Nice mini lathe?

I was looking at getting the $500 Harbor Freight (93212) mini lathe, I read where some people say it's great, some people say it's not.

So then I looked around and ran into this machine for $760:

http://littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=4100&category=1271799306

Opinions? This is something I will be saving up for, so I don't want to overspend, but also I don't want to buy something that is not going to be a good machine for me in the end.

It depends on what you want to do with the lathe. 

Have you seen this link?
http://www.mini-lathe.com/Home/index.htm

As Gus said, depends on what you'll do with it.
But if you want to make precise parts, i guess that little lathe will have limitation,
you need good weight and power to handle precision...
But everything is possible with skills, but might take longer to achieve decent results.....
But i'm not a pro in that domain, just passing the word of some who knew better than me.

Hmm...

I have read a lot on the LittleMachineShop site. Gus, that mini-lathe site is really good. It looks like a lot of these guys are using the Harbor Freight one. I actually know of Varmint Al, he's a cool guy. Anyway, that Harbor Freight lathe supposedly responds nicely to getting bolted to a solid bench.

I want to get one to make these mic bodies. They are just a bit over 3" (80mm) in diameter. I am not sure if that is too big for these lathes. It's not a problem for the swing, but I am thinking it may be a problem if I need to be able to get the carriage under it. Also, I am not sure how wide that 3-jaw chuck opens. I have more research to do, but that's the direction I am headed.

My uncle has a neat old Myers lathe. The drive train is sort of rigged up though. Maybe I should give it a go:

Hi Riggler,

I bought an SC2 lathe about a year ago, which I believe is the same basic lathe as the Little Machine Shop one in the link, but with a drive train added. I really like it and don't regret the purchase at all,

BUT...

Whilst it has been a really great tool for small jobs and learning the skills, I think it is a LONG way off being able to turn a 3 inch M49 body. I would struggle to make one, and could not contemplate doing a production run on it.

I've found that it is comfortable working up to about an inch diameter, and it can hold bigger parts up to about 2 inches but then clearance can be an issue.

So I don't think it will do what you need it to.

Also, whatever you get, remember to budget another $500 or so over the next year for tools and gizmos!

Cheers

Stewart

Hi Zebra,

I think you are right. I did some more reading and I think these will require a much larger lathe in order to be able to get the tooling where it needs to go.