• Scam Alert. Members are reminded to NOT send money to buy anything. Don't buy things remote and have it shipped - go get it yourself, pay in person, and take your equipment with you. Scammers have burned people on this forum. Urgency, secrecy, excuses, selling for friend, newish members, FUD, are RED FLAGS. A video conference call is not adequate assurance. Face to face interactions are required. Please report suspicions to the forum admins. Stay Safe - anyone can get scammed.
  • Several Regions have held meetups already, but others are being planned or are evaluating the interest. The Ontario GTA West area meetup is planned for Saturday April 26th at Greasemonkeys shop in Aylmer Ontario. If you are interested and haven’t signed up yet, click here! Arbutus has also explored interest in a Fraser Valley meetup but it seems members either missed his thread or had other plans. Let him know if you are interested in a meetup later in the year by posting here! Slowpoke is trying to pull together an Ottawa area meetup later this summer. No date has been selected yet, so let him know if you are interested here! We are not aware of any other meetups being planned this year. If you are interested in doing something in your area, let everyone know and make it happen! Meetups are a great way to make new machining friends and get hands on help in your area. Don’t be shy, sign up and come, or plan your own meetup!

y.a. first 7x lathe Q

Thank you all for the replies. I ended up finding a Busy Bee CX704 lathe and CX612 mill at an estate sale and got both. I had been comparing to the Emco Compact 5 and the LMS 5100. I am really only looking for a 7x lathe, not anything bigger. I like the quality of the Austrian-made Emco, but am a little worried about finding replacement parts and like the large ecosystem of parts for the 7x Chinese lathes. The CX704 is probably OK for my needs as a first lathe - I was close to a deal on a LMS 5100 but the seller and I couldn't reach an agreement on price. Too bad, as it seems a nicer machine. For now the plan is to just learn on what I have and upgrade if the need arises.
 
You gone like it if you put to much pressure on it the motor stop. You put the switch on and it start again. The gear is in plastic but it work just respect it. I have my 12x30 Ultilathe fot big job but for small part the CX 704 work nice. Small wrench for car and 3/4 ratchet for 10 wheels truck.
 
Thanks for sharing the links. I'm happy to say I've completed a few projects and so far am happy with the machines. I am using them for violin bow and musical instrument related tasks, so perhaps I am working more within the limits of their capabilities. I do have to admit, I was at the woodworking convention a few weeks ago and saw the "premium" tools up close next to the "cheap" tools, and if I hadn't found these used I probably would have passed in favour of something else.
 
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