What manual lathe should I buy?

by Morning Machinist

Author

Jon House
February 02, 2025

Ethan is looking for a new manual lathe. Recommendations in the comments below.

Top recommendations include:

  • “Hands down the best lathe on the market is Hwacheon. Copy of the Moriseiki engine lathes. Built like a brick shit house.”

  • “If I was buying new I'd buy a Hwacheon, built very heavy. I have an older 20.5" and they are the best out and good support. Built like (for) the Mori Seiki's.”

  • “I run a couple Leblond Makino regal lathes, made in the mid 80s. Quite capable machines for what we do. The servo shift feature is a huge plus”

  • “Unfortunately, there are no made in the United States engine or tool room lathes today. Nardini from Brazil is a nice machine.”

  • “Take a look at Lyon lathes from Eastern Europe.”

  • “Summer before last I ran a Jet lathe. It was a good machine. Very accurate with no problems. It was new. Only worked on it for 5 months. How long it will last I couldn’t say. It was a 18x60 with DRO and a taper attachment”

  • “Kingston is a Taiwanese made lathe. The importer is in Huntington Beach California. I worked for a local (NOLA) distributor for many years as a technician. Most parts are readily available in California. If it’s not, they can fly it in in a few days. What ever you do, don’t by Chinese! American (if you can find one). Japan. Taiwanese. China (very last resort!)”

  • “I’ve been doing machine repair for 25 years as an independent tech. I bought an Acer 21-80E lathe about 4 years ago and love it!!! I bought it because I didn’t have to work on them ever and any customers that I asked about them loved them as well.”

  • “Don't buy a new one, they're Chinese rubbish. And don't buy an ex production model, usually the slides need a grind, but still fine if you're good/patient enough. If you can get an ex Tafe lathe you're golden.”

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Viral Post

This post generated 712 comments over a several day period. It sounds like a lot of the members get and prefer 20 minute lunches. Or prefer even less. Here are some of our favorite comments…

  • “To keep you from going to the bar”

  • “You guys are getting lunch?”

  • “Find a job you like and ur lunch break is all day”

  • “Because if you get an hour than you have to stay 30 min extra a day YOUR WHOLE LIFE F THAT IT ADDS UP”

  • “I get 30 mins now but I wish it was only 10 mins so I could go home 20 mins sooner”

  • “Back in the 70’s one shop I worked for gave us a 45 minute unpaid lunch. All the guys would meet up at the local tavern and have a nice lunch and a few beers on Fridays. Looked forward to that every week as it made working life more enjoyable. Looks like most people prefer a few breaks only these days.”

  • “10 Min breaks are the best! I've been working at a shop for 10 years now with 10 min breaks, all paid. We have an open schedule, so we show up when we want, put in our time (8-10hrs, depending on work load) and leave. Couldn't image working a job that we had to all show up at the same time, 30 or 60 min lunch, and have to work 10 hours but be there for 10.5-11 hrs. Hard pass.”

  • “Seriously, you complain about 30 minutes for lunch? We only got 20 at my first several jobs. Was more than enough. Went to 30 minutes and then an hour. What a waste of time to sit around for all that extra time when I could have been home 30-40 minutes earlier.”

Question of the Day⁉️

Are collet holders acceptable for general machining?

Top responses include:

  • “My money: use ER collets for almost everything. Someone else’s money: we need shrink fit or hydraulic holders.”

  • “Skip shrink fit. Go with hydraulic holders. Schunk holders are great.”

  • “As long as you understand its limitations ER is versatile and will work fine for most applications.”

  • “I'll use ER collets for smaller tools <1/4" but I wouldn't use them in any roughing application with larger tools.”

  • “I use them. I like them. My top spindle speed is 7K, though. Thinking balance would be an issue if you're running higher RPMs.”

  • “I’ve run collets for.0005 tolerances reliably”

  • “They’re good for thread milling, and lighter duty/less tool pressure. Mill chucks are similar in principle but grab tools much better, would be good to hold finishing tools and anything light duty. Heat shrinks are the best for heavy roughing, but overkill for thread milling or anything light duty.”

  • “It’s a loaded question - you have two machinists who do one setup a day, buy them new holders and collets one day and on the second day things will be alright but come back a year later the first guy has taken care of them and they work like new. The second guy has over-torqued the nuts, sprung the collets, broken the C clips, clamped on chips and struggles with setups, runout and slipping tools.

    I’m in the opinion that end mills shouldn’t be in a ER collet, milling chucks or solid holders. ER is for drills.

    But in my day to day work I am working with big parts and heavy machining.”

  • “Lots of miss conceptions about both types, unless your doing some serious high speed roughing decent quality ER holders work well, but I do prefer the haimer mega chuck collet.

    The only reason I use a heat shrink holder is to gain more access on 5 axis jobs. Sometimes I find them too rigid for fast roughing and they cause excess noise and vibration compared to collet holders or power chuck holders.”

Funny Post of the Day 🤣🤣🤣

Machinists with questions or advice 🤔

⁉️ Anyone else turning PTFE?

⁉️Is there a way to check variables between 2 channels (Doosan tt1800sy)?

✔️ I made some knock-off endmills today.

⁉️ How can I machine this inside slot that is curved?