Thinking of a lathe - would this suit a beginner?

Before you choose a lathe, you should have a good idea what you want to do with it. It is better to know what you want to make and then choose a lathe that will cope with those tasks, than to buy a lathe because you like the idea of having one and then discover that it will not do the jobs you are wanting to achieve, or be limited by what it is capable of.
 
Axminster warrington was a great place to go see and handle before you buy.
sorry to see it go, not many places like that left.
Now I suppose its back to online and hoping what you see is what you get.
 
RTFirefly said:
I've had a myford ML7 for years very old but made to last, would recommend all day long
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Mine didnt last very long, made 6 airguns and needed 7 full on rebuilds in 6 years. Luckily we owned a precision engineers who did the beds and slides. Plus it ran 3 times normal speed on the tin bearings, still very slow to do simple stuff like 5 hours against an old Harrison 140 could do the same in 10 mins, no joke. Then your limited to the bore through headstock and using short lengths, that got the better of me and rammed a 16mm masonry drill down became a little more usable than scrap.
 
Had a Petal lathe, just the lathe, no motor, used a washing machine motor.
It's basically a toy, the cross slide winding handle kept stripping it's teeth, only good for small cuts, anything more, and the splined teeth easy break off, then you have to get a new Cross slide handle .

Cutting tools are tiny, and need shim packing .
If your just turning non ferrous metals, ie brass, copper, with half millimetre cuts its fine, but steel, you struggle, or hard aluminium .

Pay a bit more, and get something better, with the petal you will loose interest fast .
 
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