I'm looking to purchase a mini-lathe, preferably 7" x 10" or larger, for fabricating metal parts on my scooter high-fuel-efficiency project.

I've found a Grizzly 4"x6" for $350 which is too much for such a small lathe. It's actually a Sieg lathe, rebranded.

I've found the Seig Industries lathes, but they don't sell directly to consumer, and I can't find any resellers in the US that carries the one I was looking at.

I've found the Taig Tools L1015 for $316.30, but it doesn't come complete, and they're not really clear on their website as to what one needs to be ready to lathe from the get-go.

I've found the Warco Mini Lathe for 425 British Pounds, which is a bit pricey, and the shipping would likely be expensive, coming from Britain.

I want to avoid the "eBay Special", those cheap-looking Chinese-built red lathes that run on 12 VDC... those motors only pull 29 watts, not near enough to lathe metal. They're inexpensive, but customer reviews show they burn out pretty quickly.

So, anyone know of a good inexpensive lathe? Preferably one with a milling attachment. For what I want to do, the Taig looks good, but it doesn't come complete, and they're not very clear on what extra bits and pieces are needed.

here in UK (and I suspect in USA also) the majority of small engineering businesses have gone bust
disastrous for innovation but great for cheap used equipment
I'm sure that you can get a high quality used lathe cheaper than a new mediocre lathe.

only thing i'm sure of is that i have this one:

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200419822_200419822

i got mine on sell for 500$ and free shipping.

now... i love this little thing but, here are some con's and prows for you to think of.

pro:
small
good quality.
seems to work well for most projects.
it will do threds

cons:
SMALL! almost to small. slightly bigger for the same money would almost be better.
***dose not come with a cross slide!!!! almost a must. i ended up making my own as i could not find one that would fit this tinny lathe.
at low speeds it has almost no torque.
This has a MT-1 chuck on the back!!!! its all most impossible to find tools for that thing!!!! or at least cheep ones.


i love the fox shop brand. dose not feel cheep.

altho its abit more on price,

something like this would have been better for me:

http://www.amazon.com/SHOP-M1018-Small-Combo-Lathe/dp/B001R23SB8/ref=pd_sxp_f_pt

just some of my thoughts...

that mill addition would be extremely handy...
~Russ

I got a 20% off coupon from Cycle World magazine for Harbor Freight, and they sell the Grizzly lathes... so I'll be buying one of them soon. I don't think I'll go for the smallest one, though.

We have two large lathes, a milling machine, several Dake presses of various sizes, a large belt sander, two bandsaws and a few welders at work if I need to do large projects. So a small lathe is all I need.

The Grizzly lathes are rebranded Sieg lathes.