Lathe suggestions?

[magicniner]

Go for the largest through capacity, swing and length that fits your budget which is still suitable for the projects you currently have in mind, with consideration for the fact that a cunning machinist can always do jobs which are too large for the spindle through capacity over the bed, if he has the length to work with.
Keep in mind that to "fully tool" a lathe can easily involve greater expenditure than the initial machine purchase price ;-)
Regards,
Nick

[Noplace]

Since we are on the topic of lathes anyone familiar with this company http://www.epple.co.uk/turning-machi...8n1qlvv0irj5b5 ? I found one local company which deals with them and might get a lathe in the future and want to know if this is a good brand?

[magicniner]

"Epple UK, are the exclusive UK stockists and distributors for Epple Maschinen – Germany"

I've never heard of them but I've never seen poor German engineering equipment so I can't see you going wrong if they are entirely manufactured in Germany.

- Nick

[cropwell]

These Epple machines look like Chinese machines (could they be German copies of Chinese machinery)

[JohnHaine]

Looking at the website the machines look the same as the generic Sieg / Weiss products from China. Not necessarily any the worse for that but probably not made entirely or even partly in Germany. Similar machines also available (though much more limited range) from Arc Eurotrade who have an excellent reputation.

[routercnc]

Yes these are imported by Warco from China. When I was researching these I compared the spec to Arc / Sieg and Chester and these were slightly better spec for the same money. I’ve been pleased with it over the years but that hasn’t stopped me tinkering!