Looking for a mini lathe

[Naporter]

The harbor freight models aren't bad, but be prepared to upgrade if you want precision. Little Machine Shop has all the parts (as well as some better versions of the same machines) to upgrade. The chuck that came on my 7x12 HF lathe was off bad. Runout measured 4" away on a new piece of barstock was 0.03, and I had to put the jaws in in the wrong order to get that. Everything else seems fine on it. I've got a new chuck from LMS coming next week along with some other goodies like a boring head.

The one issue with the HF model is it can't do metric threads. I 3D printed a 63 tooth gear to fix that though (all the gears are plastic). Even with the bad chuck, it did 18x1mm threads (Scorpion Evo) just fine.

[Overton-AR]

So I bought (traded for) an early 90's Smithy lathe a little over 2 years ago. I used it like crazy and it was a great $600 investment. It taught me a lot. In December I decided to upgrade to a lathe which would be more precise and gave me more options. I sold the Smithy for $1K and ordered the Grizzly G0776 w/DRO. I am so happy with it. Whoever said to buy the best one you can afford was right. On my old lathe I was just making baffles and turning down round material for suppressor spacers and such. It was a bunch of fun.....but this is a whole new world. I am now threading barrels and much more. Below is my lathe and the first 2 barrels I have done. I practiced threading on shop scraps a few times, but this lathe makes things much easier.

[golfindia]

That is Mac-Daddy!!

Congrats and let the chips fly.

So I bought (traded for) an early 90's Smithy lathe a little over 2 years ago. I used it like crazy and it was a great $600 investment. It taught me a lot. In December I decided to upgrade to a lathe which would be more precise and gave me more options. I sold the Smithy for $1K and ordered the Grizzly G0776 w/DRO. I am so happy with it. Whoever said to buy the best one you can afford was right. On my old lathe I was just making baffles and turning down round material for suppressor spacers and such. It was a bunch of fun.....but this is a whole new world. I am now threading barrels and much more. Below is my lathe and the first 2 barrels I have done. I practiced threading on shop scraps a few times, but this lathe makes things much easier.