[Tall Man]

There are different types of lathes out there:

engine lathes
big bore lathes
toolroom lathes

What are the main differences?

[underthetire]

Capacity, Capacity, accuracy...
And there are a whole lot of other types of lathes than those three.

[Tall Man]

What makes a lathe engine lathe?
What makes a lathe toolroom lathe?

[RICHARD ZASTROW]

An engine lathe is the typical turning in a chuck or between centers, facing, boring, threading type of lathe. They may be as small as a bench top or mamoth sized machines.

A big bore lathe is an engine lathe designed to "swallow" larger diameter parts thru an oversized spindle bore. Some of these are referred to as oilfield lathes.

A tool room lathe is an extremely rigid and accurate engine lathe. They get their name because they are typically used in a toolroom to make tooling components and other workpieces requiring very close tolerances. An example would be a Monarch 10EE. Tool room lathes are small capacity machines. The 10EE is 10" swing X 20" between centers.

Dick Z

[underthetire]

I love the EE! What a little gem those things are. You can still buy them new, for a measly 110k!

[wizard]

I love the EE! What a little gem those things are. You can still buy them new, for a measly 110k!

Are they really $110k now?

It is too bad Hardinge doesn't make HLVs anymore (at least I haven't seen them listed). Of course there are plenty of HLV knock off out there.

In any event size isn't everything, my little 9x20 supposedly has similar capacity to either the HLV or the double E. Numbers don't tell the whole story here though, even with my best tinkering that 9x20 will never match those machines capability wise.

[RICHARD ZASTROW]

You can buy used 10EE's for a lot less than 110K, closer to 7-10K. Just make sure they have the newest drive system, the old ones aren't made or serviced anymore. The 60's and newer have the current system, but many have been updated.

Dick Z

[underthetire]

There are 3 types of drives I know of, the original vacuum tube, the "solid state" and the later vfd drives. If you can find a nice one for under 10k, buy it. I've only seen pretty beat up ones for that price range.

Hardinge last I checked will still sell the HLV. They are getting close to the 85k mark for a new one now, and rumor is they wait for several orders before construction, so it can be a long wait. Plenty of very good knock offs available though.

[Tall Man]

Is this a joke then? KBC 12x36 Precision Toolroom Lathe with Stand 2HP Motor 230V 1PH

[RICHARD ZASTROW]

There's a lot of low grade small lathes out there that are really junk machines. Some of them refer to themselves as "Precision Tool Room Lathes". Most are Chinese, Taiwanese or Korean machines that will suffice for a home shop.

True Tool Room Lathes are sturdily built and are extremely accurate. Ref. post #9, I'd say you're right,it's a joke compared to a Hardinge, Monarch 10EE, Harison(some), or their well built copies.

I'm sure there are some fine Japanese or European tool room lathes that I'm not very familiar with, since few were imported to the USA.

The lathe in post #9 appears to be a light duty engine lathe suitable for light duty (home shop type) work.

Dick Z

Add: ex.
KBC 12x36 = 925#
10EE 10x20 = 3,250#
Hardinge 6x18 = 2,250#

[RICHARD ZASTROW]

FYI you may want to check these out.

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Dick Z