[Tbkahuna]

I am trying to find a Duality Lathe for use on my 1100. If anyone has one they would like to sell, please contact me. I am in the Houston, TX area.

I have read the pros and cons about the Duality Lathe on this site and others and have concluded it will get me down the road a ways until I can find room for the Tormach SBL. I don't need it for production work and can live with the accuracy it can deliver. I do need to be able to do threading of steel parts, but have been told it will work for that as long as the cuts are shallow. I've considered adding the sensor to the 1100 spindle but want something that is ready to go, and will need to turn some parts longer than I could turn in the mill spindle.

Thanks.

[philbur]

If it's not for production work then a conventional lathe may be a better, cheaper alternative. For one offs you could be finished on a conventional lathe before you've even got the gcode fully debugged and the lathe/mill combination set up for CNC. Also getting the thread depth correct for one offs can be the main time consuming issue, if you need keep checking with some form of go - no go gauge.

Phil

[bobeson]

I have a Duality lathe that sees little use except as a manual mini-lathe, and I wouldn't mind selling it for the price of a decent replacement mini-lathe, if you really want the extra features of the Duality. Personally, I wouldn't recommend it for use in steel, but you'll probably get it to do what you want eventually. The big problem here is that I'm in California, so the shipping cost is nontrivial a consideration. If you want it plus the core Duality-related accessories that came with it, let me know via PM.

[MichaelHenry]

I used to have a Duality lathe and found that the threading cut depths, even in aluminum, were limited by the lathe's motor. I'd give serious consideration to other approaches if you need to turn threads in steel. A beefier motor in the Duality would help, but a short search turned up nothing useful. That was several years ago, though, so things might have changed.

Mike

[Tbkahuna]

Thanks for the replies. I thought a motor upgrade could be done, but I was also expecting light cuts and was going to use a 5" chuck for more inertia like I have used on a mini lathe before.

I don't plan on production but do want to do multiple parts. Time isn't an issue directly, light cuts are ok, but at least I could easily repeat the parts with cnc vs a manual. It isn't ideal but seems like it might work for what I need.

[guanshee]

I have a Duality lathe that sees little use except as a manual mini-lathe, and I wouldn't mind selling it for the price of a decent replacement mini-lathe, if you really want the extra features of the Duality. Personally, I wouldn't recommend it for use in steel, but you'll probably get it to do what you want eventually. The big problem here is that I'm in California, so the shipping cost is nontrivial a consideration. If you want it plus the core Duality-related accessories that came with it, let me know via PM.

I'm interested and based in San Francisco so do let me know if you still have it to sell.