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What's your pick for lathe size if you could only own one?

IF I could only own one lathe, I'd lean heavily towards the TAC-360 a manual/cnc lathe from Takisawa Machine Tool. They make their products in Taiwan.

14x30

I think this is sort of like the Stan Canada smart lathe...
 
I'd probably go 14x40 or something around that size, 5hp, could take a serious cut but not so big that you couldn't move the thing without a heavy lift forklift.
 
15X60. The perfect one would be a TOS (6000lbs) but 3000lbs+is adequate. Approx 3000lb 14X40 would be fine also.
 
The biggest your wallet, space and wife will allow. It depends so much on what you want to do. I started with a 9 inch South Bend and moved up to a 14X40. It's about right for what I do and could afford. Wish I could have kept the South Bend and had two.
 
I think a Standard Modern 13x34 is a pretty good size. If I could be sure I wouldn't be moving much, a 16x40 Mori Seiki would be sweet though...
 
TorontoBuilder said:
I swear at the time I thought this is the most boring effing job on earth.
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Possibly it is. I work on a wide variety of part sizes and for me the fun is solving the puzzle and the sense of accomplishment when there is success. The bit in middle, making chips, can be quite tedious when the part is larger. I see photos of giant lathes taking cuts that span shifts and am glad that's not me. In that sense smaller work is I would say a lot more enjoyable.

As for one lathe? Can't be done. My largest is a 5100# DSG 13x42 and the a smallest 6mm Lorch watchmakers lathe and a lot in between. I could pare it down, but there are limits. I would not want to turn a balance staff on a 5100 lb 7.5 hp lathe, difficult if not impossible and very dangerous.

The relevant question then would be if you could only have one lathe what capabilities would you give up
 
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ducdon said:
The biggest your wallet, space and wife will allow. It depends so much on what you want to do. I started with a 9 inch South Bend and moved up to a 14X40. It's about right for what I do and could afford. Wish I could have kept the South Bend and had two.
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Biggest? I'm not sure about that, there's ones that are 20 feet long and the chuck ways more than your 14x40...would be a bit impractical to turn 1/4" round parts on lol
 
SomeGuy said:
Biggest? I'm not sure about that, there's ones that are 20 feet long and the chuck ways more than your 14x40...would be a bit impractical to turn 1/4" round parts on lol
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Ha ha. Well maybe a bit exaggerated. I did work in a shop that had a 20 inch by about 12 feet. It was possible to do pretty fine work with it. The real feature that made it sweet to use was the large hole through the headstock ( about 5 inches). I don't think in the 2 plus years I was there I ever needed to set up a steady rest.
 
Mcgyver said:
Possibly it is. I work on a wide variety of part sizes and for me the fun is solving the puzzle and the sense of accomplishment when there is success. The bit in middle, making chips, can be quite tedious when the part is larger. I see photos of giant lathes taking cuts that span shifts and am glad that's not me. In that sense smaller work is I would say a lot more enjoyable.
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I am with you on that I love the figuring out, taking the idea and making it real and then for a challenge throw in time, space and money restrictions or repurpose something to solve a problem for you, this brings me lots of personal satisfaction. Sometimes its so funny to think back to the original ideas you had for something and how different the final result is or how the parts you thought would be easy were hard or vise versa. I agree there is a certain point after everything is setup on the lathe and you tweak things and get it running good and things get repetitive the mind wants that next challenge and its tough to focus.
My dream lathe is out there somewhere, its dirty its neglected it needs some work, something small and old and cheap that I can do a rebuild on maybe a south bend or a myford, build that man-machine bond when you know every bolt, gear every assembly in detail all its good and bad points.
 
TorontoBuilder said:
IF I could only own one lathe, I'd lean heavily towards the TAC-360 a manual/cnc lathe from Takisawa Machine Tool. They make their products in Taiwan.
Click to expand...

If you are going down that route, you might want to consider a made in Germany Weiler or a Knuth.

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One lathe to rule them all? Hardinge HLV-H-EM would probably do 99% of whatever I ever plan to make/repair and leave me with a smile on my face while doing it.

I know enough people with bigger lathes that I could beg/borrow some time on if I ever needed.
 
Hmmm 1 lathe only. I must dig in my heels on this, like potato chips, 1 is never enough. Now 2 i can live with. As for size, that will be another disagreement.
 
6.5 Fan said:
Hmmm 1 lathe only. I must dig in my heels on this, like potato chips, 1 is never enough. Now 2 i can live with. As for size, that will be another disagreement.
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lemme rephrase...

IF someone offered to sell you a new lathe from Taiwan, at the direct from manufacturer bulk purchase cost plus only the portion of the shipping costs for full container load based on the percentage of the weight, what lathe size would you go for?

I'm not saying that is the case though... I'm merely trying to assess the most desirable lathe from a serious metal worker's point of view before I get too far into discussions with Taiwanese manufacturers.

If manufacturers don't care about selling multiples of a single product and will discount based solely on the total dollar value of the sale I'd merely fill the excess space above what I want to import just for me with 8x16, 10x22 and 12x28 lathes and sell to newbies.
 
I'm for at least one very large (heavy, rigid, whatever you like to call it) lathe. It is possible, and even fun to do small work on them, but most of my work is with rather heavier pieces than most.
 
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