por favor.

Doesn’t need to be big: 300mm x 180mm is more than big enough. I could probably go smaller but I’m not going to buy a lathe that often so I may as well get something half decent. Just for making bits/spacers/shims/playing

Opinions on these two please…

Chester Conquest at £423 plus VAT
http://www.chestermachinetools.com/Products/Product.aspx?productID=3

and Chester DB7VS at £600 plus VAT
http://www.chestermachinetools.com/Products/Product.aspx?productID=7

The Myford 7 is a nice compact machine. Hard to find though, not cheap, and you’d want to have digital readouts set up on all the controls.

These people are good for second hand lathes: pennyfarthingtools but good ones come in and go out very quickly so it’s worth phoning and registering an interest. I got mine from there, it was an only slightly used axminster

The ones you linked to are generic chinese ones, like mine, available from machine mart and axminster amongst many others. Not great precision and need a bit of fettling to get set up right but fine for hobby use.

Myfords now there’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time, they used to have a big factory near my old house in Beeston , notts -same one?

I want one … 😆

Sieg C3 super from ArcEuroTrade (think that’s their name) its got the new brushless motor.

theres a place called spg tools in leicester that will save you 100 quid on exactly the same thing chester
are selling ignore the out of stock also they dont ever change it.

its actually the same semi shoddy machine ,they fettle it to make it turn something round into something that actually turns round things
http://spgtools.com/group.php?pid=1

similar thing well regarded in the little lathe world as a supplier is Amadeal

http://amadeal.co.uk/acatalog/Mini-Lathe.html 420 incl vat

Alas Myford went bust earlier this year. Personally I think they’re way over-priced compared to foreign offerings, but I guess they’re very much the land rover defender of the lathe world.
If you were looking at the two chester’s I’d go for the DB7 out of the two as I reckon the extra weight will give you quite a bit more rigidity.

You might want to get a variable speed one such as
http://www.warco.co.uk/metal-lathes-metalworking-lathe-machine/15-wm-180-variable-speed-lathe.html
The variable speed (brushless/ digital 3 phase etc.) ones run a lot smoother than the a fixed speed mains motor with belts/gears to change the speed. Plus the speed change is a lot quicker, but it’s not really a thing to get hung up on though.
Chester, warco, arc-euro are good. amadeal, may also be worth looking at. They all sell roughly the same lathes made with common castings, but slightly different manufacturing quality depending on what Chinese factory they’ve come out of.

Personally I’d avoid Axminster as the only thing I bought from them – a milling vice was so gash it couldn’t really be called a milling vice. I might have been unlucky, but after refusing to post my negative review of the product, I have little trust in their integrity.

Also bear in mind that you’ll probably spend roughly the same amount again on tooling. Actually don’t bear that in mind, as it might put you off 🙂

I bought a warco wmt300/2 combined lathe mill a few years ago. These combined jobs get a bit of fairly valid slagging that they’re the worst of both worlds, neither being a great lathe or good milling machine, but as I don’t have space for a great lathe and good milling machine and pillar drill it’s a comprimise that works for me.

Turning a cast iron cylinder.

Milling spokes on a flywheel

Just about finished making a simple steam loco
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgnYSqS6B8c[/video]

I’ve got a wee Sherline in the shop – it’s a modelmaking lathe really, but it’s a tough and precise little thing and fine for anything bike-related I throw at it…

cheers all. I’ve just got in from a night ride but I’ll digest all this tomorrow

My Sherline setup: