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Hi Wayne here from north of Cochrane

If possible you need space to the left of the lathe for long material to hang out of the hole in the spindle while you work on the end in the lathe.
 
I have some room on the left only. There is a doorway there that I can close the door and gain about five feet. I doubt that I will ever work on anything that long though. I know...never say never.
 
Wayne, just to be clear from my perspective. What I was trying to say is the King's were predominantly Taiwanese in my mid-90's purchase era. I have no idea if they are now. Or could be the 14x40's are, but smaller ones come from another plant, maybe China, maybe not. So you would have to confirm that with King/KMS on there current size offering. And really the China vs. Taiwan might be rather old news now. At that time there was a pretty obvious difference & teething pains I was aware of. Today, it really depends on how they are made & what level of QC the distributer/middleman are insisting on & inspecting before releasing to customers. The (Chinese) 14x40 I fondled at Modern Tools was different than mine but I think I'd get used to it pretty quick. Hope this makes sense. A lathe is a big decision & lots of effort whatever you decide, so do as much searching & due-diligence as you can. Heck, I'd even ask for some customer contacts, but it probably violates 27 privacy laws these days. You might even try a reverse post requesting feedback on one of the bigger forums & see if anyone replies.
 
Another option if our dollar ever gets out of the toilet is Grizzly Tools or Precision Matthew. I bought my first mill from Matt at Precision Matthews and the service was first rate. Very reasonable shipping and he arranged the customs and brokerage stuff as well. A week after I ordered it I got a call from Day and Ross (trucking company) that it was at their depot in Edmonton. Matt deals with the manufacturers in China himself and only supplies the best of their products. His machines have upgraded bearings etc. I did have one electrical problem with my mill, Matt helped me diagnose it over the phone and shipped replacement parts the same day. He gave me $150 worth of free tooling to pay for my labor to install the parts, it only took an hour. I was all set to order a new PM949 mill from him when the dollar took a dump and the effective price went up 35%.

http://machinetoolonline.com/PMMillingMachines.html

You will find dozens of happy Precision Matthews customers over on the Hobby Machinist forum. Matt regularly posts on that forum.

That led me to buy the very used Ferro mil and refurbish it. So far without my labor I'm into the Ferro for about $4K including the VFD and the DRO and it still needs to be disassembled and repainted.

Anyway my point is after all that blather is, to me customer service is way more important than anything else. Grizzly and PM have both built their business on customer service.

A couple of very popular lathes from PM are these,

http://machinetoolonline.com/PM-1127-VF.html

http://machinetoolonline.com/PM1236.html

Well it's 3am and I have to be at my grandsons hockey game at 7 so I better get to bed.
 
PeterT said:
Wayne, just to be clear from my perspective. What I was trying to say is the King's were predominantly Taiwanese in my mid-90's purchase era. I have no idea if they are now. Or could be the 14x40's are, but smaller ones come from another plant, maybe China, maybe not. So you would have to confirm that with King/KMS on there current size offering. And really the China vs. Taiwan might be rather old news now. At that time there was a pretty obvious difference & teething pains I was aware of. Today, it really depends on how they are made & what level of QC the distributer/middleman are insisting on & inspecting before releasing to customers. The (Chinese) 14x40 I fondled at Modern Tools was different than mine but I think I'd get used to it pretty quick. Hope this makes sense. A lathe is a big decision & lots of effort whatever you decide, so do as much searching & due-diligence as you can. Heck, I'd even ask for some customer contacts, but it probably violates 27 privacy laws these days. You might even try a reverse post requesting feedback on one of the bigger forums & see if anyone replies.
Click to expand...

Hi Peter,

I get that, I did speak with the sales guy from KMS and he said that the lathe I was intereste3d in was Taiwanese made so that's a plus. Others I have been in contact with [one on this forum ] has dealt with KMS and were very happy with their service etc. I think part of the confusion is that there are problems on an individual level. There are dozens of happy BUSY Bee customers as well who say that their lathes work great and others who say they suck. Expectations also seems to play are large part, there are guys out there with top quality lathes who constantly change things and make improvements. Experience and knowledge factor in as good and bad, what would be a full stop devastating problem for me would be a simple part change or shim set for someone else. Yet another problem is the more you know the more you expect if you've worked with large full feature ultra quality machine then a small hobby lathe is likely to have some unsatisfactory quirks and lesser performance issues. I am getting excellent information and advice from you guys here and really appreciate all of it! I am going to the other sites which have been suggested and learning things there as well. I doubt that any lathe is going to "have it all" without spending way more money than I can afford, so I will take what I can learn and get the best I can afford.
 
Another option if our dollar ever gets out of the toilet is Grizzly Tools or Precision Matthew. I bought my first mill from Matt at Precision Matthews and the service was first rate. Very reasonable shipping and he arranged the customs and brokerage stuff as well. A week after I ordered it I got a call from Day and Ross (trucking company) that it was at their depot in Edmonton. Matt deals with the manufacturers in China himself and only supplies the best of their products. His machines have upgraded bearings etc. I did have one electrical problem with my mill, Matt helped me diagnose it over the phone and shipped replacement parts the same day. He gave me $150 worth of free tooling to pay for my labor to install the parts, it only took an hour. I was all set to order a new PM949 mill from him when the dollar took a dump and the effective price went up 35%.

http://machinetoolonline.com/PMMillingMachines.html

You will find dozens of happy Precision Matthews customers over on the Hobby Machinist forum. Matt regularly posts on that forum.

