[phantomcow2]

Phantomcow2,

Did you mean 5" chuck?

Alan

Yea thats it, 5" chuck. Thanks for catching that

[RotarySMP]

Sorry I didn't reply earlier.

I wouldn't do a 7x lathe again because it is just too low powered to do the sort I things I like making. A good example was turning the bell mouths I made for a friend. The largest diameter was only about 72mm, but I needed endless cuts, as the machine is so underpowered. One should note that the motor on my 7x is rated at 250W although the same motor is rated at 4/5 HP when sold to the US market. I am not sure how much more power this lathe could cope with.

The tail stock delivered with the 7x is not even worthy of use as an anchor (too much bog in it).

If you only want to do small stuff, it is a great machine, but realise that even making a part out of one inch steel, turning down a feature to say 1/2 inch is an exercise in patience.

[pacosoide]

I am with Mark, the mini lathe is great for small things and the fact that it has the variable speed control. Otherwise it just takes too long to do some serious turning. You can grow a beard waiting to finish that job. I have the MM 7X14 and I like the extra bed length. Still it is not very powerful. I am looking at the 9X20 and the only thing holding me back is that I need the variable speed. So when I get the dc motor and controller, I will make a stop by HF (locally) and get one.
Jose.

[EDM_Fixer]

i was just in a shop and they had the new Haas CNC lath .. it is not a production machine as it has no guarding or chip containment ...small but has all the bells and whistles .. im not a sales man .. just havent seen one quite so small in a nice machine like a Haas ... the price i heard sounded pretty good too ... your call ..

[acondit]

Pacosoide,

I appreciate the comment about it being under powered because I thought that maybe the more powerful motor would make a real difference. Do you think that adding a treadmill motor to the 7x14 would solve the power problems? Is it strong enough to handle the extral power?

Thanks,
Alan

I am with Mark, the mini lathe is great for small things and the fact that it has the variable speed control. Otherwise it just takes too long to do some serious turning. You can grow a beard waiting to finish that job. I have the MM 7X14 and I like the extra bed length. Still it is not very powerful. I am looking at the 9X20 and the only thing holding me back is that I need the variable speed. So when I get the dc motor and controller, I will make a stop by HF (locally) and get one.
Jose.

[phantomcow2]

How much more extra power are you talking about? I agree that steel can be difficult to turn. But i just made a leadscrew thats 10 inches long. A slow powerfeed with good coolant and .020 cuts worked alright and left a brilliant finish. I have considered putting a nice variable speed DC motor on there with a little more power, but i think that would mean replacing the motor controller which would be expensive. Also i would have to figure out what my RPM is. So i probably wont, and since i do 90% aluminum, 5% delrin, and 5% steel, im happy

[acondit]

I have KBIC-125 DC variable speed controller which currently has the resistor for 10amp at 90VDC. With a heatsink and the correct resistor it can go 15amp at 90VDC. So I am looking for a 2HP 130VDC motor 3000 to 5000 max RPM. I have been told that the 90VDC and 10amp setting will work but result in a lower max rpm and more like 1HP.

Alan

How much more extra power are you talking about? I agree that steel can be difficult to turn. But i just made a leadscrew thats 10 inches long. A slow powerfeed with good coolant and .020 cuts worked alright and left a brilliant finish. I have considered putting a nice variable speed DC motor on there with a little more power, but i think that would mean replacing the motor controller which would be expensive. Also i would have to figure out what my RPM is. So i probably wont, and since i do 90% aluminum, 5% delrin, and 5% steel, im happy

[phantomcow2]

I would be comfortable switching to a 1HP motor for my mini lathe. The machines mostly cast iron, if bolted down to a bench it is plenty ridgid. It must be bolted down though.
2HP im not sure, i will leave that to you to figure out . If you are indeed ordering a mini lathe, try the stock motor for a bit before you attack it

[RotarySMP]

The jump from 250W to 1Hp is a huge jump. My little 250W motor broke the lip off the round cast iron compound clamp (Okay that was a crap design using a thin feature in cast iron in shear). I would expect a 1HP motor to be capable of stripping the hi-lo ratio gears, so you would probably be better off putting a timing pulley directly on the spindle.

I wouldn't agree with Phantomcows statement "the machine is mostly cast iron, If bolted down to the bench it is plenty rigid". A 9" southbend is probably 4 times heavier, and has only 3/4 HP (but real Watts, not the little midget ones in my lathes motor), and that is still only considered a light lathe.

[phantomcow2]

Yes a south bend is 9 times heavier, I use a 9x36 often and no doubt its a very nice lathe. But my mini lathe is bolted down to a bench, a very sturdy bench at that. I can hacksaw stuff on it, take decent cuts for its size, since then it has never moved or vibrated itself off the table. A little more iron would be nice, i cant argue that. However this will make it less portable if that is a concern to the owner
My homiers motor is labeled 400W. I managed to take a small chip off the compound myself due to not paying attention.

[wizard]

Having only a 9x20 at the moment, that is not CNC'ed, I have to call on some of my other experiences. The first thing to realize is that none of the lathes are optimal or even close to good for CNC conversions.

