Got my new lathe today, finally.

[Ace12GA]

My Busy Bee B2227L Lathe showed up today. Thats the 10"x18" gear head model.



I rushed it into my basement, and fired it up on the floor; because I had to make sure it worked. I was also really excited.


I went out, baught some lumber, and built a bench to put the darn thing on. Once the bench was built, I had to figure out how to get the thing onto the bench, its over 360lbs after all.


After a little work, got it onto the bench.


My shop.


Better shots of the lathe:



Now I can start making all the things I have been putting off for years.

[ZipSnipe]

Congrats !!! You,ll love your lathe just as much as I love mine. Please check your chuck out for accuracy as mine was out by as much .010. My only recommendation is to add 4x4 posts to your bench and maybe some 5/8 plywood on the sides , you really want it to be ridgid as possible. Other than that, enjoy!!!!

[Ron111]

Looks good,

Where do you buy the BusyBee? It look a cut above my Harbor Freight 9X20.

What's your first project?

I agree with Zipsnipe, with that hefty lathe (350lb)You most likely need to add a stick ot two to your table!!

ZipSnipe, what did you do when your chuck was off by .010? I sold my Harbor Freight after I CNC'ed it, the chuck was right on, but I probelly going to pick up another, maybe a BusyBee so it would be nice to know how to correct it being out.

Well ACE12GA, start slinging some chips, and let us know what she'll do!!!!

Ron

[Ace12GA]

Ron111, I'm in Canada and Busy Bee is Canadian, website is here: http://busybeetools.ca

The 10x18 I have is in my opinion much more robust than the 9x20's every one is selling.

As for my bench, its built pretty solid, even if it doesn't look it in those pictures. Its built with 2x6's and 2x8's, with 2x4 cross bracing. Its also bolted to the existing bench, which in turn is bolted to the house. Finally, the 2x4 frame on the floor is actually attached to the concrete floor with 4" nails hammered in with a .22 powered concrete nail gun. Its not going anywhere. It didn't even move when I put the lathe on it.

My first project is going to be really basic, I am going to make a muzzle break for a pellet rifle thats just way too light in the front. Got a nice hunk of 6061 bar stock already, probably start making it tomorrow. I already cranked some chips off with it on some crap laying around just to try it out. Works pretty good so far.

[Ron111]

But, how well is your house secured to the earth? HaHa

Sound like you did a smash up job!!! I'm checking out the web site looks good.

Thanks,

Ron

[ZipSnipe]

Well Ron I plan on chucking that chuck and purchasing a more accurate chuck but I just made little shims out of soda cans. Do check the chuck as I thought mine would be accurate until I made a pulley and it had a wobble to very slight but noticable.

[BobWarfield]

Ron, similar lathes are sold by Lathemaster in the US in 8x18 and 9x30 sizes. Harbor Freight even sells an 8x18. They are tremendous improvements over the 9x20 and 7xX lathes in terms of rigidity. They don't need the 4-bolt compound mod to function well and basically work out of the box. I really like my Lathemaster 9x30. The weight mentioned is a key part of the rigidity--they're heavy little buggers, about like the small SouthBends.

Apparently they're a copy of the Austrian Emco lathes. There are a couple of Yahoo groups dedicated to these:

http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/8x18Lathe/

http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/lathemaster/

Worth a look if you want a small lathe.

Best,

BW

[Ace12GA]

Originally Posted by BobWarfield Ron, similar lathes are sold by Lathemaster in the US in 8x18 and 9x30 sizes. Harbor Freight even sells an 8x18. They are tremendous improvements over the 9x20 and 7xX lathes in terms of rigidity. They don't need the 4-bolt compound mod to function well and basically work out of the box. I really like my Lathemaster 9x30. The weight mentioned is a key part of the rigidity--they're heavy little buggers, about like the small SouthBends.

I just looked these up for the hell of it and am surprised that my 10x18 is actually heavier than their 9x30. Its nice to see other alternatives to the 9x20's that are all over the place however. I looked at the 9x20 at busy bee, which is the same one everyone else sells; they would say its passed through better QC, but who knows.

So far I have chucked up some 3" bar stock, faced it and turned it to a nice 2.875", with a nice finish to boot. I'm impressed all to hell for something that plugs into a 110 outlet. My only beef would be that the tail stock's lock handle snapped off after one use. Am I upset? Not really, it looked like pretty cheap cast alloy steel. Besides, its a simple project now to make a new one.

[BobWarfield]

Ace you ought to post your pix over on those two Yahoo Groups. You've definitely got a variant I haven't seen before, and it looks real nice. Gear drive with the shifters is new for one thing. It is interesting that there is still no quick change gear box for threading, not that it matters if you CNC the thing.

The compound also looks different, even a little beefier still.

Nice lathe!

BW

[Ace12GA]

Bob, I don't think its a direct varient of any 9x, 8x, or 7x lathe offered by other dealers. I looked into this for a while, and found no other lathe even close to this one. Its the only gear head lathe I could find in this size for one. The castings are nothing like any other lathe in its size class. Overall its just different. I can find next to no information about this lathe on the internet. I intend to put up as detailed a site as I can about this lathe when I get the time.

Cheers.

[Geof]

It is a Craftex which is Busy Bee's own design. They used to be made in Taiwan but I do not know if that is still the case. Most of the Busy Bee stuff is high end for hobby work and much of it is suitable to outfit a small manual shop.

[trubleshtr]

Nice lathe, I've been looking at that one for awhile,was about to pull the trigger on it, when my neighbours dad offered up a really old belt driven metal lathe, needs a lot of work, but price was right I'll post a pic so you can all laugh at the mess I got myself into.

I have Busybee's bench top milling machine, and I am quite impressed with the quality of that too, incase anyone is wonderig about other items busybee sells.