Guns & Outdoors Forum

I mean something small that would allow me to work some simple projects like cut and re-crown a barrel, cut a chamber, drill and tap or cut threads on metal, stuff like that. I'd like it to be table top and I don't want to pay a ton of money. I've seen some Chinese stuff around but I don't know if they are any good.

Define: reasonable.

Under $500. And I’m just taking a stab here, I know nothing about it and have done zero research except some casual looking.

There's some good deals to be had on Facebook marketplace. Quite often I see people selling off their deceased family members machines. It still makes me cringe to know how little my mom sold my dad's machines for.

Oh, and don't overlook the older American lathes. They're usually superior to today's Chinese stuff. Japanese and Taiwanese stuff is NOT the equivalent to Chinese crap btw.

Wambli Ska wrote: ↑Sat May 24, 2025 10:04 pm Under $500. And I’m just taking a stab here, I know nothing about it and have done zero research except some casual looking.

Yeah.

No.


Unless you find used.

So what would be a decent small (preferable table top) lathe? I will never have a machine shop. Just some work benches in a relatively small work shed or garage.

Or is there such a thing?

And used would be fine but I don’t know what to look for so I could be spending money on something totally trashed and not know it.

Anything bench top, (also open to interpretation) is going to have a small hole through the headstock. Not large enough to pass a barrel through. Which makes things….interesting. IE a pain in the cock to do even simple tasks.


Here’s a benchtop. Bore through spindle is only .78 inches, a fuzz over 3/4”.

https://www.grizzly.com/products/grizzl ... athe/g4000

Wambli
Ive been looking for a decent mill for a couple years
A decent lathe for reasonable money is just as rare

My guess is to do decent work on gun sized projects and cut threads its $2K bottom end. The machinists here probably have a better idea costs.

Depending on your location you might find a maker space or club with access to machine tools?

If its a one off just pay your favorite machinist and say thank you its a lot less than buying a machine, learning to run it, and being able to turn a finished part.

Japhy wrote: ↑Sun May 25, 2025 3:40 am
If its a one off just pay your favorite machinist and say thank you its a lot less than buying a machine, learning to run it, and being able to turn a finished part.

But if I just have a couple of pieces that need about 15 to 25 percent finishing and i may fiddle around with machining later?

Oh, and the parts MAY be made from plastic.

Chris is right about the spindle bore BUT the one thing that can make up for it is having a longer bed. I have 2 lathes, a benchtop 10x30 and my larger 14x40. The benchtop does have the 3/4" spindle bore but it rarely ever held me back. In fact, I did some of my best work on that lathe and I still have it. It's actually the most accurate lathe I've ever touched (Bolton BT1030a.) I can hit tenths with it all day long and can't do that with my bigger lathe. I used to just have to use the steady rest but I got real good at it. Too many people associate "mini" with benchtop and that's not always the case.

As for a mill, I used to have a Bridgeport clone. I've moved shops twice and after moving that damn knee mill into my first shop, I decided I wouldn't do it again so it got sold. I replaced it with what is essentially a Harbor Freight mini mill, except it's not. It's pieced together with every upgrade from LittleMachineShop, including an upgraded solid column, DRO, steel gears, different lead screws and some other stuff I'm forgetting. The only one thing I can't do as easily (but still can do, it would just suck) is barrel fluting which I've done all of 1 time anyways on the large mill. Every project or job I've ever posted here has been done using that mill (if it got mill time, including my pinfire rifle.)

I'd say cheap is the operative word here, not reasonably...

Wambli Ska wrote: ↑Sat May 24, 2025 9:11 pm I mean something small that would allow me to work some simple projects like cut and re-crown a barrel, cut a chamber, drill and tap or cut threads on metal, stuff like that. I'd like it to be table top and I don't want to pay a ton of money. I've seen some Chinese stuff around but I don't know if they are any good.

The since-retired guy who built my bolt guns back in my Highpower days was the local God of Manual Machining and Sniper Rifle Builds. For all I know, he was using the equivalent of a 12-pound sledgehammer to swat flies, but the lathes he was using for those tasks were definitely not sub-$500 and were anything but tabletop. Having seen him set up and run those jobs, I wouldn't be inclined to call them "simple projects" either, but I'll grant that he was operating more on the "great art" side of the perfection scale.

JSD's a better source of input, but I'm thinking anything that will allow you to spin a three-foot bar of metal and precisely adjust any runout out of it will not be coming small or cheap.

I'd be curious about something lesser - like maybe to put the traditional beveled case head on the rims of .303 brass that the modern rim jam-inclined stuff lacks. . .

Well I guess what I want doesn’t exist so I’ll wait til I have a proper workshop and reassess my “needs” and budget.

Unfortunately, machine tool prices have damn near doubled in the last few years.

Used can be a great option, with good deals available… but it’s like just like real estate. Location location location.

In SW Missouri? Fudge all on a big ship. Ohio? Plenty of options. Same for a lot of industrial states and east and west coasts.

My problem is I don’t know enough to even beging to asses a good used deal. That’s ok, if there is nothing really compact that’ll work I can take a little while to educate myself then.

Another helpful hint: keep the fridge stocked with cold beers. You’re gonna need it to bribe people with strong backs to move even smaller machines. They come complete with a lot of gravity included for free.

CPJ 2.0 wrote: ↑Tue May 27, 2025 4:01 am Another helpful hint: keep the fridge stocked with cold beers. You’re gonna need it to bribe people with strong backs to move even smaller machines. They come complete with a lot of gravity included for free.

In my state I can get a whole football team just outside the gate at the local U-Haul

Wambli Ska wrote: ↑Tue May 27, 2025 4:41 am

In my state I can get a whole football team just outside the gate at the local U-Haul

And I'm SURE they're all upstanding, trustworthy folks

GrapeApe wrote: ↑Tue May 27, 2025 4:47 am

Wambli Ska wrote: ↑Tue May 27, 2025 4:41 am

In my state I can get a whole football team just outside the gate at the local U-Haul

And I'm SURE they're all upstanding, trustworthy folks

Cream of the crop! Top of their class at Yale.

Probably better off to send JSD regular projects and $
After that job on the revolver that was 0.006 out I would say he easily is at the master machinist level.

Oh he ABSOLUTELY IS!!!!! I just want to be able to do one-off projects that are, to be frank, beneath him, and not use his time on my silly poop that will put him behind schedule from his real customers.

Japhy wrote: ↑Tue May 27, 2025 8:58 pm Probably better off to send JSD regular projects and $
After that job on the revolver that was 0.006 out I would say he easily is at the master machinist level.

First off, I appreciate the hell out of this compliment, and

Wambli Ska wrote: ↑Tue May 27, 2025 10:35 pm Oh he ABSOLUTELY IS!!!!! I just want to be able to do one-off projects that are, to be frank, beneath him, and not use his time on my silly poop that will put him behind schedule from his real customers.

There's nothing beneath me, (except cleaning guns, God how I do hate cleaning guns .) But seriously, I love any job but especially machining jobs. Feel free to send them my way. I always manage to fit in projects, jobs, etc...

Justsomedude wrote: ↑Wed May 28, 2025 1:06 am <snip>

First off, I appreciate the hell out of this compliment, and
<snip>
There's nothing beneath me, (except cleaning guns, God how I do hate cleaning guns .) But seriously, I love any job but especially machining jobs. Feel free to send them my way. I always manage to fit in projects, jobs, etc...

Depending on "Things" I might have a project for you