advice on buying lathe

[dragons_fire]

i have been looking for a minilathe for a while now, and have finally decided to buy one. The two i have been looking at are the busybee 7x8 for $699cdn or the house of tools 7x12 for $895cdn.

http://www.houseoftools.com/product.htm?pid=18461 http://busybeetools.ca/cgi-bin/pictu...&NTITEM=B1979C

i would like the bigger one, but house of tools has not been very customer friendly. at first, they told me that they ordered one for me from another store, and they would give it to me for $799, and it would be here boxing day. Now today, (the 27th) they tell me that it hasnt been ordered yet, and the price is $895. also, the only one they can get is a display model from another store and it may not be here any time soon, they could not give me a date.

i have a little lathe knowledge, and would like to use it mostly for small hobby stuff, and a little for auto stuff. I also prefer to work in metric, which is why i want to go with the house of tools lathe, because it has the digital read outs.

i would like to get it locally (in calgary) and fairly soon. so if anyone has any suggestions, it would be greatly appreciated.

thanks;
Danny

[LUCKY13]

If I was going to spend that much I would get the 10x14. There has been a lot of good words about this lathe & the Busy Bee in this size has had good results. Mind you I am ver new to this stuff and this is just info that I have spent a lot of time ready on. DO a search for Busy Bee 10x14 and you will find a lot of info on it.


http://busybeetools.ca/cgi-bin/pictu...&NTITEM=B2227L

Jess

[BCwanderer]

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=44859
8" x 12" PRECISION MINI LATHE
439.99USD
With shipping it comes to about $610 Canadian
Here is a review comparing the 7inch - 8inch and 9 inch lathes
http://www.annisquamgranite.com/8x12ReviewPg1.htm
Harbor Freight will not ship to Canada but you can have it shipped to the closest freight depot to the border.
Then you can either pick it up or have the freight company forward it to you.
Or send it to a US friends house.

It is a much heavier lathe and is well spoken of by those who have it.

Here is the description from the Harbor freight site

Perfect for turning, counter facing, making bushings, spindles, prototypes and models. Ideal for use in R & D labs, workshops, engineering and educational settings. Heavy duty cast iron bed ways are stressed released to ensure shape, integrity and rigidity.
4'', 3-jaw chuck with 3 reversible jaws
Two dead centers—MT #2 and MT #3
Open-end wrenches
Round nut wrench
Tool post wrench
Hex wrenches
Two drive belts
Motor: 3/4 HP, 110V, 8 amps; Spindle speeds: 125, 420, 620, 1000 and 2000 RPM; SAE threads: 18 threads from 12 to 52 TPI ; Metric threads: 12 threads from 0.4 to 3.0 mm; Distance between centers: 12''; Cross slide travel: 4-1/2''; Tool slide travel: 2-3/4''; Swing over bed: 8"; Spindle bore: 3/4"; Spindle taper: MT #3 ; Tailstock taper: MT #2; Shipping weight 260 lbs; Splash guard sold separately

[dragons_fire]

thanks guys, i will probably end up going wiht the busy bee 10x18 because of the price and all the good stuff i have heard about it. its a little bigger than i want, but im sure it wont hold me back as much when i do move to bigger stuff.

in high school and post secondary, i have only used metric lathes, so i feel a lot more comfortable using metric. i havent seen the 10x18, so im not sure whether its metric or imperial. house of tools has not been nice to me, so i will probably go somewhere else, but i would still like the dro and the micromark dro's arent that cheap.

thanks again for the suggestions.