Hi,
You're most welcome Ian.
It's incredible how all these small lathes can be made for so little money considering the dealer has to make a profit also our government want VAT.
The Mosaic lathe with the more powerful motor does look like a better buy; it has a 3MT headstock bore and 2MT tailstock bore so lots of second hand tooling will fit without trouble; buying brand new at least you won't have a lathe where the carriage has been run into the headstock or suffered other mishaps/abuse.
Whatever lathe you decide to buy I'd recommend using HSS (high speed steel) cutters because these don't chip and can be ground quite easily on a standard bench grinder with care not to overheat the tip. All kinds of profiles can be ground and the HSS tooling is cheap bought as blanks; I've got quite a few; I also have tipped tooling so tend to use both as the mood takes me; I have a high speed diamond hone so I can sharpen tipped tooling.
My Clarke was the first I've ever owned with variable speed and of course this is useful but on the Clarke the electronics and motor were flimsy and at the time I believe a new circuit board cost in excess of £100; lots of owners have burned out the circuit board and if like me burning out both the circuit board and motor together it's a very costly repair indeed with no guarantee the new circuit board and motor will not also burn out.
It was said on the forum that I was heavy handed hence I experienced the troubles I did but I expect any metal lathe to take a light cut of 60 thou (0.060") the maximum for the Clarke was a meagre ten thou which I never ever expected; this is just a scratch on the lathes I'm used to operating so yes it was my own fault for overloading the motor and circuit board and I'll freely own up to this.
On a big lathe small items can be turned but on a small lathe big items can't be turned? One major problem I found on the Clarke was the very limiting 12" between centres; if I wanted to bore into a shaft end I found it very difficult indeed with a chuck in the tailstock and the drill bit in the chuck; this really did limit the length of bar stock to be worked upon unless the stock was small enough diameter to pass through the headstock mandrel.
I was taught thread cutting on the lathe as an apprentice over 50 years ago but still haven't used this skill; I use taps and dies; I can have the job done by the time I set up the lathe.
I've never used DRO or CNC so I'm unable to comment upon these; I'm a dinosaur taught before computers were in use in fact electricity was still quite new. There's no doubt things have moved on a great deal and CNC is the way to go for mass production; all the machines where I worked for before retiring were CNC and robots; the setter could be sitting in his front room at home and control the machines at work.
It's interesting though that where I worked a number of old boys being skilled turners were employed full time on manual lathes using micrometers for one off jobs; I do have a digital vernier caliper which I find very useful indeed but for precision down to a tenth of a thou (0.0001") I rely on my micrometer. I still find it annoying that when I'm into finishing cuts my digital vernier will want a new battery installing shattering my concentration.
The Mosaic lathe has metal gears but it's possible even plastic gears will do the job if the lathe is used as recommended by the manufacturer; the problem of course is once the operator becomes more proficient at lathe work then it could be highly frustrating spending forever to reduce the diameter of a bar?
At least Ian you are now aware of the limitations of these small lathes and as you say perhaps buying the Mosaic will get you up and running very quickly indeed and should you later wish to trade up you'll get a decent price for the Mosaic. Do you have space for a floor standing lathe.
Just a though Ian but 3 phase lathes are best being industrial rated and its possible to run one of these through a VFD; I'm currently using a single VFD to power both my Graduate woodturning lathe and also my Lorch both having identical 1.5hp motors but with a bit of fancy wiring/switching. The VFD I've owned for years and it does everything to the motor apart from make the motor talk? A VFD costs around £100 new but not really something for a novice to play around with due to the high risk of electrocution but well worth considering if buying a decent older lathe?
I love lathework and I take my skills for granted but lathe novice has a steep learning curve; the first mistake is usually to remove too much material; a novice will at first be puzzled after carefully dialing in say ten thou wanting to reduce the material by ten thou but is then surprised after taking the cut that twenty thou has been removed.
I won't bang on about it but safety is paramount operating a lathe; loose clothing; jewelry and long hair are major fun for a lathe but no fun for the lathe operator who hopefully survives having his/her scalp removed or a finger neatly amputated.
Please keep us updated Ian because I for one am very interested and always keen to encourage anyone to buy a lathe (or two or three). Play safely.
Kind regards, Colin.
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