Harbor Freight Mini Lathes On Sale!!!

Hey there Gang!...

Thought I'd pass this on....

'been watching the Harbor Freight 33684-3VGA Mini Metal Lathe for about a year now. They have just gone on sale for $329.99 (list is $399.99).This is as low as I've seem them priced!

So I printed out the page from their web site and zipped down to the Denver store and picked one up. Their policy is to match the mail-order prices. But, you have to print it out and take it to 'em.

Cool thing is that the stores get truck shipments direct from the home corp on the West Coast. Much less bashing than having UPS beat 'em to pieces.

Bummer thing is that they don't stock the bits for them in the stores, but, I'll hit my local Grainger's on Monday and pick up some nice high zoot sharp edged goodies.

I'd be interested in anyone elses experiences with these machines.

For the bucks it should be a very nice serviceable tool for venturies and small aluminum parts.

Time to work up a shut off for my new Cyclon 1/2 A combat setup.

Cosmoline(sp??) and Nitro Fumes!....Hib

LittleMachineShop specializes in parts and accessories for the Mini lathes and mills from Harbor/Grizzly/MicroMark etc. Looking at the parts list gives you a hint at what might go wrong with your new toy. My Grizzly mini mill had lead screws that were 1/16 per turn and calibrated in .001". LMS had replacement parts to convert it to .050/turn. They also have tooling specifically for your machine. Try finding cut off blades/holders in an Enco/Rutland/J&L catalog! A phone call to LMS will also find someone familiar with your lathe.

(http://littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=1844)

-Norm

>LittleMachineShop specializes in parts and accessories for
>the Mini lathes and mills from Harbor/Grizzly/MicroMark etc.
>Looking at the parts list gives you a hint at what might go
>wrong with your new toy. My Grizzly mini mill had lead
>screws that were 1/16 per turn and calibrated in .001". LMS
>had replacement parts to convert it to .050/turn. They also
>have tooling specifically for your machine. Try finding cut
>off blades/holders in an Enco/Rutland/J&L catalog! A phone
>call to LMS will also find someone familiar with your lathe.
>
>(http://littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=1844)
>
>-Norm

Thanks for the info, Norm. I bought the little 7 x 12 Grizzly, and find it to be alright. I mostly make venturis from aluminum or Delrin, or do spinner/prop driver projects. The 10" BTC length of the HF unit kept me away from it, and I might have gone for the Micro Mark
if I'd known about it. Buying stubby "screw machine drills" would solve most of the issues, however. I do use a live center quite a bit, and finding a smaller drill chuck and matching arbor for the tailstock has been a problem. A 3/8" Jacobs chuck would be perfect, but I've only been able to find a 1/2" chuck with the correct arbor.

I had problems with both Enco and Rutland, back when I was contract machining, and would not recommend them as a result. I went to Enco and paid with a check, but they would always send me a bill. I called, the guy said to throw it away. Finally, I started getting calls from Chicago home office, and they wanted to know if I wanted to pay the latest bill. "No!" It finally turned out that they were billing me for the next guy that came to the cashier, and he had also paid for his purchases. I phone ordered some stuff from Rutland, on my charge card, and they sent multiples on one item, from three different warehouses, and then expected me to pay for all of them, when I only ordered one. I offered to return the excess if they'd pay the shipping, and did so. I don't like to deal with companies that are that screwed up. Never had an issue with J&L, but I'd only been there a few times, and suddenly, they were gone, as in out of the Seattle area, completely. Enco also. My advise is to pay cash, no checks, and never let them get your address! Steve

the littlemachineshop website has a downloadable pdf file for newbies, kind of a get acquainted with your lathe thing. I'm just pointing it out because it might not jump out at you. I've been contemplating getting one of these for a while, but don't know anything about machining, so I'm reading it ahead of time.

I have heard some of the chinese lathes on the market are not that accurate. Whats yours like? I have noticed some of H.F.'s products are very roughly finished. i have one of their small drill presses and it wont hold a 1/8" drill parallel, the chuck it bad, but others have good results from the same model drill press. I guess you get what you pay for.

HIb,

I bought one of these and the Mini mill last winter( I paid $299.00 at that time). I am very pleased with both although the mill is a bit less developed that the lathe. I just finish building the third engine I've done with these particular machines. I've found the lathe to be very accurate but there is some error in the screws as I'm sure they're metric (.04 per rev) with the thimbles graduated in 1000ths. Not a big deal unless you make long moves and the error accumulates as you go. The mill on the other hand seems to have english screws (.05 per rev).