That led me to buy the very used Ferro mil and refurbish it. So far without my labor I'm into the Ferro for about $4K including the VFD and the DRO and it still needs to be disassembled and repainted.

Anyway my point is after all that blather is, to me customer service is way more important than anything else. Grizzly and PM have both built their business on customer service.

Hi John,
I have seen lots of good comments about Grizzly tools although Precision Mathews is new to me. I have bought some stuff through E-bay and am horrified by the dollar difference and fear that if I wait for the dollar to level I won't have a lathe for several years. I think one way to deal with this is to pick a dealer that I can actually travel to meet them, get a relationship that will hopefully work to a mutual benefit for both sides and hope they honor what they said at point of sale should something go wrong. A milling machine would be an incredible machine to have but I would never be able to afford them both at one time. It might be a great add on item for the future once I get the lathe paid for, but by the time I get all the tools for the lathe it will be quite a while before I could afford it..
 
John opened my eyes to Precision Mathew. Their PM-1340-GT looks 99.9% the same as my King. The shipping & customer service experience is great news. Power to him for extending business into Kanuckistan. A lot of US sellers just cant be bothered. Yes, the $C $U is brutal, 1.45 today & dire predictions. Ouch.
 

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You are right on with some of them just not wanting to bother with us, I guess if your making handfuls of cash without a lot of thought or work you just don't need to bother with selling out of country. Heavy Sigh. It's a pity though as I have found some really good deals on stuff in the U.S. but they won't ship or even mail it here. Our dollar is really hurting, there is no way I would buy anything outside of Canada right now. Somewhere I was told that there is only two companies that actually make lathes and they make them for all the different companies, doesn't sound right to me but then who knows.
 
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I just went to their website and looked at that lathe VERY NICE! No price listed but shipping alone would kill that deal.
 
$5400.00 delivered? That seems like a good price for that lathe. Above that I Imagine that there is duty etc.
 
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Er, never mind , I just realised that it is a $7000.00 plus duty plus price right now in Canadian dollars. Ouch. I really miss parity.
 
There is no import duty on machine tools. All I had to pay when I bought my mill from Matt was $250 for the customs broker and of course GST.

PM32millinvoice_zps434e3e54.jpeg
 
Now that our dollar is in the toilet the US dealers products are way more. When I bought my mill the CanBuck was in better shape. I suspect that when the Busy Bee has to order their next shipments the prices will be quite a bit higher. If someone is willing to roll the dice on Busy Bees warranty reputation it might be a good time to buy from them.
 
It does look very close, I think that their lathes for the most part are very good. There is a lot of bad press on the Busy Bee company as a whole which scared me off. I am going to go with the King brand, at least I am leaning that way taking everything into consideration. I am also looking at a Unimat DB200, I think it was made by EMCO. THAT should be interesting. lol. I took the forums advice and instead of just using the dryer plug in for the lathe I wired in a 220 volt 70 amp pony box that I can breaker to 15 amps which should make everything a lot safer. I was concerned that if the lathe snagged on a piece of work that the machine would have to over come 30 amps to throw the breaker. That could cause quite a mess. It all looks good and an electrician is coming over in the next couple of days to check my work.
 
John Conroy said:
Now that our dollar is in the toilet the US dealers products are way more. When I bought my mill the CanBuck was in better shape. I suspect that when the Busy Bee has to order their next shipments the prices will be quite a bit higher. If someone is willing to roll the dice on Busy Bees warranty reputation it might be a good time to buy from them.
Click to expand...

Jah things seem to be going up. Every time I look at stuff I've bought at Busy Bee it seems to cost more. My lathe is up$400.
 
I just watched a program where they say that the Canadian dollar could hit $0.50 something. OMG. We won't be able to buy anything soon. I was thinking what might be a good topic on the website is lathe safety. I was searching lathe stuff and one of the pictures that came up was a guy who got sucked into his machine. I saw that almost happen once way back in high school when another student got hi apron caught in the piece he was working on. I know some people just won't listen but a reminder might be good to make some operators think as they work. The lathe that I am looking at comes with a safety guard that I was planning on removing. It may not ne a good idea. What do you guys think?

Wayne
 
Hi everyone,
I just bought a 12 X 36 inch King lathe from KMS tools in Calgary. The stand it comes with does not bolt up as it should as the pre drilled holes do not line up. I can re drill new holes and get it together [I think] although that may void the warranty. I asked the sales guy from the store in Calgary and the main store in Quebec but they have not bothered to answer. ANYWAY... I am not sure how to lift the lathe once I have that figured out. The thing is about 1000 pounds and is very top heavy and unbalanced. Any advice would really be appreciated. I also purchased a 2 ton engine hydraulic hoist to lift it but how the heck does one strap it and still be able to unstrap it when it is in position over the stand?
Thanks,
Wayne
 
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