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February 20, 2013 at 8:58 pm #52846
Ddhix,
Considering all of the lathes in the clock and watch class the Taig is one of the most powerful. With its large motor and ER-16 collets you should be able to turn a clock pivot in two passes (rough and finish). Using a WW lathe for the same task will require many light passes, especially with a graver. When I bought mine I ordered it with the ER-16 headstock only and did not get the conventional headstock. The reason is I also have a 9 inch engine lathe and did not need to use chucks on the Taig, otherwise, I would have gotten both headstocks as the normal Taig headstock is relitavely inexpensive. The ER-16 headstock comes with slightly higher precision bearings that allow you to take advantage of the high precision ER collets. I personally would not get the standard headstock and use a collet adapter. The entire set of ER-16 collets (CTC, MERLIN TOOLS) costs about the same as 3 Starrett WW collets. If you are also interested in gunsmithing check out the gunsmith lathes at Grizzly tools. I would think that you would want a larger lathe for this type of work. I really wanted a 15 inch engine lathe but since my machine shop is in a spare upstairs bedroom I needed a lathe that would not cave the floor in. The 9 inch lathe was 250 pounds and I was afraid to go any heavier. That said, I also have a couple of milling machines up there and the big one weighs 750 pounds. The little engine lathe that Harbor Freight sells is definately cute, however, regardless of its small size it is still an engine lathe and engine lathes work better when they are larger. Their function is to power through metal with heavy cuts and sacrifice feel in order to do this. The 9 inch lathe is as small as I was willing to go with that configuration. You will also find that if you want to start cutting gears there are a lot of accessories available for the Taig that allow you to do this.
davidFebruary 20, 2013 at 9:50 pm #52847David,
Thank you for your expertise. You have sold me 100% on the Taig lathe. While at work today, I went through their catalog of accessories and was blown away as to how many accessories come from the factory alone.
Then I searched Google; holy crap. You can get anything for that lathe. My problem with a lot of specialty tools has always been the lack of standardization. It seems that Taig has tried everything to make their product standardized as widely as they can. Smart.
I suppose I should have elaborated on the gunsmithing. I really have no interest in milling out rifle or pistol receivers. I am more interested in making any small parts I need to customize my own guns, as well as do small derringer type builds with mostly hand tools, and machine the rest. Black powder is perfect for this type of work, I would think. Although I have read about people milling out AR-15 receivers with the Harbor Freight Mini-Mill. I don’t have a lot of interest in that, though, as I already have plenty of AR-15s around.
Anyway, I will add the ER-16 headstock to the list. My only question about this is: The ER-16 headstock is advertised as being for the Taig Mill. But I would assume that it is the same mount for the lathe, correct?
Thank you again for all of your help.
February 21, 2013 at 5:45 am #52848Ddhix,
Yes, it is the milling headstock. You will probably want to also get the standard headstock as well so you can use the 3 and 4 jaw chucks. There are also milling cutter adapters that screw onto the spindle thread for the standard headstock. You can see this in operation if you pull up Youtube and wade through the gear cutting videos. Type in TAIG LATHE and see what comes up.
When I bought the Harbor Freight bench mill they offered two models. One used MT #2 collets and the other used R8 collets. The MT #2 mill went for around $200.00 and the R8 mill went for around $500.00 and was a little more heavy duty. I bought the R8 model and it was one of the best choices I ever made. R8 holders and collets are the industry standard (same holders as Bridgeport) and allow you to use standard boreing heads, drill chucks and so on. R8 collets are accurate, inexpensive and available. At some point in the future you may want to purchase a boreing (centering) scope. This will allow you to center the spindle over a layout line or existing hole to .0001 inches. With that and a boreing head you can achieve extremely accurate hole locations.
The features I like about the TAIG are the wide steel bed, accurate spindle, large induction motor, strong industrial V-belt, and overall strength and rigidity. All of this and it is affordable.
davidFebruary 23, 2013 at 2:36 am #52849David,
What do you think about this one:
It’s between this one, and a brand new one.
February 23, 2013 at 5:37 am #52850Ddhix,
I would go with a new one. By the time the bidding ends it will sell for more than the current price. If there are any glitches in the lathe you will have very little recourse with a used one. I buy a lot of used equipment but I have a machine shop and many years in the business and can make replacement parts from scratch. A new machine configured the way you want it rules out these problems. Also, the ER-16 collets are much better collets than the standard collets shown in the picture. One nice feature about the ER collets is they accurately cover a wide range of sizes. This means that fewer collets are required to have a complete set. They are also inexpensive. You can always purchase a standard headstock and the 3 and 4 jaw chucks at a later time if you need them.
davidFebruary 28, 2013 at 9:29 pm #52851David,
Thank you again for all of your help. I have put together a list of what I think I need. It is a little out of my budget, though. I budgeted about $600-$650, and this is up to $767.53 after shipping of all items. Here are the links to each item I think I need to get me started strong.
Can you please confirm or deny either of the products here?
Thank you again for your expertise. You are a lifesaver.
The lathe with the drilling tailstock, motor, pulleys, everything to get basically started
http://www.ebay.com/itm/150998963658?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649Carbide bits for pivots. I had a hard time finding these. These were the only ones I could find that looked like what I needed.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/310583954759?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649Metric ER-16 Collets. From 0.5mm, 1mm, 2mm all the way to 9mm
http://www.ebay.com/itm/150959210668?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649Imperial ER-16 collets, from 1/32″ to 3/8″. I did the metric conversion for these, and most of them fall near enough to the #.5mm of the metric collets.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/330733443318?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649Taig 1190 Steady Rest, for pivot support
http://www.ebay.com/itm/190804036306?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649Taig Tool Rest, for doing pivots with the Steady Rest.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/321068270885?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649ER-16 Headstock
http://www.ebay.com/itm/221171162161?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649 -
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