Seriously Considering Mini Lathe/Mill - Is It Feasible?

gyvel said:
Dakota, look around for an old Sears Craftsman lathe that was made by Atlas. It runs on 110, is quiet, doesn't' take up more than 2 1/2 x 4' of table space.

You can still get any part to rebuild it, and you have changeable gears and an automatic gear feed.

There is also a milling adaptor available for it with which you can do small jobs.
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I have a Sears Craftsman 109 lathe in my garage. When I worked at a machine shop a gentleman brought it in and said it was his dad's hobby lathe and didn't have a need for it. I have all the change gears and everything for it. It does run quiet. I'll sell it for a low price!
 
I sent a PM regarding the Craftsman.

I talked to a couple of my instructors at school today (we have a variety specializing in things from machining to checkering and stockmaking) and got a similar general consensus- that a lot of good work can be done on the old Craftsman/Atlas lathes and that they could be mounted on a benchtop in a corner somewhere without too much trouble. They said I'd probably be happy with one of the Chinese lathes for practice and that it wouldn't do much heavy work. So for me it's going to come down to making a decision on weight and what I can feasibly handle.

As far as any other machines (including a small mill) I have a friend who is letting me store and use my shop press in his outbuilding/garage. I'm going over there soon to clear some space out and install the press, and while we're there we're going to see if we have room for a mill like that. He's in the gunsmithing program also, so if there's space, he's willing to let me set up a small mill there in exchange for a small monthly rent and allowing him to use the machine also. I could do the same for the lathe if it becomes a problem.

So seems like things are moving in a positive direction in that regard.
 
Setting up any lathe on a flimsy table top will allow the bed to distort or move to destroy accuracy however slight. Most home shop machinist aren't worried about precision (under.001 tolerances) and this shouldn't matter but should be aware of the limitations of trying to turn with uniform taper or lack of it and surface finish.
Other than the Sears/Atlas 10" lathe which is what I learned on in the early 70's the next step up and a good choice would be a South Bend. I sold the Atlas and got a Jet with 36" between centers and 1 1/2 hole thru the head stock which I needed for barrels. This served me well for many years.
 
About the plastic gears on some lathes from Grizzly: the lathe I have has 2 plastic gears, they are the spindle drive gears. The other gears are all metal.

The theory on the plastic gears is they protect the lathe from damage if you have a crash and slam the carriage against the chuck / spindle.

So far, I haven't had any issues, but I've been careful.

The Chinese mini mills use plastic gears in a similar manner, and a couple of companies make belt drive conversions to replace those gears for mini mills.

Whatever you decide to do, when you buy a lathe try to get one with the gear change levers. Changing the gears to change threads gets kind of old after a while. Maybe you get used to it, I don't know.

Of course, much like cars and trucks, adding features adds to the price.
 
PoiDog, the ones that I saw, had all the change gears made of plastic, and a couple in the head, behind the cover. If a person could get them made of HS aluminum, brass, or bronze, then he would have something, and steel, even better. I don't think crashing one would hurt it, as keys should shear, if they are used with steel gears, or even a shear pin. The most that should happen is a stalled motor or a sheared key. The problem is, that plastic will not have the service life of something harder, so their teeth wear out much quicker. Keep them lubricated well, with a grease or oil made for plastics. It doesn't take much.

I have heard of the mini-mills heads going out due to the gearing, but I would say that they were taking heavy cuts with them. They have some larger bench mills out, now, that are made pretty good. I've been thinking about buying the combo horiz/vert bench mill they now have, for small parts.

I had one of those combo mill/drills at one time, and you could take a heavy cut with those. They were belt driven, but the spindle was an R8 taper. The spindle OD was about the same diameter as that of a smaller Bridgeport.
 
Dixi, I think it was about a 12" bed. I saw it in their store when I took the big trek to Allentown the other week. I don't remember, but I think it did not have a thru chuck on it.
 
A small lathe- and by small, I mean bed length, not swing over bed- is great for learning, but wholly impractical for gunsmithing unless you have a minimum
1-1/2" or thereabouts spindle bore.

You can learn on the "small" lathe- I did- but I don't see a practical use for one as relates to gunsmithing. For gunsmiths, lathes are mostly about barrel work- and there, you need a long bed- minimum 32"-36" between centers if you're going to work with a steady rest, or the large spindle bore to work with spiders through the headstock.

I got lucky with an old South Bend- lightly used, and unused for many years. Took several weeks to completely disassemble, degrease, paint, replace the felts and get it back to its prior glory. When I say I got lucky- I mean I didn't know what to look for in a used lathe-but do now. Fortunately for me, I had no surprises. But you can get into real headaches with one...some of which can be simple fixes. But things like excessive bed wear up front near the chuck, worn spindle and/or bearings, or permanent bed twist are issues that can't be repaired. If you're going to consider a well-used lathe, whether "old", or newer- do some research on how to check it out, under power.

If it can't be run under power, be sure the price you're willing to pay reflects the risk you're taking.
 
If the small lathe is cheap enough, you can set it in a corner for screw making. A lot of older guns had weird sized and shaped screws. They can get expensive and time consuming to locate. Baby lathes have their use, but usually as a secondary item in the shop.
 
Dixie Gunsmithing, I hadn't seen those all plastic ones in my research for buying a lathe. The lathe I settled on is a 10" x 22" Grizzly G0752.

The change gears are definitely metal. Man, for them all to be plastic...

I'm just a hobbyist, I bought the lathe and the mini mill after I retired, so I'm not putting them through anything seriously hard. The spindle on the lathe is just over 1", something like 1.065". I won't be getting any really heavy barrels through it.

I thought after I learned more about this stuff, I could turn and thread a barrel and put a muzzle brake on any rifles I own.

I can put AR's together, but that doesn't make me a gunsmith. These machines are fun to mess with, plus they can do some real work too. Just nothing really large.

I come to this forum to see what I can learn from actual gunsmiths.
 
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