Given that you will likely need a large lathe than you would for manual machining. If you think that one of the 7" lathes is all you need for your manual work then I'd look seriously at the 9x20. There are a number of reasons but one is simply that you need more room unless you expect to manually change your tooling everytime it is needed. On the other hand if a 7" lathe can easily handle everything you expect to do it does have advantages one of which is rotation of the spindle. You simply won't be running the 9x20 in reverse with a chuck mounted and cutting anything.

From a size stand point the 9x20 is a good choice. From a mechanical standpoint it is questionable due to the spindle issue described above. Being able to cut in either direction is extremely usefull on a CNC lathe. Further a lot of mechanical work is required to tuern the 9x20 into a good manual lathe, which is also required for a CNC conversion. The remaining issue is that I don't believe that the conversion can be done well without loosing some of the manual functions.

Dave

[acondit]

Hi all,

Money definitely matters to me, that is why I am trying to gather as much information as possible before making a decision.

There have been a lot of suggestions regarding the 9x20 and I really appreciate the support for conversion of the 9x20 and it could be that I will ultimately decide to do that. However, I am still very interested in the 8x14, based on the good things that I have heard about its rigidity, but, I still haven't received any feedback regarding the HF8x12 or the LM8x14 and whether it might be a better choice for CNC conversion than the 9x20.

In the following thread (post 15) "eferg" talked about possibly CNC'ing his LM 8x14 and Mineralman expressed interest in finding out about the results but I haven't seen anything more.

<http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?p=68092#post68092>

Paul (CNCAdmin) wrote a review of the LM 8x14 in

<http://www.cnczone.com/reviews/showproduct.php?product=24>

but no info on suitability for CNC conversion and Balsaman wrote a review of the HF8x12 in

<http://www.cnczone.com/modules.php?name=Sections&op=viewarticle&id=6>

but again no info on suitability for CNC conversion. Also, Alan Trest (Stickman4) has started on the CNC conversion of an LM8x14 at

<http://stickman4.homestead.com/8x14cnclathe.html>

but hasn't finished it.

I really want to get some more info on the 8x14, its manual capabilities and its suitability for CNC conversion.

Alan

[phantomcow2]

have you seen this review?
http://home.earthlink.net/~hf8x12

If you do end up getting it, make sure to report on how you like it. Someday i may end up selling my 7x12 for it. The reviewer there says it is the exact same as the lathe master stuff.
Most reviewers wont say if its suitable for a CNC conversion or not. It looks similar to the SIeg machines, so i would say its fine for a conversion.

[acondit]

Phantomcow2,

No, I had not seen that one before. But the more I see of the HF8x12 and LM8x14 the more intrigued I am by them.

Thanks,
Alan

[phantomcow2]

Your not the only one intrigued. The only setback I see about it is that there are only 6 speeds. It goes 125, 210, 450, 620, 1000, 2000 rpm. 1000 to 2000, thats a jump.
According to that review, the HF 8x12 is the same as the lathe matser 8x14. Maybe sometime i will sell my 7x12 with tools and look at that.
Im still happy iwth my 7x12, so down the road perhaps

[acondit]

Phantomcow2,

I was thinking of replacing the motor on the 8x14 with a variable speed DC motor. That would overcome the 6 speed limitation. Whether I bought a 8x14 or CNC'd my 9x20 I was planning on the variable speed DC motor conversion, that's why I already have the DC controller and I am getting ready to buy the DC motor.

Alan

[acondit]

Here is a comparison of the 8x and 9x lathe features that seem to be different in ways that might affect their suitability for CNC conversion.

I tried to get it to show here but I got nothing but grief. When I tried to put the table in here is stripped out all of the spaces so nothing lined up. I may edit this later if I can figure out how to show the table here.

When I look at this comparison, I think that it speaks in favor of the 8x14. I guess it really depends on what you think is most important though.

Alan

[BobWarfield]

I have a Lathemaster 9x30 and would think it a good choice for CNC. It is a very solid, very rigid machine, and (as the 8x14 reviewer says) does not require all of the modifications most of the Asian lathes do for rigidity.

Some of the things it lacks (tumbler reverse, quickchange gearbox) are not disadvantages for CNC. In fact, it is a simple matter to remove the leadscrew gearing and clear the way for your CNC drive there.

I find this lathe is nicely proportioned for benchtop work and there are a number of excellent accessories available for it from Lathemaster. You can also readily adapt your eBay purchases to it. I just mounted a 5" Buck Set-Tru 6-jaw chuck to mine, for example.

Last, and very much not least, the service and support provided by Lathemaster are just excellent.

Best Regards,

BW

[acondit]

Bob,

I guess I may wait to make a decision until after I sell my 12x36. I like the looks of the 9x30 and if I sell both my 12x36 and my 9x20 I might be able to find enough room for the 9x30 in a smaller shop. I like not losing so much length between centers but it may come down to what I have room for when we sell this house.

Alan

[trubleshtr]

why not start a poll on the subject?
might be intresting to see where people are putting there monies at a glance
just my 2 cents