G'day,

I'm hoping some experienced people can help me make a choice!

I'm going to be buying a small lathe (7x10,12,14?) to do the usual CNC conversion on, however during my research I see these all have motors rated (slightly) differently from thedifferent sellers. Some state around 250watts, some work out to be about 400watts, however I have also come across some info (supposedly from the Seig factory), that says they are all 250watts, but they will put on whatever rating sticker the seller wants:mad:

I have a micro lathe at the moment with only 150watts, so even a 250 watt machine is going to be more powerful for me (I only machine aluminium anyway), but I would hate to fork out the extra cash for a machine that says it runs a 400 watt motor when it is infact only a 250!

Has anyone had any first hand experience with this range of machines, and if so noticed any difference between motor ratings?

Thanks in advance.

Colin

Hi,

I have a minilathe, a CH-350. It comes with a 500w motor and a decent speed control. I machined aluminium and steel with it. Nothing heavy but it was ok.
http://www.mini-lathe.com/Mini_lathe/Versions/LatheAluBed.jpg

Now I'm using the same motor and speedcontrol on my homemade cncmill.
I have to say that it's stronger then the 300watt proxxon spindle i used first.

Jeroen.

Jeroen,

Thanks for the pic and detail - it's very similar in shape to the exact one I'm looking at over here in OZ - different brand of course but same left hand box layout etc.. Do you know actually know that the lathe has/had a 500watt motor, or is that the sales pitch from the supplier? I would have thought witht the right feeds and speed a 500watt motor would chew through alloy without too many hassles (unless the diameter was large)?

You also say you are using the same motor on the mill, did you replace the lathe motor or get another?

Thanks again for the reply.

Colin

Hello Colin, the label says 500 Watt wich I think is the output power.
The label also says 180 VDC and 4 Amps wich would mean it takes 720 Wats of power. The speed control only gives around 150 VDC output tough so I don't get the full speed but that's ok (for now).

This is the machine wich uses the motor now.
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23180

I use two old servomotors to drive my lathe now but that's only temporary.
I'm in the proces in converting my lathe to cnc. I'm still in the designing/collecting phase. I'll open a new thread when I start the conversion.

I don't know if you now this site but it has great info on all types of mini-lathes.
http://www.mini-lathe.com/

Regards