Re: small hobby lathe

Dave,

I bought one of these 7 X 10's a few months back with the same
thought in mind. I haven't done anything with it yet so far except
use it manually.

The first thing I did do with it though, was to take it to the shop
and put it on the surface table and run a surface gage over it.
These little lathes are being spit out faster than the castings can
age and you will probably find despite all the ground surfaces, that
it's not to the specs you would hope. The top half of my cross slide
has a twist in it of about .015". The bottom has a twist of
almost .010. It will almost certainly have to be reground in the
future before I convert it and I'm even thinking about making a new
top slide with T-slots all together.

One of these would be great for making small pins and such in large
quantities once coverted. And please do check out the site
recomended previously. The guy did a dandy little job of converting
his.

The only catch is the threading issue which only seems to be offered
by two companies. Microknetics and Ah-Hah (I think I have the
spelling right on the names but don't hold me to it). And you will
pay big bucks for it.

So for now I'm letting it age in my shop and using it now and then
for making the small items I need manually. Maybe someone down the
line will solve the threading issue in a way that will make it more
affordable. There has been a lot of discussion here about that very
issue.

In the mean time I would suggest you tool up and get a feel for what
this little machine can and can't do. I've found it to be a very
usfull little machine.

Donald Brock
Baton Rouge, LA

Although

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@y..., davemucha@j... wrote:
> Hi,
> Has anyone retrofitted a harbor freight hobby lathe?
> I'm waiting on this $400 toy, er, tool, and plan on
> setting it up for CNC.
>
> If anyone has some advice, warnings or hints, I'd
> really appreciate them.
>
> Dave