JWinAZ
Well-Known Member
I am not a trained machinist. Shop classes long ago, and visiting the toolroom every chance I got are the extent of my “training”. I like making things. When I retired the first time, I bought this Little Machine Shop HiTorque 7x16 lathe. Picked it up at their store during an open house. It has given me 10 years of good service. I probably have at least 2x the cost of the lathe in various accessories and tooling.
It is fine for small work and fairly light cuts. Chatter can be a problem. I have it bolted down to a bench with a heavy steel channel under the top that the bolts go through. That helped some as did replacing the cross slide with a solid riser. On the other hand, it is easily moved (100 lbs) and does not take up a lot of space. A jelly-roll pan replaced the attached chip pan.
A selling point of this lathe is the brushless DC motor that provides decent torque at low speeds. I have found this to be the case and rarely stall out the spindle at low speed. Made in the same Chinese factories that the Grizzly, Seig and so forth are made. Those cost less than the Little Machine Shop models.
The quick-change tool post is very nice. I can dial in the tool point height very precisely.
Manual change gears for the threading and power feed are ok, mostly I hand feed and use dies to thread. But I have single pointed threads without a problem.
The digital readout on the cross slide is useful, but is not a position sensing, just replaces the dial. Push button zero and inch/metric are nice.
Free machining material really makes a difference, 12L14 steel, C360 Brass, and most aluminum alloys are all good. For harder stock, cold finished 1144 works well.
The lathe is shown with an ER40 collet chuck, up to 1”. That was one of the best upgrades I made. Concentricity is outstanding. The three and four jaw chucks are used when the material is not a standard stock size.
Screw machine length drills are well suited to the size of the lathe. I have had really good results with Micro 100 brazed carbide lathe bits. Quality cutting tools make a big difference.
Zero problems in ten years. I’m going to upgrade the spindle bearings to tapered rollers and rework the gibs on the slides one day.
I do think about getting a larger lathe from time to time. If I had known how much I would enjoy having it, and that I would have a shop space in the future, I should have. It’d have to be something that I could move myself, so 3-400 lbs. A larger spindle bore and better rigidity would be nice. On the other hand, this one is very useful despite its limitations and I’m pretty well tooled up. I quail at the thought of spending to tool up a larger lathe. I can only dream about a Monarch 10ee!
It is fine for small work and fairly light cuts. Chatter can be a problem. I have it bolted down to a bench with a heavy steel channel under the top that the bolts go through. That helped some as did replacing the cross slide with a solid riser. On the other hand, it is easily moved (100 lbs) and does not take up a lot of space. A jelly-roll pan replaced the attached chip pan.
A selling point of this lathe is the brushless DC motor that provides decent torque at low speeds. I have found this to be the case and rarely stall out the spindle at low speed. Made in the same Chinese factories that the Grizzly, Seig and so forth are made. Those cost less than the Little Machine Shop models.
The quick-change tool post is very nice. I can dial in the tool point height very precisely.
Manual change gears for the threading and power feed are ok, mostly I hand feed and use dies to thread. But I have single pointed threads without a problem.
The digital readout on the cross slide is useful, but is not a position sensing, just replaces the dial. Push button zero and inch/metric are nice.
Free machining material really makes a difference, 12L14 steel, C360 Brass, and most aluminum alloys are all good. For harder stock, cold finished 1144 works well.
The lathe is shown with an ER40 collet chuck, up to 1”. That was one of the best upgrades I made. Concentricity is outstanding. The three and four jaw chucks are used when the material is not a standard stock size.
Screw machine length drills are well suited to the size of the lathe. I have had really good results with Micro 100 brazed carbide lathe bits. Quality cutting tools make a big difference.
Zero problems in ten years. I’m going to upgrade the spindle bearings to tapered rollers and rework the gibs on the slides one day.
I do think about getting a larger lathe from time to time. If I had known how much I would enjoy having it, and that I would have a shop space in the future, I should have. It’d have to be something that I could move myself, so 3-400 lbs. A larger spindle bore and better rigidity would be nice. On the other hand, this one is very useful despite its limitations and I’m pretty well tooled up. I quail at the thought of spending to tool up a larger lathe. I can only dream about a Monarch 10ee!
