Posted by Sherman in Idaho [24.32.202.166] on Monday, September 30, 2013 at 11:46:12 :
In Reply to: OT - Atlas Craftsman Lathes - Does EVERYONE hate them? posted by Alex J [216.54.94.2] on Monday, September 30, 2013 at 10:49:35 :
I've heard, "There are no accurate machines, only accurate machinists." It's easy to decide that one brand of something is great and another brand is "junk". You hear the kids these days and they talk that way about computers, games, cars, and stereos. Most of the time, if someone says something is "junk", if you ask them what's bad about it, they can't tell you.
I don't know anything about Craftsman lathes. Most likely they were made by somebody else and were adequate for home use. A machine that wouldn't hold up to constant use at full speed in production in a factory can still easily outlast its owner in a home shop. The lathe is the oldest type of machine tool in the world, partly because the ability to produce accurate parts on it doesn't depend on any absolute precision of of the parts of the machine. An off-center chuck and a worn saddle with a rocker-type tool post and a bit ground free-hand will still turn a perfect cylinder to whatever degree of accuracy you can measure it. Worn-out parts can be dealt with most of the time by making sure that the pressure is always in one direction. A worn-out machine is frustrating, but it can still turn out pretty good work if you finesse it right.
A big part of the bottom line for most of us is cost. If you got a lathe that works fine at the moment, with a good assortment of tooling, for a price you could afford, that's going to do you a lot more good than knowing that some other make would have theoretically lasted longer if you could have afforded to buy it. The cheap tool you have on hand is always more useful than the expensive tool you don't have. If you're happy with the parts you made on this lathe, and you're not going into mass production with it, I wouldn't worry about people saying the gears and half-nuts (or whatever) will wear out too fast. A lot of people say a lot of things.
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