9x20 Chinese Lathe

[gmac]

I am considering buying a USED lathe - larger than my Taig - but one that weighs only as much as I can manhandle with the fewest of mechanical aids. It will be used in an apartment in all likelihood, no shop. As much as I'd like a new BusyBee 10x18 (Canada), realistically I'm faced with looking for a used 9x20 Chinese lathe. It's much lighter than the 10x18 and more readily found used.

My question is this - has there been a reasonable improvement in quality with the 9x20 at some point in recent history such that I'm better off limiting myself to a lathe that is say 3, 5 or 10 years old; or is it all pretty much the same stuff?

I understand that some of these used lathes may have been "improved" by their owners but I don't have enough experience to judge the quality of that work. So should I wait for what "looks" to be a good deal regardless of age or limit myself to a 9x20 of a minimum age?

Any and all comments appreciated.

Cheers
Garry

 

[Deanofid]

This is a hard question if you want a usable answer. Most of what you see about this lathe is anecdotal,
though there are a few real life people who I would consider trustworthy. The conclusions are still going to
conflict.

Rick, (Metal Butcher) has one, and from his projects it would seem to be quite a good lathe.

I think Bernd had/has one, and found quite a bit of fault in it.

The fellow who makes one of the best known ball turner projects, Steve Bedair, has one, and on his
website you can find his list of workarounds and improvements. I get the impression he likes it, even
though he had to work on it.

My opinion is that if you can actually go to see the one you are going to buy, you will be better off.
If you have to order and have something shipped to you, it might be pot luck.

Just wait. There will probably be a number of people chime in on this. You'll have to sort through the
toleraters and the haters. Some people will pay good money for something, and think it's okay to have
to work on a brand new machine. Some people will expect to get a good machine when they buy a
new machine, and expect it to work right out of the crate, (and why shouldn't they??).

Look for the 9x20 yahoo group, and see how many people have to work on their machine before they
get it to work for them.

Dean

 

[Captain Jerry]

I bought a HF 9x20 last year and have been very happy with the purchase. The mfg date from the plate is 2001. I got it from a guy that upgraded to a much larger machine. He was not an experienced professional machinist but was using the machine to build jet engines for sale to the model aircraft market so he was no slouch.

The lathe was stock. No modifications had been made. There were no marks or dings on the ways and there was no indication that the tool holder had ever crashed into the chuck. It looked good so I packed it up and took it home. At home, I took it apart and there were no big surprises. The only mod that I have made is to add the 4 bolt tool post plate that seems to be highly recommended. I honed all the gibs and adjusted everything carefully and have been using it with no problem untill last week when a lack of rigidity in the tool post showed up.

I tightened up the 4-bolt clamp but that didn't help. The problem turned out to be the three screws that connect the degree ring (the thing with the degree scale on it) to the bottom of the compound body. The 4-bolt plate clamps this ring to the cross slide. The ring is attached to the compound with three screws and a roll pin (tension pin). The screw are round head Phillips head fasteners and I was not convinced that this was the best choice. I replaced them with socket head cap screw so that I could get enough torque to hold. The heads of the cap screws were too high for the counterbore and had to be ground down. There was still enough of the hex socket to get a good grip. I should have done this when I first thought of it last year.

Shortly after getting the lathe, I broke the small drive belt. The seller had given me a spare so I installed it and ordered two replacements. Before they arrived, I broke the belt again. I don't remember the details now but there was a misalignment between the drive pulleys. Since I fixed that I have not broken a belt. Broken belts get a lot of mention on this lathe but I thing aligning the pulleys takes care of that.

Thats my long winded story.

Jerry

 

[rake60]

A Pacific Rim manufactured 9 X 20 lathe with any name plate on it is basically a kit.
You need to take it apart and reassemble it to be sure everything is put together properly.
The parts are all good. The final assembly is not so good.

My own 9 X 20 lathe was purchased new from Grizzly. It is a Grizzly G4000 .
(Mine is green. I bought it before Grizzly had Sieg paint their machines white.)

Out of the crate, it won't cut soap because of one major design flaw,
the original two bolt tool post clamp.

Four bolt tool post clamps for the 9 X 20 lathe can be found on the internet
these days, or for a cost of less than $1 and a half hour of time you can make
one.

I documented the making of my own based on Steve Bedair's design on my personal
web site, HERE.

With that simple mod the import 9 X 20 lathe is a solid little machine.

Rick

 

[Jtrain]

I have the BusyBee 10x18 and I like it very much. I've had no issues about it. I know very little about machining so a little hard to make comparisons to other lathes, but I am catching on to some basics. I find it a good learning machine for me.

 

[1Kenny]

Bought a 9X20 Jet last year that was 2 years old. The guy hardly used it. Popped the head stock and greased the bearings along with everything else. The bushings on the gears were never lubed so its all up to speed now. I too broke a belt. I put a larger washer on the idler spring and the lower spring post so it doesn't have as much tension on the belt. Haven't broke a belt after doing that. I bought 4 belts so now I have 3 spares.

It has a little play on the tool post but now that I've read what Jerry found on his with the screws loose, (Thanks Jerry), that sounds like the fix for me.

Kenny

 

[Philjoe5]

I owned a Grizzly 9x20 also and agree with the comments made here. First thing is make the 4 bolt compound clamp.

I had to make new bushings for the headstock gear train after a year. I used bronze and they've held up fine for 3 years so far.

Also, the clutch mechanism that's used for turning at the slowest speed of 150 rpm can be a problem - mine was. It slipped too easily and made turning at 150 rpm impossible. There are some fixes for this problem on the 9x20 users group. I modified the clutch mechanism on mine to increase the tension on the ball/spring assembly so that it wouldn't slip so easily. With a little work this lathe is capable of doing some fine work.

Cheers,
Phil

 

[gmac]

Thanks to all for your replies and comments. It sounds as if those made over the last 10 or so years are sound enough with some work required - and there's no need to limit myself to models made in a certain period of time.

Most of the used 9x20's I've seen for sale seem to fall into one of two groups - relatively new and lightly used (probably unmodified) or; looking about 10-15 years old, heavily used and uncared for. I'll patiently await a good newish one.

I've been thru as much info on the 9x20's as I could find and am satisfied it would meet my needs, although somewhat heavier than I'd like. I rarely see a 7x12 for sale used - those that appear are much to pricey, so Ive focused on trying to locate a 9x20.

Thanks again for the input.

Cheers
Garry