Reply To: Newbe advice on a lathe…

[david pierce]

Tmac,
Generally Peerless makes a great lathe. Before purchasing a lathe, decide what you want to use it for. The WW style lathe can do both clock and watch work. Before paying this much for the lathe I would certainly put an accurate dial indicator into the spindle hole and check the runout and end play. There should not be more than .0001 inches of runout and almost no end play. To do this it will require a quality Swiss style indicator that reads in tenths. These indicators cost a couple of hundred dollars so you may want to take the lathe to a machine shop and have a machinist check it for you. The main drawback to a Peerless lathe is it will not accept standard Starret Collets. This could prove to be a major problem if you need additional collets and chucks in the future. If you are planing to work on clocks only, you will probably want something with a little more power such as a Taig. The Taig can take a decent cut without the belt slipping or the motor stalling out but it would not be suitable for watch parts because of its larger size and the way it is set up. If you are planning to work on watches only the Sincere Lathe from China will give you the most machine for the money. It also offers most of the accessories you will need to make watch parts.
david