miniature lathe?

Tools, Techniques, and Reference Materials Tools
1

Does anyone know if any company makes miniature lathes. I often sit in front of a srcatch build project as say to myself “man a lathe would really help out here”. nothing tiny but small enough you can actually put some nice work on say a 1/8 " wood dowl. maybe i’m just dreaming!!!

2

Gee Pro…many out there…depending on what you want to spend…how much you want to use it etc.

You can check Micro-Mark…and Harbor Freight…just type in ‘lathe’ in the search and look around.

I’m sure a decent Google search will put you onto other leads…try bench lathe…miniature lathe and so forth

Nam

3

I have Unimat, but if I were buying it again I’d go for a Clisby:

http://www.clisbyminiaturemachines.com/LatheMetal.html

Andrew

4

Thanks yall for the advice. I feel a little silly! I truly didn’t know they made them that small. I’m glad tax season is here,so I can pick one up.

5

I love my Clisby lathe. Here are some pics of it being used to turn plexiglass for a model project.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v140/thetallman/62130b71.jpg

6

I’ve got one, it spends most of the time covered up…I rarely if ever use it.

7

I’ve got a Unimat SL that I bought in 1975. It’s seen quite a bit of action, and it still works - though it’s difficult to get repair parts for it nowadays. I’ve already had to replace the motor once. If it gives out again I’ll probably buy either a Sherline (which looks mighty similar to the Clisby ones illustrated in this thread) or one of those monsters from Micromart (which seem to share lots of parts with the ones Harbor Freight sells, with the label Central Machinery).

8

You can send it to me then. [:D]

I started out in High School to be a machinist and never pursued it.

It was a lot of fun though running a Bridgeport Mill, and Enterprise lathe and other machines like surface grinders, drill presses, etc.

9

I have a couple of cordless drills with dead batts-been thinking about using one of these to build a simple lathe. I have an old model RR power supply/controller to use for power/speed control. I have removed the motor/gearbox/chuck assys from the housings and will seat one of these in an epoxy/glass bed. I haven’t worked out details for the ways, tool rest or tailstock, yet. This should be accurate enough for turning simple shapes from brass rod, wood, plastic, etc.

Jim