Re: Chinese Lathes.

Chris,

Nice post.

I sure wish I could figure out how the Asian MFRs decide which tool
to "copy". It seems that they do a good job of copying the faults,
and that often, the machine chosen as a "master", is not the better
design. The 9x20 class of lathes is a good example. The compound
slide design is flawed on the original "compact 8" made by emco-
maier. This bad design is carried over to the "new" lathe. Wish
they'd copied the south bend line!

Other times the design is ok, but depends on a "better" material,
or "better" assembly/fitting to work well. In some of these cases
there is little to be done but accept the lower quality. A point of
example would be the "kurt" copy mill vises.(sold by enco and others
for about a hunerd bucks) The design of the Kurt is great, but the
poor materials/finish used in the copies results in a poor vise, tho
still quite usable IF one accepts the difference...

Ballendo

P.S. I LIKE twin "pins" on the compound! And some VERY expensive
lathes have 'em...

> The situation here seems to be multifaceted.
>
> One facet is that, there is an eager hobbyist market for functional
> machines at prices which make it hard to produce anything of real
> quality.
>
> Another, which the above quote comes closer to in my mind, is the
> kind of shoddy design, implementation, and workmanship that shows
> up in even higher priced machines.
>
> For example, a lab at MIT recently bought a bunch of shiny new top

of

> the line and doubltess pricey versions of the same basic 13x40
> gearhead lathe that is available everywhere at any price/quality

level

> you could choose. Or so it looks in the marketing literature. The
> power feed lever of one of these machines fell off in my hand! It

was

> held on with two sorry looking set screws, fixed in place by jam

nuts,

> bearing in little divots cut on either side of another piece. Get
> real! This is the kind of thing one expects on a $1995 hobbyist
> machine - but it's no better on the pricey one because the basic
> design is flawed. You see it in other things, too - little
> handwheels, dual crank pins on the compound so you can't really turn
> it, etc...
>
> So I guess we have to accept that they don't make them like they

used

> to. Now what? Will our grandchildren rescrape our South Bends?

Will

> the developing world learn to make well thouht out machinery? Will
> we continue to buy and improove the current lathe kits?
>
> Probably all of the above...
>
> Chris
>
> --
> Christopher C. Stratton, stratton@m...
> Instrument Maker, Horn Player & Engineer
> 22 Adrian Street, Somerville, MA 02143
> http://www.mdc.net/~stratton
> NEW PHONE NUMBER: (617) 628-1062 home, 253-2606 MIT