Import Lathes

[Scott]

I have been researching different brands of import lathes, ie Jet, Grizzly, etc. Does anybody have any input on which brand is better than others, import that is. I have priced American built equipment. I don't want to afford them. The size I've desired is 13X36-40.
Of course I have checked out the used market. There is always a great buy on the opposite side of the country, were you can't physically check them out.                      SB

[Sumner]

I have been researching different brands of import lathes, ie Jet, Grizzly, etc. Does anybody have any input on which brand is better than others, import that is. I have priced American built equipment. I don't want to afford them. The size I've desired is 13X36-40.
Of course I have checked out the used market. There is always a great buy on the opposite side of the country, were you can't physically check them out.                      SB

I've been extremely happy with my Harbor Freight gear 12 X 36:



http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=33274

I'd buy another one without hesitation and they have a 13 X 36.  I've been on Grizzly's showroom floor and theirs is exactly the same, but more money and the same with Enco's.  One thing I really like with the HF stuff in my instance is that the freight is only $50.00 to get it to me regardless of the weight, so to get that lathe delivered to no-where Utah for $50 is a big plus.

This past year I also bought this Mill from them.........



http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=38850

......... and the same one from Enco was about $1700 more, plus a ton in freight to get it to me since it weighs 2500 lbs..  There again with HF the freight bill was $50.  So far this has been a great mill.

I did get this mill earlier from Enco when they had a good package deal on the mill, stand and free freight that made it close to HF for the same mill.....



http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=42827

The picture is of HF's, but Enco's is the same.  I've done almost all the machine work on my lakester with this mill and the above lathe.  Now I use the smaller mill mostly for drilling and like it better than the large mill for that.  I do buy almost all my tooling from Enco and their service is great.

Good luck and if I can help let me know,

Sum

[Dean Los Angeles]

The story is always you get what you pay for. If you were buying for a machine shop you would be nuts to buy the cheap imported stuff. It doesn't hold up to consistent flogging.

But for the garage they work great. Tolerances may not be as tight as better machines. You will never wear them out using them occasionally.

Check Ebay for used stuff. If you search for lathe, then go down to Preferences,  Location and click on Chose More... You can select Distance within a certain number of miles to a zip code or location to find stuff close to you.

[Sumner]

........If you were buying for a machine shop you would be nuts to buy the cheap imported stuff. It doesn't hold up to consistent flogging.........

Dean have you personally used any of the recent imported mills or lathes??  They seem to be going into a lot of shops and not just home ones.  One thing that was important to me is that I wouldn't know how to tell if a used mill or lathe was wore out or not and most of the used ones I did look at came with a price tag pretty close to these new ones.  If you do live in an industrial area, I don't, there can be some good deals to be found.  You also have to factor in moving those in the price also.

c ya,

Sum

[Dean Los Angeles]

Yup, still sticking with what I said. I've been rebuilding CNC and conventional mills and lathes for 30+ years. The quality of cheap imported machinery is somewhat better than it used to be.

A 30 year old Bridgeport can still be a good machine. A buddy just bought a 50 year old Brown & Sharpe grinder that is in remarkable shape.

If you are looking for bargain stuff Harbor Freight has some really good prices. Yep, cheap foreign stuff. Still good if you are not planning on daily flogging. I bought a number of pneumatic tools from them for my garage that I wouldn't buy for a business. They all work just fine.

[McRat]

I have been researching different brands of import lathes, ie Jet, Grizzly, etc. Does anybody have any input on which brand is better than others, import that is. I have priced American built equipment. I don't want to afford them. The size I've desired is 13X36-40.
Of course I have checked out the used market. There is always a great buy on the opposite side of the country, were you can't physically check them out.                      SB

I've been extremely happy with my Harbor Freight gear 12 X 36:



http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=33274

I'd buy another one without hesitation and they have a 13 X 36.  I've been on Grizzly's showroom floor and theirs is exactly the same, but more money and the same with Enco's.  One thing I really like with the HF stuff in my instance is that the freight is only $50.00 to get it to me regardless of the weight, so to get that lathe delivered to no-where Utah for $50 is a big plus.
...

Thanks!  Very good info.  I've only used American and Euro machinery, but I'm buying a lathe next year for "hobby" use.   Budget is always a problem, so it's good to hear tips on what works that is cheap.

[Rex Schimmer]

Dean,
You are right about old equipment like lathes and mills. Iron was cheap so they put lots of it into machine tools. Also most of the structures were cast iron which has great internal dampening charateristics. I did some big CNC retrofits on some big G&Ls, Gray, K&T, DeVlig etc and you can't beat the old ones for being rugged and accurate! What a shame that most of the US machine tool manufactures are TU!

Rex

[Scott]

Thanks for the input.
It will be a home use deal.                       SB

[floydjer]

Yup, still sticking with what I said. I've been rebuilding CNC and conventional mills and lathes for 30+ years. The quality of cheap imported machinery is somewhat better than it used to be.

A 30 year old Bridgeport can still be a good machine. A buddy just bought a 50 year old Brown & Sharpe grinder that is in remarkable shape.

If you are looking for bargain stuff Harbor Freight has some really good prices. Yep, cheap foreign stuff. Still good if you are not planning on daily flogging. I bought a number of pneumatic tools from them for my garage that I wouldn't buy for a business. They all work just fine.

dean, You rebuild mills?? Would you happen to know how to replace the brake lining on a Model 745 Index? Mine`s shot.  J.B.