Baileigh Lathes

[rmcphearson]

Anyone know anything about them such as where they are made? Are they good quality?

http://www.baileigh.com/bench-lathe-pl-1022vs

[pinstripe]

My understanding is that they are Chinese, and the Industrial range are Taiwanese.

Their manuals are very good, obviously rewritten in the US.

[Forrest Addy]

The manual might be OK but the sales information in the link is absurdly sparse. What's the range of threads, feeds. What's furnished as standard equipment? HP? Spindle and tailstock taper? I don't see that it's equipped for quick change threading. Is it a change gear machine? Available accessories and attachments?

I'm skeptical of the "50 to 2000 RPM" as a practical range of spindle speeds. Will the machine take the same depth feed and speed on a 6" diameter as on 1"? You can do a lot with electronic motor control but constant HP over a 40 to 1 RPM range is still science fiction. I'd prefer a two or three speed headstock transmission in conjunction with the wide ranging spindle motor RPM so I had large diameter stock removal capability. My preferred headstock transmission ratios for 40:1 are: two speed 1:1 and 6.3:1; three speed 1:1, 3.4:1, and 11.7 - but that's a pipe dream.

Except for paint and stiickers, the Baleigh lathe looks identical to the Grizzly G0752 which is listed at $1725 plus $99 shipping anywhere in the US. The Grizzly website has a full spec and description. Here is a link to the G0752 manual

http://cdn2.grizzly.com/manuals/g0752_m.pdf

I'd hold out for more data from Baleigh. Don't be over-impressed with the variable speed feature. It may let you down on large work diameters requiring stock reduction, driving pipe taps, and other high torque low RPM operations. It's yet another re-badged import machine sold through many importers. It's probably very acceptable but a purchaser really should inspect and operate the same machine he purchases, check the manual, operate every knob lever and feature, and verify all the listed supplied equipment is present.

In other words, shop carefully.

[Juiceclone]

look up "Sumore tools" in Shanghai and you will find where that lathe comes from I have the same lathe with a mill mounted halfway down the ways. Sp2304 . Seems sturdy enough, metric controls and gears though. (used mill and made my own imperial gears) :>)

[rmcphearson]

Now I see "spindle accuracy .001""

Forget I asked!

[adatesman]

Can't be /too/ bad, as they have their own sponsored sub forum over on PM....

[garyhlucas]

What I have always wondered about is the fact China is supposed to have cheap labor. So what would be result if you applied cheap labor and finished all the rough edges, hand scraped the ways, maybe lap the screws and nuts. Some years ago I used a Bridgeport mill that was in factory new condition and was blown away by how silky smooth everything was. What might it add to the price of a lathe or mill?

[J Tiers]

What I have always wondered about is the fact China is supposed to have cheap labor. So what would be result if you applied cheap labor and finished all the rough edges, hand scraped the ways, maybe lap the screws and nuts. Some years ago I used a Bridgeport mill that was in factory new condition and was blown away by how silky smooth everything was. What might it add to the price of a lathe or mill?

They used to have cheap labor. About 25 years ago, labor in china was "free". So cheap it did not even come up as an issue. I visited a bunch of chinese factories in the Shenzen area in the 90's, and they were still low wage with a dormitory for the workers upstairs from the factory operations.

Those days are gone now, and most chinese want a higher-status office job, rather than the hot sweaty low-status factory job. Now, wages are going up, they have an inflation problem, and also their workforce is due to shrink, as the one-child laws come back to bite them and older workers retire.