Originally Posted by
sansbury
The Duality lathe is nothing but a 7x lathe, variants of which start around $450 on sale at Horror Fright. The $450 version is better than it should be, but whatever Tormach adds that raises the price by $1000 doesn't change the guts. A careful user can turn out very precise work but not without patience or effort. I've turned 3" cast iron and 1.5" O-6 tool steel on my 7x with success, but neither was fun or fast. Last year I bought one of the ubiquitous Grizzly 10x22 lathes, and it's almost comical how much more effortlessly that moves metal. My real regret though was chickening out and getting the 10x when I had the room and money for one of the 12x36 lathes, which add a speed-change gearbox, QCGB for threading, power cross-feed, and bore to handle a collet closer. Add a DRO and you have a machine that can efficiently do any kind of work that fits on it. Or if you feel like shopping, $2-3k will get you into a lot of decent used older US-made lathes, though I understand there's fewer of those out West than we get up here in New England.