1. First, describe the lathe you reviewed. Discuss it’s capabilities, set up, and cost.
The metal lathe I chose to review this week is the Eastwood Benchtop Mini Metal Lathe - 7 Inch x 12 Inch. As it mentions, this is a benchtop lathe capable of cutting different metals and has a 7inch x 12inch working area. This unit cost about $1,018.99 and has many features and some amazing reviews. To start it is a manageable size to fit most home workshops. It also comes with both inside and outside 3 jaw chuck sets and a few HSS cutting tools. Setup is also quite easy compared to full size metal lathes. Just find a lever surface and mount your base, clean and oil the working parts, check calibration and off you go. Finally, it has an Auto-feed and selectable gear train component used for precision cutting and threading work and its 3/4HP motor plugs it into a 120-volt power current avoiding the need to rewire the outlet of your work space.
2. Based on the types of jobs you would perform with it, do you see a “mini-lathe” as a good investment, or would you rather “farm out” machine work to a dedicated shop? Why?
Now this will be hard for me to say because I hate asking others for help and if possible, I would always rather do the work myself but I think I would probable go the route of “farming out” the machine work with a dedicated machine shop. Its not that I don’t want to spend the money because this is pretty cheap considering its capabilities and its not like I don’t want to learn the machine because I already have a working knowledge of the lathe. I do see purchasing a lathe for your shop as a good investment but for me what it boils down to is usable space and the frequency at which I would end up using this machine. Because I don’t own a space with a ton of counter space and taking into consideration that this machine should be mounted in place for operation, I don’t think I can sacrifice that amount of space for a machine I don’t think I would need very often.
Resources
Eastwood benchtop mini metal lathe - 7 inch x 12 inch.. Retrieved March 15, 2023, from https://www.eastwood.com/eastwood-mini-lathe.html?gclid=Cj0KCQjw2cWgBhDYARIsALggUho1LPL8STq_w2eBHKfCkKRE1rmnzn-egTqXXE3M0FC-YeusUnhbFzgaAqerEALw_wcB&wcid=18669317250&wickedid=629883587211&wickedsource=google&wv=4
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