[TimD]

I have heard many good things about Sharps VMCs. Does anyone have any experience with their lathes?

Tim

[Mickey_D]

I looked at one about six months ago. Fit and finish seemed on par with the machining centers. The dealer said that they had sold a couple and after installation they did not hear anything back from the customers, so he thought they must be working ok. He was happy with no griping and warranty service calls. Not sure if you can get live tooling or any real options, I emailed sharp and never got a response. Unless you have a good dealer local, I would just call sharp in CA.

[TKBuisan]

If you decide to buy, make sure that they have the ITEM on hand. 90+ days waiting and I got smart and quit Sharp.

[Rohan2008]

I have experience with their manual lathe 1640L... I had my hands on it at Laney college here in Oakland. Its a pretty AWSOME lathe and I really enjoyed working on it. It is dear to the machining dept head. If I were to buy a manual lathe, Sharp is definitely the one I would go for. Also, the instructor tells me that the Variable frequency drive spindles from Sharp, especially the one on their mill, doesn't provide a good torque in low to mid speeds. You might want to check it out if you were to go with the variable frequency drive version of the lathe.

[underthetire]

What lathe? the Hardinge tool room lathe knock off, yes. They are good. We also have 2 mills with the VFD, havn't had any complaints about torque. Acra came recommended to us as well.