Hello from Surrey

[DouglasFab]

Hello all, from Surrey.

I'm a welder/fabricator from the lower mainland doing mostly structural steel looking to get into machining. Been lurking on the site for a while, trying to decide which lathe to buy. I figured it's time to sign up since I always end up back here anytime I browse equipment. The forum seems knowledgeable and friendly so I look forward to picking your brains and hopefully sharing some projects in the future!

 

[YYCHM]

Welcome from Calgary.

 

[Susquatch]

Welcome from Ontario. Lots of fabricators and welders on here. You will enjoy the common love. As your machinery skills and interests grow there are even more members to chat with.

 

[DavidR8]

Welcome from Victoria!

 

[whydontu]

Welcome from Richmond!

 

[YotaBota]

Another island welcome and in case you hadn't noticed, we love to help people spend their money and at no charge. lol

 

[Larry_C9]

Welcome from the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island.

 

[DouglasFab]

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone.

I noticed and am counting on it YotaBota! I finally signed up to see if anyone would talk me out of buying a new King 12x36, or in to a bigger used machine.

I have seen mixed reviews on the quality of King stuff and while I can't see a 12X36 before I buy it, the smaller models KMS has on display haven't looked great to me. I was hoping to buy something new and not need to do much clean up or adjusting but after some reading I think there will be a fair bit of setup involved new or used, so maybe a bigger or better quality used machine that needs a bit of work would be worth it.

I hate to be limited by my tools and tend to buy bigger than needed, I think that will help me fit in around here though. A 12x36 seems like it should be plenty, but I suspect there are some features I may not think to look for and regret not spending a bit more down the line. I want something that is very hard to justify replacing but I am happy to spend more on upgrades in the future.

I'm still reading around the forum and finding good info, but if anyone has an opinion or some good reading I'd love for y'all to help me part with my money! One day I'll get talked into a mill too!

 

[140mower]

Goodie....goodie!!!!!!!! We get to spend someone else's money! AND! He lives on the lower mainland, so he's RICH!


excuse me, incoming pm... ( I see........ Cost of living....... Taxes...... Uh hum........ Two police forces....... Gotcha....)

Okay, so he's just like the rest of us.......
I am in the camp of buying a slightly larger used lathe if you have the space. Once you have one, you'd be surprised at what kind of strange crap a fabricating sort of fella might start trying to; just do a little bit of machining on.....
Welcome from Lillooet......

 

[StevSmar]

Welcome from Winnipeg @DouglasFab !

I had my first experience last winter with metal fabrication. Boy did I have great fun learning how to weld! Didn’t really enjoy cutting the steel to length though (four cuts with a Portaband and then file to square…)- nothing that couldn’t be remedied with one of the new metal chop saws.

 

[YotaBota]

And the race is on to spend the newbies hard earned cash LOL.

Have you been to Lenmark in ABBY?

Lathes (Metal)

Browse high quality new & used metal lathes from Lenmark Industries. Shop gearhead metal lathes in a variety of sizes and at unbeatable prices. Purchase from Lenmark and enjoy great prices, shipping & logistics coordination, expert advice & service, and options for renting or financing.

www.lenmark.com

 

[DouglasFab]

Lol blood is in the water eh?

I haven’t been out to Lenmark yet but I’ve browsed their site, is it worth a trip out?

 

[YotaBota]

The only dealing I've had with them is buying a motor a few years ago. I would phone and see what the have on the floor that you can actually touch.

Coast Machinery is another outfit that's in the same neighborhood. I bought my SM9 from them and they were pretty easy to deal with.
Edit: Coast gets a lot of machines from the school system, the condition will very from hardly used to used hard.

 

[PaulL]

Welcome from Victoria!

I sympathize with the lathe search. I did the same about two years ago. Bought a new machine from Busy Bee (the CX701) for effectively the same reasons: I didn't know enough to evaluate used machines so opted for new so I'd know most of the problem was me, not the equipment.
And that was a big win for me. Since then I've bought used equipment, most notably my First 1-1/2 mill, which the lathe experience let me attack with more knowledge. And now I'm repairing and rebuilding parts of the lathe that might have been under-engineered at the factory, and/or that my inexperience broke. That would have been much harder without the initial baseline of the new machine.

Paul

 

[DouglasFab]

The only dealing I've had with them is buying a motor a few years ago. I would phone and see what the have on the floor that you can actually touch.

