Who makes good lathes/mills/etc?
Who makes good cars? This is almost purely a personal preference, though in general the imported machines (Grizzly, Jet, Enco) seem to rate lower than US-built machines (South Bend, Bridgeport). However, the imports are usually MUCH less expensive, offsetting some of the quality issues for home shops.
There is some indication that Grizzly equipment is slightly better than other "Taiwanese" machines such as Enco, and that Jet is slightly better than Grizzly. Prices go up with quality.
One of the main complaints about Taiwanese machinery is the lack of replacement parts and service. Grizzly claims that they keep a supply of parts on hand for all their machines. The same factories appear to turn out Grizzly, Jet, Delta, and the "no-name" machinery. A few years ago Fine Woodworking magazine published an article on this subject.
Unimats are sometimes considered "toys" rather than real machines, though they may do just what you want if you don't push them hard. Some Unimat owners are quite pleased, in fact (hi Reg!). The Unimat PC may be a nice small CNC lathe; any experiences?
Unimat, Sherline, and Taig are "micro lathes" in that the swing over the bed is less than 5 inches, and the bed is about a foot long. Sherline and Taig are made in the US, and Unimat is made in Austria (and hence uses metric threads, e.g. in the spindle thread, which may be a pain to US buyers). Sherline and Taig both use 3/4 inch x 16 threads in the spindle and can thus interchange accessories*. The Taig cannot cut threads, while the Sherline and Unimat can (with accessories). Sherline and Unimat sell a milling add-on. The Taigs come in unbundled kit form where you have to buy everything; they claim an overall accuracy of .0004 inch and have excellent parts and service, and also sell a watchmaking headstock. Taig is the cheapest at about $250 to get started, about $450 for Sherline. It appears the only Unimat now being sold is the CNC "Unimat PC", at about $750. Unimat seems to charge quite a bit more than normal for accessories. Just keep in mind that these are not as rigid or powerful as full-sized lathes.
* It has been reported that although the Taig and Sherline use a 3/4-16 spindle thread, the threads on Taig chucks and faceplates are recessed far enough that a Sherline lathe will only grab about 1.5 threads, not enough to be usable. However, one reader bored out the back of a Taig faceplate to 1 inch diameter for about 1/4 inch depth, and reports it threads on his Sherline quite well now. So, be careful if purchasing a Taig accessory for use on a Sherline lathe!
Harbor Freight sells a "precision 4x10" mini-lathe for around $400 with autofeed, change gears for most english threads at extra cost. It is actually a 7" lathe which takes standard 2MT tailstock tooling and 3/8" cutting tools, and has Electronic Variable Speed (EVS) instead of changeable belts. This is larger and sturdier than the Unimat/Sherline/Taig, and sounds similar to the 8" Grizzly except for the EVS.
What can you do if you have little money? Aside from looking at used equipment, you can actually build a lathe and other machine tools. Dave Gingery wrote an excellent series of books on building your own machine tools with just hand tools. While it's a lot of work, you can learn a lot. First you make an aluminum charcoal foundry, then a lathe, and finish up with a dividing head (five or six books later). Other authors have published detailed plans for making lathes. See the publisher's catalogs from Lindsay, Cole's, Power Model, Tee, Nexus, and Argus.
A very thorough discussion of vertical mills and what to look for was in Home Shop Machinist, July/August and September/October 1993, by Thomas Howard. Here is a very brief summary:
The following comments, regarding the Central Machinery (Harbor Freight Salvage) "Precision 7"x10" Mini Lathe", were originally sent to John Kopf in response to a query of his, asking the opinions of this versus the Grizzley 8x18 lathe.
Date: Tue, 23 Nov 1993 09:40:15 CST
From: <U39466%UICVM@UIC.EDU> (Gordon Pari)
I own a 7 x 10 mini-lathe offered by Harbor Freight. First, the good points. Compact size useful for relatively large turnings...easy to move/store....tight headstock bearings....nice 3-jaw Yamakawa (japanese) chuck....good cross-feed and compound feed...good accuracy overall... Mt2 tailstock compatability...fun to use...3/4" hole in spindle.... quiet without feed engaged....relatively easy to set-up tooling... cuts threads.....has chip tray...uses cheap 3/8 tooling.
Now for the down side....motor on mine with a Dremel speed control substituted for the factory setup has good high-speed power but is lacking in low-speed torque....my set-up produces surges of rpm occasionally... newer version appear to have 2-speed setup that may help... HF parts supply is limited....I could not get jaws for the chuck (I need inside gripping because they were missing..used equipment!)...feed screw is poorly mounted/designed and uses up a lot of available power.....split nut on carriage is prone to disengage...the motor is 120V DC fed by a rectifier and that may be part of my problem.. manual carriage feed wheel/mechanism is not smooth and perhaps needs bushed.
Overall, I love it because I bought it used needing some repairs for $95. Enco in Chicago now offers it for $1000. They are more reputable than HF IMHO. They also cannot provide my jaws or a specifically designed 4-jaw. If I paid $800 I would want the split-nut and RPM/POWER problems completely eliminated. After my initial $95, I have spent about $65 for a live center and tools from Enco. I use it weekly and am learning a lot. A friend who is a lathe operator has used it and is impressed. I hope this helps. If you buy one and find solutions/parts, keep me posted.
Date: Tue, 23 Nov 93 14:48:23 -0800
From: Greg Saville, gregs@sequent.com
Just one comment, if you end up ordering the Harbor Freight one, DON'T order the $43.00 threading gear set. Though it's not clear in the catalog, it already DOES come with the lathe (unless you order the ~$550 version that says "same as above, but without threading capability.") ...
I've enjoyed the lathe, have been pretty happy with it, but have no other experience to be able to compare it to any other like the Grizzly you're also looking at.
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 93 14:18:01 EST
From: fisher@gaas.enet.dec.com
I purchased one of these mini-lathes this summer.
Since then I have read a few books and learned much about lathes.
If I had to do it over again I would purchase the Grizzly "8"x18" Lathe you mentioned. I kinda like the mini-lathe for 1) the size and 2) the variable speed motor. What I don't like is 1) Support (I had a bent shaft on my cross slide and called them back within 48 hours after receiving the lathe and I still haven't received the replacement part - I think they ordered it from Korea.), 2) It is sufficiently non-standard that Nobody makes a 4 jaw chuck for it or any other bolt on accessories such as a steady rest or a follow rest.
But it seems to work and I have been having fun with it and learning. The size is great - I just finished cutting about 50 brass port holes for a model tub boat.