Got my lathe - -- FINALLY !

Pete Wass

Pete Wass

Well-known member
My 4" X 3" Central Machinery lathe arrived yesterday after a long backorder. Could hardly wait to get it out and fir it up.

The little thing is a nice little machine and well made. It isn't nmade to bo anything big but will be great for case work and the odd little job for anything round and small enough to get in it.

It is ideal for my situation right now as I live in cramped quaters with no shop to work in. The one thing it did not come with is a chuck for the tail stock. I haven't researched one yet but must. I am cutting 284 cases off to begin forming to 30-284 short right now and it is nice to be able to have a lathe again, I must say. :) Pete
 
I saw one of those the other day at HF. The first thing I thought of was how great it would be for case work. They also had a mini mill which would be great for small parts and sight work. Both would go great on a loading bench. I don't heat my shop so I was wishing I had something inside the house.
 
This might do ya

papapaul said:
I saw one of those the other day at HF. The first thing I thought of was how great it would be for case work. They also had a mini mill which would be great for small parts and sight work. Both would go great on a loading bench. I don't heat my shop so I was wishing I had something inside the house.
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It is better made than I thought it would be. So far so good !
 
Just think Pete, with that little guy, you can stay inside where it is warm. Just set it on your lap and turn away!!!

You will be amazed what can be done on a small machine like that.
 
I would not plan to use a lathe like this to single point tool case necks. To use the lathe to spin the case would do fine. The bearings, etc. in these cheap lathes will not give the accuracy needed for neck turning benchrest cases. I was looking at 7 x 10 lathes once and the manufacturers would not even talk about the kind of accuracy I was looking for.
 
....and do us and yourself a favor and keep your friggin shirt out of the thing! :)














PS...This doesn't mean that we want you to post us pictures of you operating the thing naked either. :D
 
in production, accuracy in machining was often built into the tooling, not just the machine. I.e., piloted reamers, piloted hollow mills, etc. So that you could get perfect parts from so so machinery. You could set up one of these lathes to do what you want. A pilot in the tailstock for example. The shorter the length of turn, the easier it is to get good results. Case necks are relatively short.
 
Varmit Al has a good mini lathe page with tips on improving a mini lathe as well as links to other sites.There is also a section on neck turning with the mini lathe. his address is varmital.com.

Chuck.
 
Is the Microlux machinery better quality? The lathe and mill would be good additions to my reloading room.
 
Theoretically, it should be. Metal gears vs. plastic, digital readout, 7x14 vs. 7x12 (or 7x8), handwheels calibrated to 0.050" per rev (vs. the metric conversion of something like 0.06125 or whatever it is on most other brands), etc. From what I gather it may not necessarily be made out of higher quality materials, or be put together that much better, but it has a few nice touches out of the box and comes a little bit more cleaned up than some of the other brands, which from what I hear pretty much require extensive disassembly and cleaning to get any and all shipping grease (rust preventative) and casting grit cleaned off.

The Cummings 7x12 is a good bit cheaper, and comes w/ some more tools and accessories in the box - and you can buy most of the fancy features of the 7x14 from MicroMark and bolt them onto the 7x12 (other than the lead screws), such as the 'True-Inch' handles, etc.

Six one way, half-dozen the other I guess.
 
milanuk said:
The Cummings 7x12 is a good bit cheaper, and comes w/ some more tools and accessories in the box - and you can buy most of the fancy features of the 7x14 from MicroMark and bolt them onto the 7x12 (other than the lead screws), such as the 'True-Inch' handles, etc.
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Hi Monte.

I've got a Cummins 7X12 that I make tons of things with. The Cummins seems a bit nicer than most and comes with some 'standard' features not included in other brands. But like all of these hobby sized 'minis', they need some tweaking and massaging to get the most accuracy out of them....whatever that may end up being. I've done a lot to mine and it works well for it's intended uses. I just got a package from The Little Machine Shop yesterday. ;) That said, it's nowhere near accurate enough for some operations.

But I wouldn't be without it for anything. :) -Al
 
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