Harbor Freight metal lathes?

jjmitchell60

I was offered a Harbor Freight metal lathe today that is probably a 40 inch travel length for $150. It needs the on/off switch replaced but other than that is useable. They are made in China and I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with them? Is $150 reasonable? It runs on 110 or 220. Is gear driven and has about a 6 to 8 inch chuck. Any ideas?

"we are but men... no more, no less..."

guns-n-painthorses

We had one of those imported lathes in our machine shop before we closed it down. We had a old South Bend lathe that we retired and put the imported one in it's place. It was OK, but it always seemed to be breaking this or that. And parts were hard to come by even though it was a new machine. I still have the old South bend in my farm shop and use it often. Advice says to find yourself a old South Bend. There are tons of them out there and parts are cheap + theres tons of accesories floating around.


Got Guns?

.280 freak

I have zero, zilch, nada experience with Harbor Freight metal lathes, but, ..................




............. as a general rule of thumb - when you purchase cheap tools from Harbor Freight, you normally get what you pay for. Low price, low quality.

Always have to chuckle a bit when I hear somebody complaining about the low quality of something they bought from Harbor Freight. What did they think they were getting at that price?

Bottom line - if it's all you can afford, so be it; you would probably, most likely, be better off in the long run buying something of better quality to start with, even if you have to pay more for it, though.

Just my 2 cents, take it or leave it.

dongizmo

Which model? some (ok most) of the chinese manufacturers do not support their product, the biggest pain is the electrics, the magnetic contactors
and switches suck as do the motors, if you have the knowledge to rewire, you might be ok. Do you know which switch you need?
Don


Welcome to America...Now speak English.
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Horse Plains Drifter

Pretty much what the others have said. Usually the control knobs. switches, and levers are pretty junky on those things, however if you're just going to use it around home and not for a production machine it will probably be ok.

As for parts for that kind of stuff, a friend of mine bought a Harbor Freight wire feed welder. It broke down after a while and took 18 months to get a circuit board.

$150.00 is pretty cheap though. I'd probably take a chance on it for that price.


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woodsrunner

Spend a little more money and get yourself an old one. I have an old Hendey out in the barn packed away in grease waiting for me to get a decent floor and wiring out there. That lathe is so old it was converted from a line shaft to a motor. I'd love to have a little South Bend like we had in high school shop class.

Woods

powdersmoke

JJ,

For the price, buy it. You can always use it to make parts for it'self (depending on what needs to be replaced). I have a 9" South bend that I use for this-n-that. I make fixtures and parts on it for it all the time.

Of course the Harbor Freight may not have the longevity of the South Bend but what do you want to use it for? Are you going to stress it that much?

My feeling is go for it.



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pabooger

I had a nice South Bend Model A lathe that I picked up by bid at the local school! I bought it for$150 and sold it a year later for $600, used the money to buy another gun! Like the gun but wish I still had lathe!!![:I]





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