 80s. Heck some Polish made stuff from the 80s was so well made due to its export requirement for the western market. So locals had stuff that was of terrible quality but export was excellent. I remember export grade ham when I was a kid.

 

[DavidR8]

The motor arrived today. Very pleased with the condition. The box was in perfect shape and the motor was very well packed. Bearings are butter smooth.