Advice Sought for Lathe

[Jonathan]

I started off powering my lathe (Colchester student) with the 2.2kW VFD from my CNC router. Just put the right settings in and it'll be fine, up to 2.2kW of course.

If you have reasonably easy access to the workshop from the road, then definately consider getting a second hand lathe which is bigger than the C6. So log as the bed and bearings are in good condition, it doesn't really matter if it's quite old - mine is about 45 years old and it's still easy to make accurate parts with it:



You'll get so much more for your money if you get a second hand lathe. Bear in mind they can be very heavy. Something like a Colchester student (or "cholesterol student" if you believe the spelling checker in chrome!), harrisson M250/M350 would comfortably cut the materials you need, but there are plenty of other examples. They're maybe a bit bigger than you're thinking, but the difference in how well they cut compared to what you'd get for £1k new (i.e. 'toy' lathe like the C6 or myford) is pretty indisputable. Just look on eBay for items nearby...

Having said that, even with a small lathe you can, up to a point, make reasonably large accurate parts so long as you're patient. e.g. I several years ago I made the front two of these wheel rims on a Sieg C3 lathe which only had an 80mm chuck. The fun bit was milling the hexagons without CNC. The other two I did more recently with the Colchester lathe in a fraction of the time.