Harbor Freight 7x10 mini lathe made in good 'ol China! Lets just say this first: In no way is this lathe usable out of the crate! It's kind of a rebuild project but once you're done, you have a very capable and accurate little worker for not too much money. It came about 3 weeks ago in a banged up wood bottomed box. The thin metal chip pan for underneath and the back shield were really bent up and destroyed during ship but I didn't really want them anyway. Everything was covered with thick pink grease! But the good points are more numerous than the bad. It's got a flat, ground cast iron bed with decent mass and a very solid head and tailstock. I made several mods and fixes which included flattening and polishing the gibs, a larger 4" 3 jaw chuck, better handles and wheels, and the use of 10mil ptfe pads to cover the iron saddle braces beneath the bed; iron on iron was binding and galling. Bad materials selection? But in the most important areas for a small lathe, everything's well in place and completely serviceable. Weight with the 4" chuck is about 100 lbs.

William

I got this lathe to make some small tooling for ...what else... horological adventures!

After I got things snugged up, I was able to easily turn and face a piece of .75" case hardened rod using a brazed carbide bit with no howling and chatter as before. The 3-in-one smoked a little though!

I have to go clean up the kitchen now.

William

Just been check HF site you get a lot of lathe for the money, great buy.
We just got a store in town going broke slowly didn't realize how much stuff I needed

William, Way to go. I sent the Lorch back as I did not need all of the goodies and it was basically an 8mm unit anyway. Good luck on learning it and getting used to it's peculiar aspects. I've been looking at them too but shied from the China thing.
Is it a little large to do staffs or do you think it will handle the smaller material too?

Hi Patrick,

It won't do fine watchwork, I still have my beater Boley that works well for the small stuff.

The reality of these mail order H.F. lathes is this: When you pull the heavy, greasy metal mass from the box, what you have is essentially a kit with all (most) of the necessary parts you'll need to make your own lathe. But despite their ugliness, these small 7x10, 7x12, 7x14 Chinese made lathes are popular here and have a strong following with lots of 3rd party support and upgrades. http://www.littlemachineshop.com/

Ultimately, very good/fine work can be acheived with these heavy mini lathes.

William

Hi William-
There's also a LOT of material in the British magazine "Model Engineer's Workshop" on this lathe and the companion vertical mill.
Dave Fenner has compiled some of the articles in a couple of books, both with "Mini-Lathe" in the titles.
Regards,
Bob

Now that I think about it, Why didn't you just get a Canadian Lathe?

Patrick,

The Canadian lathe is my dream rig but unfortunately we don't have room in our small apartment. ...Maybe someday though ...if the planets align!

William