I'm being slowly drawn into buying a metal working lathe, although I'm struggling to think of why I want it and what I'd make with it!
Anyway, enjoying doing the research, plus hope to look over the Warco lathes at the Engineering show tomorrow. Anything in particular I should ask or look at?
I'm drawn to this sort of model:
http://www.warco.co.uk/metal-lathes-...eed-lathe.html
Or may stretch to this:
http://www.warco.co.uk/metal-lathes-...50v-lathe.html
I've looked at the used Colchesters, Myfords etc and keep coming back to a new Warco. Possibly helped by the Warco pillar drill I bought last year which I'm really pleased with.
I also looked at the small introductory lathes at £500-£800 but have decided that I can still cut small stuff on a big lathe and that it will probably generally perform better and be a bit nicer to use.
So what sort of features do I think it should have? Well this is where I'm at:
Bench top mounted (no space for floor standing) up to 1300mm long
Reasonable quiet so I can run it without upsetting the neighbours (invertor spindle would be nice)
Swing of >240mm sounds good
Control of feed speeds slightly independent of spindle speed (i.e. A B C selector)
Thread cutting popular metric threads, plus thread dial indicator
Camlock tailstock
Spindle bore of >20mm so I can feed ballscrews through if I need to machine the ends
I'd also like to upgrade to a quick change tool post plus DROs at some point.
So there is it, any thoughts on the above? Any experiences of similar spec Warco models? Thanks