I am looking at purchasing a mini metal lathe something around 7 X 14. Most of the work on the lathe will be small items like reel seats, winding checks and butt caps but still would like to be able to do larger items also. I know that the Grizzly, Harbor Freight, Micro-Mark, Homier and Cummins lathes are made in China at the same factory. Some have different features but the parts are interchangeable. I not sure about the Taig to Sherline lathes!

I would appreciate any information or experiences on these brands or any others.

Thanks
Lynn Williams

Talk to Andy Dear about the LatheMaster product. More machine for the money than any you list above. I think Scott Parsons just bought the one that Lance Dupree had.

I have a Taig and have used a Sherline. Outstanding machines - very high quality, but very small and only suited to small pieces. That may be all you need, however.

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Grizzly, Harbor Freight, Micro-Mark, Homier and Cummins lathes are all made by Seig in China...and Ive owned all of them at one time or another, with the exception of the cummins. These machines are rough , miniature versions of larger engine lathes, but lack the mass needed to do precision finish work. They do have the ability to cut decent threads (left and right handed), have power feed( on the carriage only, not the cross slide), Variable speed at the spindle, high and low gearing...and a useful feature the Sherline and taig lathes dont have out of the box...a compound slide for cutting angles and bevels. These units will require some fine tuning and "gunsmithing" to remove the backlash in the leadscrew and some fine adjustment of the gibs on the bedways and dovetails on the cross slide and compound slide. With some tweaking, these will hold some surprizingly close tollerances. All of them are very similar with the exception of the Micro-Mark version...heres why: All of the feed screws on the cross slides and compound slides on the Seig machines are metric threads, with the dials modified to standard reading markings in .001" inch. This equates to the dials reading in .040' per revolution rather than the .050" on a typical engine lathe, making some odd calculations nesessary when cranking the dials in and out. The Micro-Mark unit is the one exception. It comes out of the box "blueprinted"...with standard threaded leadscrew and cross slide screws and .050" per turn dials, smoother lapped bedway and dovetails, and a digital readout for the spindle speed. I believe Micro-mark still offers the standard threaded screws and dials to retrofit to the other Seig machines as an aftermarkit kit. Another slightly annoying quirk with all of the Seig units is the default tool post. They come with a standard 4-way with no tool height adjustment. Im sure the tool holder was designed for metric tooling, which makes it tough to use standard 1/4" tool bits without shimming it up to the centerline of the spindle, and 3/8" bits are too high above centerline. I bought an aftermarket adjustable height quickchange tool holder for mine that will handle 1/8" to 1/2" tools, boring bars, knurling tools, etc with no worries...makes this machine much more versitile. Currently, I have the Homier version that has been tweaked and modified.

One thing to keep in mind, engine lathes are very limited without tooling. Its easy to spend the price of one of these lathes in tooling alone. To do anything other than basic diameter turning and facing, you will need accesories and tools beyond what comes with the machine. Some of the things you may need to handle some basic operations:

Tailstock drill chuck with MT2 taper - For center drilling

Center drills - to start center holes before drilling with a standard drill bit. Center drills also create a 30 deg. center to mate with the tailstock center to turn long stock.

Boring bars with appropriate toolpost holder - Needed to bore inside diameters, counterbores, treepans, etc.

33 deg. pointed bits - For thread cutting.

Left and right handed cutting bits - For turning and facing.

Parting tool with appropriate toolpost holder - for parting stock and grooving.

High Speed Steel tool blanks and bench grinder - To make form tools and odd shaped specialty tools.

Knurling tool - for knurling knobs, reelseat nuts, etc.

4-jaw chuck - for grabbing odd shaped stock or offset turning and boring.

Live center with MT2 taper - To replace the stationary dead center that comes with the machine. A live center rotates with the stock, and doesnt wear and heat up.

Dial indicator with magnetic base - Used to accurately true and center stock in the chuck, measure depth of cut while boring, counter-boring, stepping, etc.

0-1" micrometer and 6" caliper - measure it TWICE...cut it ONCE!

Thanks Tom & Scott for the information.

Lynn Williams