This type of request is on the lines of "how long is a piece of string?" I was also asking my self the same question before I retired after spending a lot of time over the years in and out of machine shops and production plants. So I would like to put another view on things, firstly I had to decide on what I wanted to do with the Machine tools I was about to purchase and come to a firm decision. Now I did have a very old mini Lathe and a large size bench drill press with a must feature an adjustable angle table plus a Morticing attachment though not often used but it takes the hard work out of jointing timber. The drill press was going to stay, but a replacement lathe was needed. The one piece of good advice I was given in the past was this "a lathe is the cheapest part of setting up a workshop that is a one off cost, it is the tooling for it that is a never ending requirement for your money" never a truer word was ever spoken because I am still purchasing some thing or other. The choice of lathe size etc. My first thoughts was the bigger the better and I had this in my mind for a long time until I realized if I wanted to turn something large I had plenty of contacts who would let me use one of their larger lathes for a couple of hours, also there was a big down side to large lathes high cost of tooling. The next choice was new or second user, after hearing so many tales of woe from people who had purchase second hand machines it was going to be new for me!! The choice on this side of the pond I found was expensive Brit made machines like Myford or look else were and China is the only other choice. Now the next important decision size and what I wanted to do with it? Manufacture Repair large or small items I decided middle of the road medium size items larger items I could have some time on a large lathe elsewhere. Being in Brit land there is one very important thing to take account of Imperial or Metric because we use both here though Metric is now the largest share but in restoration Imperial threads are extremely common and BA is still used here a lot.
Things now started to come together, for value for money Chinese not to large a machine because there is a lot more tooling at much lower prices for hobby machines, than the larger varieties. Now over the years I have found that no machine can be perfect in every persons eyes, so a compromise for me was on the cards.
This was my compromise a Chinese manufactured 9 X 20 available under many names with a large span of prices. My list of reasons :-
Large headstock taper MT3.
Tail stock taper 2MT.
Headstock spindle bored through at 3/4 inch.
Good center to bed and between centers size for the money.
Set over tale stock for taper turning.
Came with Face plate, fixed and traveling steadies. 3 & 4 jaw chucks with the 4 jaw having independent jaws, having 3/4 Horse motor.
The 3/4 Horse motor is not to underpowered for turning large stock.
Cuts Metric & Imperial threads, not the full range but enough.
Norton type screw cutting gear box as standard, very useful.
Best of all tooling for this size lathe is very cheap and readily available.
** While replacing the headstock spindle pulley I removed the Chinese main headstock bearings and fitted a better quality TIMKEN set, because the bearings are a common size they are relatively low cost to purchase for an improvement in quality.
The Down Side:-
The drive belt system is not so good, I will go as far as saying poor under some circumstances. It uses a Gates 5M710 very thin mane drive belt, you can break it easily plus they are not a reasonable cost to replace.
Low speeds are not low enough (no back gearing)
Top slide does require the four bolt modification (you can make or purchase).
No saddle lock. Simple bolt required to correct this.
There are a large number of modifications to be found for this machine on the internet to improve things no end all simple and low cost.
The main after market things I recommend are a 1 horse 3 phase motor with a VFD both items are not that expensive especially the VFD this improves low end speed and torque, remove the other belt and intermediate pulley ending up with just a motor and head stock spindle pulley's adding a larger drive belt I used a 3/8 cogged SPZ V belt and tensioner. As luck would have it the headstock spindle is a standard size for a taper lock pully bush no machining required and many off the peg pulleys you can try. Purchase a vertical slide to convert the lathe for milling, finally a good quality six inch independent four jaw chuck, the chucks supplied are ok but quality ones do improve things no end..
I have had this lathe for fifteen years now and never once taken a part to be machined on a larger lathe.
This is just my personal findings, you could ask a dozen
other people and get a dozen differing opinions.
As an after thought. I did not say a lot about the chucks that came with the machine, they are adequate the self centering 3 jaw chuck supplied needed to be what I would say overtightened to grip well, not a good thing for the chuck scroll also the two sets of jaws inner and outer where not numbered including the chuck itself.
So it was a case of finding the best position for each of the three jaws then mark the chuck and both sets of jaws. The 4 jaw chuck is 4 inch no problems with it at all but by adding a 6 inch chuck enables much larger projects to be held utilizing the machines full potential.
After writing this, out of curiosity I spent some time looking at suppliers web sites, this machine is still available as standard with an uprated version having a VFD Motor and updated drive at a much higher cost than you could update a standard machine using higher quality parts costing much less.
