Model Forum / General / Models / July 2005

Depends on what your interest is, if it's real small stuff, or quarter
scale traction engines... what space do you have for a lathe, and will
it be on a solid (concrete)floor, or inside and on a wooden bench.  The
Chester, Warco... 920 or 918 are good basic machines, that can make
swarf within a few mins of getting them uncrated.  They also come with
usefull extra's as standard.

Lots of mini lathes, that are both cheap, and portable.  Very handy if
space is limited.  Don't be tempted to buy some old machine that seems a
real bargain till you get some experience, you can easily spend the
value of a cheap import trying to sort problems...  That said, if you
are going large scale models and you have a barn to house it, get a
decent ex-industry machine, but get someone who knowes machines to help you.

               Joules been there, bought the anchor, sank the boat...