any lathe experts out there?

snipershot

snipershot

Go ahead.....run for it.
Silver Member
I'm thinking of buying another metal lathe. I've been looking on grizzlys web site and ebay and everywhere else on the net. For the money, I like those Bolten lathes on ebay. They look similar and have nearly the same specs as lathes from grizzly, harbour freight, and jet, but they are quite a bit cheaper. Enco has some nice looking lathes too, but I'm not sure if I wanna drop $5k on a lathe right now. Anyone have any experience with these Bolten lathes? Any info is appreciated, thanks!

Joe
 
snipershot said:
I'm thinking of buying another metal lathe. I've been looking on grizzlys web site and ebay and everywhere else on the net. For the money, I like those Bolten lathes on ebay. They look similar and have nearly the same specs as lathes from grizzly, harbour freight, and jet, but they are quite a bit cheaper. Enco has some nice looking lathes too, but I'm not sure if I wanna drop $5k on a lathe right now. Anyone have any experience with these Bolten lathes? Any info is appreciated, thanks!

Joe
Click to expand...



Joe contact Michael Webb, when it comes to lathes he is as smart as they come, and nice guy to boot who will help you if he can.
 
Bolton you mean.
If you are going to buy import, Grizzly for Chinese make . At least you get real support.
Spend more get a Taiwan version.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/EISEN-1236G...330710097828?pt=BI_Lathes&hash=item4cffdb9fa4
Don't buy any Birmingham or any YCL version these days.
They are crap. Believe me, I learned the hard way.

Old steel ?
Clausing are the best imo.
A lot of old steel have too small of a compound for my taste.
 
Last edited:
Hi,

Enco also has great support for parts and they are very helpful.

BTW, if you buy a China Lathe, upgrade to the Beldore Motor. Money well spent IMO.

Rick
 
JoeyInCali said:
Bolton you mean.
If you are going to buy import, Grizzly for Chinese make . At least you get real support.
Spend more get a Taiwan version.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/EISEN-1236G...330710097828?pt=BI_Lathes&hash=item4cffdb9fa4
Don't buy any Birmingham or any YCL version these days.
They are crap. Believe me, I learned the hard way.

Old steel ?
Clausing are the best imo.
A lot of old steel have too small of a compound for my taste.
Click to expand...

Id like to have another old steel lathe, but a lot of the ones I've found are pretty worn. My ways are a tad worn on my lathe, but its still a great machine and I plan on keeping my old "ready for war" south bend. I haven't totally commited to a new one yet, but Id like to do some threading with it and make my own pins and that kind of stuff would be pretty difficult on my south bend I have now. It would be kinda nice to have a brand spankin new lathe with a DRO on it though. I just got a txt about one from Enco that's perfect and its only $3300. So many choices, lol.

Joe
 
I got that 14x40 king Canada lathe.
I saw them in eBay too.
I like mine so far, haven't really dialed it in yet, but it's got a lot of power....
No dro on it either
 
I had a grizzly and replaced it with a enco a couple years ago and they are very similar I did get the Baldor motor and DRO the only thing I might do over is get the 3 phase to run on a VFD
 
Thanks for the info fellas. I'm pretty sure the beast xl won't cut it for me, lol. I think I might go with the enco lathe with a dro. I hate making these decisions, lol.

Joe
 
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