With our house renovation and other construction on our property moving along nicely, the garage/workshop is slowly being freed up with space (after being used mainly for storage) and my thoughts turning to how the workshop area will be arranged and set up. Now that I have a ~48m2 workshop area I have been looking to purchase a metal lathe for the increasing number of items on my Mini To-Do list that require machining. Well, that and for years and I've just wanted one but never had the room for one :)
I was on a budget of approx $2000 which would give me a reasonable quality lathe if I purchased new but because I wasn't in a rush, I was regularly scouring online classifieds such as Gumtree for a good deal. On the recommendation of a family friend who has been a fitter/machinist for over 30 years, he recommended a few brands to consider and to purchase a lathe with a fully geared headstock (so you don't have to change/adjust belts to change speeds), a powered cross-feed and the biggest spindle bore you can get. In the last 6-8 months I've lost track of how many machining websites, forums and YouTube videos I've browsed in order to learn gain knowledge of lathes and machining.
I finally found an Australia brand\Taiwanese-made Hafco (Hare & Forbes) lathe in very good condition. It is a Hafco AL-320G (320mm swing over bed, 600mm between centres) purchased from a 89 year old guy who lived my himself in a small farm house 1.5 hours drive out of Perth. His health was failing and made the decision to sell up everything and move to the city. 89 years old! It's like buying a car from a little old lady who drives it to the shops and back once a week.
For now, the lathe has been oiled up to prevent any corrosion and stored under a sheet until I get time and space to starting setting up the workshop.
I was on a budget of approx $2000 which would give me a reasonable quality lathe if I purchased new but because I wasn't in a rush, I was regularly scouring online classifieds such as Gumtree for a good deal. On the recommendation of a family friend who has been a fitter/machinist for over 30 years, he recommended a few brands to consider and to purchase a lathe with a fully geared headstock (so you don't have to change/adjust belts to change speeds), a powered cross-feed and the biggest spindle bore you can get. In the last 6-8 months I've lost track of how many machining websites, forums and YouTube videos I've browsed in order to learn gain knowledge of lathes and machining.
I finally found an Australia brand\Taiwanese-made Hafco (Hare & Forbes) lathe in very good condition. It is a Hafco AL-320G (320mm swing over bed, 600mm between centres) purchased from a 89 year old guy who lived my himself in a small farm house 1.5 hours drive out of Perth. His health was failing and made the decision to sell up everything and move to the city. 89 years old! It's like buying a car from a little old lady who drives it to the shops and back once a week.
For now, the lathe has been oiled up to prevent any corrosion and stored under a sheet until I get time and space to starting setting up the workshop.
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