Coast Machinery is another outfit that's in the same neighborhood. I bought my SM9 from them and they were pretty easy to deal with.
Edit: Coast gets a lot of machines from the school system, the condition will very from hardly used to used hard.

Thanks, I think getting my hands on a bigger King lathe would help a lot. I know their bigger stuff and the industrial brand stuff is supposed to be better but spending 6-7k on something I haven’t seen and can’t return makes me uneasy.

Coast has a JFMT JC 6232 that looks a lot more robust and powerful but I worry I’ll get in over my head. I’m confident I can do any necessary work, I just got a very large cnc plasma table working with little support, but I don’t need another project like that right now lol. (I’d like a lathe to make various bushings and pins for it)

I’ve watched and read a fair bit about inspecting used lathes but it seems far to involved to be doing before I buy and I’d have to make some judgement calls I’m not confident in.

 

[DouglasFab]

Welcome from Victoria!

I sympathize with the lathe search. I did the same about two years ago. Bought a new machine from Busy Bee (the CX701) for effectively the same reasons: I didn't know enough to evaluate used machines so opted for new so I'd know most of the problem was me, not the equipment.
And that was a big win for me. Since then I've bought used equipment, most notably my First 1-1/2 mill, which the lathe experience let me attack with more knowledge. And now I'm repairing and rebuilding parts of the lathe that might have been under-engineered at the factory, and/or that my inexperience broke. That would have been much harder without the initial baseline of the new machine.

Paul

That’s been exactly my logic so far. There is so much to learn and so many ways to screw up when chasing zeros I’m not keen on having a bunch of unknown variables to track down instead of working on the operator problem.

Glad to hear you’re happy with your purchase, seems like we’re on the same track and I’m a few years behind. Is there anything that made you regret not going with another model, or misconceptions you had before actually getting your hands dirty on one?

 

[PaulL]

Is there anything that made you regret not going with another model, or misconceptions you had before actually getting your hands dirty on one?

I initially ordered the model down. Called them back an hour later to do my usual "pick the biggest one you can afford, then go up a step". I'm very happy to have done that.
Bed length hasn't been an issue for me at all, so maybe I'd go shorter and use the dollars to improve quality? Not clear that trade off is possible. The tool room lathes are just that much more expensive.
Throw has been a bigger deal, though I haven't swung anything up to the limits. I have been very grateful for the amount of space on the carriage for tool setups and measuring, etc, a few times now. The bigger chucks "feel" much better when I do mount unbalanced things. Before I got my mill that mattered a lot more.
You *will* crash your lathe at least once while you learn. There's a lot to keep track of and it takes a while to get the reflexes. "Soft" crashes aren't too bad - you have to be in tune with "the sound changed". Once I did a bad while parting off and that's probably what broke my compound slide.
At least the machines to a decent job of re-building themselves.

 

[Darren]

I was born in Surrey. Welcome aboard.

 

[DavidR8]

Speaking from my experience of owning three lathes; a South Bend 10K (10" x 30" between centres) a Clausing 100 (12"x24" between centres) and my current lathe, a Busy Bee 1237G (12" x 37" between centres) there is simply no substitute for bigger. Bigger swing and longer between centres capacity also means bigger castings which translates into more rigidity.
The difference in smoothness and rigidity between my 400lb South Bend (which was a very nice machine) and my 800lb Busy Bee is night and day.

 

[DouglasFab]

I initially ordered the model down. Called them back an hour later to do my usual "pick the biggest one you can afford, then go up a step". I'm very happy to have done that.
Bed length hasn't been an issue for me at all, so maybe I'd go shorter and use the dollars to improve quality? Not clear that trade off is possible. The tool room lathes are just that much more expensive.
Throw has been a bigger deal, though I haven't swung anything up to the limits. I have been very grateful for the amount of space on the carriage for tool setups and measuring, etc, a few times now. The bigger chucks "feel" much better when I do mount unbalanced things. Before I got my mill that mattered a lot more.
You *will* crash your lathe at least once while you learn. There's a lot to keep track of and it takes a while to get the reflexes. "Soft" crashes aren't too bad - you have to be in tune with "the sound changed". Once I did a bad while parting off and that's probably what broke my compound slide.
At least the machines to a decent job of re-building themselves.

I just did the same while ordering some fixture tables for work, thought I went pretty big then the next day called back and went bigger. Yup, fully expecting to crash it, just hope I can keep the damage to tooling and not machine parts but that’s how I learn.