9 by 20 metal lathe

juspooln

juspooln

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I am picking this up tomorrow from a friend http://www.harborfreight.com/9-inch-x-20-inch-geared-head-belt-driven-bench-lathe-45861.html it's loaded with tooling and the stand and I only paid 450.00 for it so I figure it would be a good addition to my little shop and since it will be my first metal lathe ( I have two Hightowers) I figured it wouldn't hurt to play around with a smaller version and if I ever want to trade up I figure I will be able to get my money back

I was thinking of setting it up for live threading to do ferules shafts and butts I know its only 3/4 spindle size I am thinking I can bore that out to 7/8 and since I core most of my handles I am thinking I could thread it before I glue it to the handle I know I will still be limited but I could at least get my feet wet

For those of you who have/had these size lathes in the shop what did you end up using it for or did you just get rid of it?
thank as always for everyone's input
 
For me that lathe would be good only for ferrules and tips. You will have an issue boring the spindle bore. Not worth the hassle. It is a good start for live threading, no doubt.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Guerra Cues said:
For me that lathe would be good only for ferrules and tips. You will have an issue boring the spindle bore. Not worth the hassle. It is a good start for live threading, no doubt.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Spindles are not bored.
They're ground.
7/8 I'd by the chuck would still pushing it anyway.
 
I just got a emco metal lathe/mill. I was looking for some way to get my feet wet also, but I think I will wait for a bigger machine. It was my fathers, so I'm not out any $$
 
Over the years first Taiwan and then China have been copying proven old metal from the USA and Germany. They keep getting better but the 9-20 metal lathe never got much interest and hasn't improved much, if at all over the years except for looks. They aren't very accurate, they don't have much in accessories and they are very light weight for cutting metal. If you don't expect a lot going in then you will be fine. with some tuning they will probably be fine for lightweight stuff such as ferrules and such.

I don't know what the wall thickness is on the spindle for boring out but many years ago I bought a very large, old lathe but the through hole in the spindle was only 1.25" which is to small for a butt work. I bored the first couple of inches of the spindle to 1.375. I then got a 1.375 Silver and Demming drill bit and made up a bar about 3' long and turned a .500 neck on one end and bored the other end out to .500. I put the bit in the bar with set screws and drilled through the spindle. I kept plenty of cutting oil going and turned very slowly utilizing the tail stock which I would have to un-lock an move forward every 1/2 hour or so until finished. A much better job could have been accomplished with the use of a counter bore attachment that's nose fits the inside of the spindle and the back half cuts to a larger size.

Dick
 
lathe bore size

rhncue said:
Over the years first Taiwan and then China have been copying proven old metal from the USA and Germany. They keep getting better but the 9-20 metal lathe never got much interest and hasn't improved much, if at all over the years except for looks. They aren't very accurate, they don't have much in accessories and they are very light weight for cutting metal. If you don't expect a lot going in then you will be fine. with some tuning they will probably be fine for lightweight stuff such as ferrules and such.

I don't know what the wall thickness is on the spindle for boring out but many years ago I bought a very large, old lathe but the through hole in the spindle was only 1.25" which is to small for a butt work. I bored the first couple of inches of the spindle to 1.375. I then got a 1.375 Silver and Demming drill bit and made up a bar about 3' long and turned a .500 neck on one end and bored the other end out to .500. I put the bit in the bar with set screws and drilled through the spindle. I kept plenty of cutting oil going and turned very slowly utilizing the tail stock which I would have to un-lock an move forward every 1/2 hour or so until finished. A much better job could have been accomplished with the use of a counter bore attachment that's nose fits the inside of the spindle and the back half cuts to a larger size.

Dick
Click to expand...

That's an amazing story. Much more than I would ever even try.how did it end up?? accurate?
 
JerseyBill said:
That's an amazing story. Much more than I would ever even try.how did it end up?? accurate?
Click to expand...

Accurate? No, but I was only making clearance so that a butt could be worked on. I machined a collar for the back of the spindle and put in 4 bolts so that it acted as a 4-jaw chuck.

Dick
 
juspooln said:
I am picking this up tomorrow from a friend http://www.harborfreight.com/9-inch-x-20-inch-geared-head-belt-driven-bench-lathe-45861.html it's loaded with tooling and the stand and I only paid 450.00 for it so I figure it would be a good addition to my little shop and since it will be my first metal lathe ( I have two Hightowers) I figured it wouldn't hurt to play around with a smaller version and if I ever want to trade up I figure I will be able to get my money back

I was thinking of setting it up for live threading to do ferules shafts and butts I know its only 3/4 spindle size I am thinking I can bore that out to 7/8 and since I core most of my handles I am thinking I could thread it before I glue it to the handle I know I will still be limited but I could at least get my feet wet

For those of you who have/had these size lathes in the shop what did you end up using it for or did you just get rid of it?
thank as always for everyone's input
Click to expand...

You could fabricate a real simple steady rest on the spindle side for doing tips and ferrules andddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd????????????
You could also, off set the tail stock, and put an indexer on it for cutting points. :thumbup:
 
Michael Webb said:
You could fabricate a real simple steady rest on the spindle side for doing tips and ferrules andddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd????????????
You could also, off set the tail stock, and put an indexer on it for cutting points. :thumbup:
Click to expand...

that was another thing that crossed my mind for now is set it up for points until I get a mill and then just set it up for threading ferrules and tendons
 
rhncue said:
Over the years first Taiwan and then China have been copying proven old metal from the USA and Germany. They keep getting better but the 9-20 metal lathe never got much interest and hasn't improved much, if at all over the years except for looks. They aren't very accurate, they don't have much in accessories and they are very light weight for cutting metal. If you don't expect a lot going in then you will be fine. with some tuning they will probably be fine for lightweight stuff such as ferrules and such.

I don't know what the wall thickness is on the spindle for boring out but many years ago I bought a very large, old lathe but the through hole in the spindle was only 1.25" which is to small for a butt work. I bored the first couple of inches of the spindle to 1.375. I then got a 1.375 Silver and Demming drill bit and made up a bar about 3' long and turned a .500 neck on one end and bored the other end out to .500. I put the bit in the bar with set screws and drilled through the spindle. I kept plenty of cutting oil going and turned very slowly utilizing the tail stock which I would have to un-lock an move forward every 1/2 hour or so until finished. A much better job could have been accomplished with the use of a counter bore attachment that's nose fits the inside of the spindle and the back half cuts to a larger size.

Dick
Click to expand...

I believe you posted this before and that's were I got the idea and my wife says I never pay attention;)
 
juspooln said:
I believe you posted this before and that's were I got the idea and my wife says I never pay attention;)
Click to expand...

Tell her to talk more about lathes:).

But seriously, you won't find many people on here that
are as machine tool savy as Dick.

Dale(among the less than)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top