Shortcomings are the short bed making it necessary to rmove the tailstock for everything but drilling and center work, its always in the way. Small Machine Shop have 14" beds for this machine and I think mine is going to get one so I can leave the TS on and just slide it out of the way like a normal lathe. It is quite stiff (structurally) and I have done considerable steel work on it making cyliners liners and crankshafts. I've also done a fair amount of thread cutting with it and it does a nice job with the exception being that the lowest backgear spindle speed is still too fast in most cases, I have stopped the motor and rolled the spindle by hand to cut some internal threads. The graduations on the compound rest are in 2 degree increments so setup is a bit touchy. I set it up at 29 1/2 degrees with a good protractor and scribed the angle along side the compound so I can always get it easily. The graduations are also not too consistant being spaced porly and the lines themselves are different widths. If you do any matching tapers (male/female) make sure you do then both before you move the rest because there is zero repeatability it that respect.

It has no way wipers so make sure you clean it often. Don't know how experienced you are so I'll explain. When finished wipe the ways down and run the saddle to one end. Oil the exposed areas of the ways liberally and run the saddle to the opposite end. Wipe and oil and repeat this several times until the oil is clean after the saddle has passed over it. It really doesn't take long 2 or 3 repetitions then just leave it oily. Same treatment for the cross and compound feeds but they're harder to get too.

The gibbs and ways seem to be running in quickly and I've had to adjust them 3 times already. The machine is starting to get that nice smooth feeling now and I expect the adjustments will slow down. I also noticed (and don't like) the way the thimbles are attached to the screws. I had to fiddle with mine a bit before I could hold the crank stationary and zero out the thimble. Not a big deal, but one of the peeves I have. I'm spoiled though, I never had to work with bargain equipment before.

For the hobbiest these little machines are great and accurate enough to build engines on if you take a little extra time to setup and measure frequently.

Hope at least some of this is helpful.

I wish the mini lathes were geared lower. It didn't take me long to realize that high gear was pretty useless, and this for Delrin venturis and small aluminum pieces. I wish the cross feed was calibrated to the diameter, not how much you're taking off the radius. I keep a calculator on the B&D Workmate, right in front of the lathe. Don't forget, that after buying the lathe, you need some tools to use it. I use a 1" dial indicator on a Mag-Back, a live center, a 1" mike, a set of small hole gauges, drill set, a few center drills, drill chuck, etc. I haven't bought the 4 jaw chuck, and probably won't. I don't mind dialing in parts in a 4-jaw, and if I'd been given a choice, I probably would take a 4 jaw instead of the 3 jaw. I have done one prop driver/spinner backplate that had to be press-fitted, and it went ok, first shot. Measuring accurately enough was more of an issue than the machining...strictly low tech. Steve

Steve,

Your post reminded me of a couple other things. I made a mic stop for mine and there is no carriage lock, I also made one of those.

Another shortcoming was discovered last night. I was setting up to cut an 8-56 thread for a diesel compression screw. I got the gears out and put ti all together to find that the gear centers won't allow this ratio. the gears are too far apart. There are no provisions for an idler so I'm going to have to make a bracket and bushing so I can make the setup. I had everything else ready, BAH! My guess is they did enough design work to cover the common features and only the math on the more obscure. Thats one thing about bargain equipment, you don't have the truely universal like an old Logan or Lodge and Shipley, or all the other old American and British screw cutting lathes.

I don't mind the direct reading thimbles, I've found I can split a graduation up pretty accurately. I've only ever used one direct reading machine and found about every 3rd pass I was only removing 1/2 of what my mind said I was. Just habit and I guess I could overcome it but doesn't bother me.

I think I'm going to look into getting the drive ratio lowered too while I'm at it, my old eyes aren't good enough to do a good thread runoff at the speeds this thing goes.

These things shouldn't necessarily discourage anyone from buying one of these, just be sure it will do what you want it to unless you want to design and make mods yourself to get there.

I don't know if they will condescend to sell it to you guys in USA
but there is a lathe we can buy here in Australia......
I know no more than you can see here... http://www.clisby.com.au/LatheMetal.html

Looks good to me

Interesting. The 12 volt motor is a surprise. I would choose something other than 6061T6 aluminum for the lathe itself. Cast iron is good. While they call this "Aircraft Aluminum", I have made a lot of real aircraft parts, and never seen 6061 used for anything on an aircraft except items like door knobs, galley parts and stair railings. It's really a common inexpensive commercial grade. Also, there's no power feed screw for threading or normal turning. It appears that the motor is mounted externally, which could be a bonus, if you wanted to re-power with 110 or 220vac. Steve

Never seen this lathe in person but have recommended it for a cheap way to make venturies. It's not something you would want to machine steel with but for Delrin venturies and at $169.00 I don't think it can be beat.

OK, just a little more of my stupidity. But since I know NOTHING about machining, I'm looking at this Fonly lathe thing as a viable/inexpensive way to start learning. The info says it can be used for brass aluminum and "mild" steal in small diameters. I don't know about all of that, but it would probably work on delrin, plastic, wood, and probably brass and aluminum in small diameters.

I have some different ideas, probably a half in. drill motor instead of what they use, slower turning, and more torque, or maybe even a belt drive setup to some other motor.

Do a google search for Fonly lathe, as in (if only I had a lathe). Pretty good looking. If I find it useful, then maybe I'll fork for something "real".