I needed a
lathe (and a milling machine). I didn't just
"want" them, I needed them. How could I possibly build a thingamajig or
a doohicky, or any of those other really important projects, without these
machines? She may not always understand such compulsions, but my wife is
very gracious about living with them. So...several months ago I bought an
Enco 9x20 lathe and Enco's version
of the RF30 mill/drill.
I'm really enjoying this little lathe. There's a lot of
not-very-flattering talk about Asian machine tools and this lathe in particular
out on the web. My experience has been really good and I thought it'd be worthwhile
to add my 2 cents worth (it will be worth at least 2 cents)
To start with,
the service from Enco was really good. I received the machines less than
2 weeks after placing the order. I've ordered a lot of small tools (cutters,
etc.) from Enco, I've talked to customer service a couple of times, and
I've been highly impressed. Everyone I've dealt with has been very friendly,
very knowledgeable, and very helpful. Their prices are great, and the service
is very quick.
When the machines
arrived I was really pleased with the condition of the lathe. I've seen
a lot of comments about the condition of Asian machines when they are uncrated.
There was no rust on the lathe and mostly it was very clean. All the castings
were pretty well finished. I did completely disassemble the lathe and clean,
adjust, and lube everything. I'm sure it's a good idea, but it wasn't as
big a job as I thought it might have been. I rewired the motor to run on
220V (following the very clear and easy instructions) and fired it up.
Since
then I've reduced a lot of large pieces of metal to smaller pieces of metal.
I've begun producing some holster
accecories for friends of mine. I've turned a lot of 6061 aluminum, and
a few pieces of steel. I've made a couple of modifications to the lathe including
modifying the toolpost turret to take a cut-off tool, building a four-bolt
compound clamp, and a camlock tailstock (just recently
completed). I have a few more modifications I want to make, and a lot of things
I'll just live with. I have a few gripes, and a lot of praise.
My budget limited
me to either new Asian machines or used American machines. I decided on
new Asian machines. I'd like to take a few minutes to justify (defend?)
my choice. I hope someone finds the information useful in making their own
decision.
At
the right I'm cutting a 1.5" bar of aluminum down to 1.475" to make parts
for the holster hangers. When done I had 5" of bar that was 1.475 in diameter
in all directions for the entire length within +/- 0.001". I can't ask for
better accuracy than that. And you can see that it's leaving a pretty darn
good finish.
OK, the lathe isn't perfect. It doesn't have back gears
so the lowest spindle speed is 130rpm. I'm thinking about some sort of jackshaft
arrangement to get the lowest speed down to 40 or 50 rpm. The lathe also doesn't
have tumble reverse so the power feed only works toward the headstock. Several
people have added tumble reverse to this lathe and I probably will when I reach
a project that needs it. (Jack Fuselier has a nice explanation of adding tumble
reverse to his 9x20.) The compound clamp is really wimpy and allows a lot
of flex in the toolpost (I've fixed this with my four-bolt
compound clamp modification).
So
what's right with the lathe? Overall it is a pretty darn competent lathe. It
weighs ~250 lbs. so you get the attendant rigidity and finish quality. It has
an honest (if cast iron and ugly) 3/4 hp. motor. It has enough size/power to
comfortably work pretty good sized pieces. I've already commented on the accuracy.
First thing I did was chuck up a ground 3/8" round tool blank and check the
runout. I checked, reset the indicator, checked, reset...I couldn't believe
what I saw. I got less than .001 TIR at 1" from the chuck. The drive (on mine
at least) is very quiet and smooth. The skinny main belt looks too small for
the lathe (in fact when I saw it I ordered a spare immediately), but it seems
to work great and my spare is just sitting in the drawer. There's a lot of support
for the 7x10-12 lathes out there on the internet, but surprisingly little for
this lathe. This lathe seems to have just as many advantages and disadvantages
as the 7xXX series and many of the disadvantages are very easily fixed. With
a little effort it turns into a lathe that has a lot more size and power than
the 7xXX's. Althogether it's a real nice lathe capable of some pretty serious
work.
As
I said earlier, I've seen some pretty negative comments about Asian machinery
and this lathe in particular. One author said, in about as many words, that
he had just completed a project (on expensive German machinery) that couldn't
be done on Asian machinery. Besides that, he said that had he limited himself
to "low quality" Asian machines he would never have learned to do such projects.
