Recommend me a mini lathe

[chimpy leon]

I have a budget of around £500 for a decent mini lathe for what will be mainly for smaller diameter steel projects.

I have a lot of experience operating large lathes but very limited time around the hobbyist type.

What do people recommend?

I’m feeling these…

https://www.vevor.co.uk/metal-lathe-...CABEgLk4PD_BwE

Any thoughts?

[angrybear]

I'm toying with the idea of getting something similar & having read up what I can find, on several sites,
it seems to say all these mini lathes come from the same factory & are just painted for whatever "brand" supplier, so the difference is to buy from somewhere that has some back-up.

The only thing I can't decide on is the spindle bore, the sub £500 are up to 21mm, then there's a price jump of 50%(ish) to get the larger 38mm

[chimpy leon]

Yes I’ve noticed that the ones in my budget all look incredibly similar bar the paint job. The cynic in me would say they were all made in the same Chinese factory… In that case it’s like you say, best of choosing a seller with a reputable customer service.

I’m must say the nylon gearing that are found in them doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. Is this something I need be too concerned about?

[Gavlar]

I've had a bigger and much more powerful lathe that used fibre gears and my current lathe, whilst having steel gears as standard has a set of nylon (delrin to be exact) aftermarket gears for cutting non-standard threads, that work just fine. I think steel is probably better but nylon will work within the limitations of the machine. In any case, if they do fail, aftermarket gears for the mini lathes are easily available in both steel and nylon.

[El Garro]

The Eastern made machines can be made pretty accurate if you fettle them but they do have limitations.
Some makes have 38mm spindle bore which is useful, most are 20/21.
A small British made machine seems to be the most recommended, usually more expensive and there are lots of old dogs with nice new paint out there, if you have experience you'll know what to look for.
I use an old Chester conquest , it's ideal for guides and top hats etc but I work to half a mm on a good day
Speed controls can give problems but the newer boards are loads better, run them in low gear when possible, motor cools better and boards seem to last longer.
Then there's the brush or brushless motor debate.
A guy who sells and repairs them told me recently that he recommends brushed motors.
That's a subject on its own though.

[Neil.]

I'd go Warco.

Ready to go out of the box.