I'm in teh market for a lathe, preferably a 7x12 or larger, but looking around, the cheapest i can find is £350, but i'm sorta looking for round the £200 mark, :/ anyone know of any?

Would be interested in that as well....

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/30/2011 09:47PM by ElectricMucus.

350 is pretty good would you mind linking? second hand?

a good place to look would be industrial/business related auctions

This is actually the first mini lathe i found, turns out to be the best 1 after half an hour of googling ><

The Sherline is a good mini lathe too. But it depends what you can find second hand for that money.

You normally get what you pay for with machine tools.

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Make your Mendel twice as accurate.
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You may find the smaller lathes are more expensive in the second hand market. A large lathe will probably be cheaper as they are less sort after on the hobby market. The only problem is they tend to be very large/heavy and require 3 phase power. Old large machines are almost worthless. Priced for scrap rather than as tools.

If you are a keen DIY'er you might have a look at Build a Complete Metalworking Shop from Scrap.
This is a series of books telling you how to cast aluminium and build workshop tools with the technique.

Book 1. Charcoal foundry.
Book 2. How to build a lathe.
Book 3. Metal shaper.
Book 4. Milling machine.
Book 5. Drill press
Book 6. Lathe addon's
Book 7. Sheet metal break


Each book builds on the last. I have followed book 1 and have successfully cast aluminium using little more than barbecue charcoal, some casting sand and a home build foundry. I found a cheap lathe so didn't need to go any further with it but I still have the casting equipment in the shed and pull it out every now and again to make something.

These are quite old books but they are a great resource.

Hope this inspires.

Regards

Rob
robsbots

Probably not as cheap as you were wanting but I think a very good buy. Look at Chesteruk.net.

Regards,

Mac

Meh i'll just wait till I can afford an emco compact 5 on ebay