We have been having these parts: www.barelylegalfabrication.com/unijointpage.htm machined for us. I want to beable to make these in house now, what type lathe do you recomend? we checked out the harbor freight lathes but i am not sure if those lathes will do what we need. What would you guys recomend? Can this type of part be made with a $3000.00 lathe? We where looking for like a 12x36 or 13x40 with a 1.25 or 1.5 hole though.

Thanks
Richie

Harbor Freight is impressive to the eye only! Their machines have been cheapened in all the areas you can not see!

I would recommend a more professional brand lathe, preferably a new one! Otherwise you will be dealing with a machine that was abused and neglected for every project you do!

Go to MSC (http://www1.mscdirect.com/), KBC (http://www.kbctools.com/usa/main.cfm), Enco (http://www.use-enco.com/), and look at some of the lathe packages they offer. The price will exceed $3000, but you will get a more reliable and accurate machine!

At KBC tools, you can barter a good price if you get more than one machine with accessories, and they have excellent tech support!

MSC also owns Enco, but Enco is the cheaper grade slightly better than Harbor Freight in quality.

thats what we where worried about, you dont know whats inside the machine, but we also have had guys tell us they work fine. We looked at a Jet lathe too and opion on that company?


Thanks
Richie

I would have to say it is in what you are wanting to spend and is this the only part the lathe will be doing and how many

My thought is that if you expect to do this manually you will have a hard time with profitability. This looks like the ideal thing for a CNC machine, at least part of it anyways. I can't really see how you could compete with a CNC shop mass producing these. Even small runs with large setup costs.

Then again I don't really know what your lot sizes are. If these are one offs you still might be advantaged by a CNC machine. Maybe a hybrid machine like HAAS CNC toolroom machine.

In any event I agree with some of the above posters in that you will need a better machine than Harbor Freight offers. The issue is that unless you find a good used machine deal, that ups your cost significantly. At that point you should be thinking CNC. If that is you can apply it to enough work, with respect to your products, to allow the machine to earn its keep. Otherwise you need to consider going with job shops for a bit longer. You really don't want an idle machine sitting around.

dave