I think that's a load of crud. I'm not a professional machinist, but I know
some professionals and several amateurs. The consensus among the people I know
is that the accuracy/precision of the job is more a function of the machinist
than the machine. If I limited myself to American/German machinery I wouldn't
be able to do anything because I wouldn't have a lathe or a mill. Could I have
bought used machines? Sure, but for the amount of money I paid I would only
be able to get really worn out junkers. (Yes, I've heard about guys who found
a cherry Southbend toolroom lathe in some elderly widow's basement and paid
$200 for it. I didn't want to wait and hope to be lucky.)
Is this lathe
the same quality as a SouthBend? Heck no! Would I rather have a new SouthBend
9x24 (A series of course)? Heck yes!! Will I ever trade in my Asian machines
on higher quality American machines? Sure, if I win the lottery, or after
all my kids are out of college and I'm retired. Will I back away from projects
because I don't think I can machine parts with enough accuracy to make them
work? Not likely!
I've been
really happy with my Asian machines. I'm turning out work that I'm really
proud of and having a great time doing it. If you want machine tools and
can't afford new American ones, the Asian ones might be a reasonable choice
for you. Do your homework and understand what you are going to get. I certainly
haven't regretted the choice.
Cheers,
Kelly
I am not a professional machinist or engineer. I'm not giving advice, just
my opinions. I'll endorse no use of this information, nor accept any liability
for its use or misuse.
The
four-bolt compound clamp was a great addition. There are several descriptions
of similar clamps out on the web, but I designed mine a little differently.
This doesn't clamp the compound by holding the graduated ring on the bottom
of the compound onto the cross-slide. There is a stepped hole in this plate
and the graduated ring holds the compound into the clamp plate. The change
in geometry (as well as the increased mass of steel) greatly increases the
stiffness of the toolpost. Without this modification even very light cuts
chattered. With the modification the lathe will really make chips. The modification
does mean that a protractor is required to set the compound angle. Really
a small price to pay. back to top
Working
with the lathe producing lots of parts for my holster hangers I got really
tired of loosening and tightening the nut that holds the tailstock in place
(and really, really tired of looking for the wrench after I set it
down). I manufactured/modfied the parts shown here to make the tailstock
lock in place with a lever-operated cam. The cam was turned on the lathe
(using the four-jaw chuck to set the part over and produce the cam). The
small aluminum block rides on the cam. The clamp plate (and the tailstock)
were drilled out to take the 3/8" bar. The small block (aluminum, I'd have
used steel if I had an appropriately sized piece handy) rides on the cam.
The bar is threaded into the little block and holds the clamp plate on the
bottom. The round piece is the knob that threads onto the back of the camshaft
and moves the cam (with the long lever) it is held in place by a set screw.
I bored
a hole through the tailstock casting to accept the camshaft (using the mill
and a boring bar). The hole has a small step to accept the shoulder on the
camshaft.
When assembled, the front of the
tailstock looks like this. In the picture at the top of the page you can
see the lever sticking up behind the tailstock. It works great. There's
enough vertical movement in the cam (1/8") that you can pull the lever all
the way back and take the tailstock off of the lathe bed. About 45 degrees
of movement takes the tailstock from completely free to completely locked.
Really speeds up processes that require frequent movements of the tailstock
or changes of tools.
Since I first built the camlock
for the tailstock I've made a few additional modifications. The original
1/4" bar for the lever was too small. I replaced this with a 3/8" lever.
When I replaced the lever I added a knob (bought from Enco)
which really helps. I also decided that the aluminum block that rides on
the cam was flexing too much. I replaced it with a block of 6-4 titanium
alloy (steel would work just fine but I didn't have any handy, I did have
a piece of titanium). Now the camlock modification works even better than
I had hoped.
Update...9 March 2005 -
Almost four years since I installed the lathe in my shop it's still working
great. I've made a lot of stuff with it and had a great time. Although the
mill-drill and I got along great from the very first, the lathe and I had
some disagreements at first. Then I bored an angled hole 1.5" in dia.
through a block of steel 1.5" thick (the seat for a tapered roller
bearing). The lathe did so well that I began to feel even better about it
and became much more comfortable with lathe projects. I've had no trouble
with the lathe (I did replace the half-nuts as a result of a mistake on
my part) and I think it's a better deal than ever.
