13x40 Enco Lathe.....impressions?

[hawgwrench]

Found an enco 13x40 for sale ,pretty close at hand distancewise.Seems pretty well set up,aside from having only one chuck with it (3 jaw).Anybody own one of these or had experience with one? I need something to get by with while I tear down the old Clausing for some work (I only have the one lathe,and sure as he!! when I take it apart something will come along to make some cash,and there I sit with junk everywhere). Are these pretty solid machines? I know they're China crap,but it could do for now....

[gnm109]

Originally Posted by hawgwrench

Found an enco 13x40 for sale ,pretty close at hand distancewise.Seems pretty well set up,aside from having only one chuck with it (3 jaw).Anybody own one of these or had experience with one? I need something to get by with while I tear down the old Clausing for some work (I only have the one lathe,and sure as he!! when I take it apart something will come along to make some cash,and there I sit with junk everywhere). Are these pretty solid machines? I know they're China crap,but it could do for now....

I have a 1994 Enco 13 X 40 and I was going to answer you in detail since I bought it new and have used it constantly since then, nearly every day. However, since you called it China Crap, you are on your own.

I have to put up with that nonsense on Practical Machinist because I know the propensities of the owner there. I won't listen to it here. If that starts to come up more often here, I'll just start lurking here like I do on PM. Remember, it's only the internet. LOL.

Maybe you should buy a Monarch 10EE.

[bhjones]

Originally Posted by gnm109

I have a 1994 Enco 13 X 40 and I was going to answer you in detail since I bought it new and have used it constantly since then, nearly every day. However, since you called it China Crap, you are on your own.

...........

Maybe you should buy a Monarch 10EE.

Maybe you could have taken the same amount of time used to scold him to give him a solid report on your machine and maybe teach him that not all import machines are junk.

Just a thought.

[gnm109]

Originally Posted by bhjones

Maybe you could have taken the same amount of time used to scold him to give him a solid report on your machine and maybe teach him that not all import machines are junk.

Just a thought.

Naw. It's OK. You can scold me for scolding him but I'm just plain sick of being told that my machinery is crap. It may well be but I'm sick of hearing about it. You can tell him all about it.

This site is getting tougher to visit. I'll just lurk from now on. It's no big deal.

[Mark Hockett]

Enco sells a few different 13" X 40" lathes, which one are you looking at? I have an Enco 13" X 40" Turn Pro lathe like this one,
http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INPDFF?P...MITEM=111-3116
It was made in Taiwan by Lux Matter and has worked great since purchased new in 1996. It has a DRO, taper attachment and is very accurate and repeatable.

[radkins]

I am beginning to find out for myself exactly what you mean about being told my lathe is "Chinese junk". I have only had my 14x40 Harbor Freight (same machine as the Enco) about three months now and I get about the same reaction from almost everyone, you spent HOW MUCH for a WHAT from WHERE? Then there is the usual "why didn't you just look around and buy a good used American lathe? Craigslist is full of them! Never mind that I searched around for months and got tired of burning gas and wasting time checking out "like new" machines that were worth their weight in scrap. Certainly there were some good ones but not even close to what I could afford so I got a fresh new machine of a decent size and still had some money left for tooling, so far it has been an excellent performer and I have no regrets at all!

[BillH]

You know, this Chinese vs old American argument, a local welder/machinist told me this. "The Enco stuff is perfectly fine if you are the only one using it, if you are paying some one else to use it, they are no good, belts get torn up, etc..."
He was talking about an Enco mill/drill he used to own that paid others to use in his shop.
Just a different perspective I have not heard before.
I am getting ready to make my Grizzly X3 mill and lathemaster 8x14 pay for themselves shortly. We'll see how it goes as long as I don't run them too fast

[radkins]

I was a self employed heavy equipment mechanic/welder (surface coal mines) for over thirty five years and I would not have even considered anything less than Snap-On, Proto or one of the other pro quality tools during that time, if I had it to do over I would still do the same. Now that I have retired it would make very little sense to spend the kind of money it would take to replace all the pro tools I sold when I left the mines and the same kind of logic applies to the lathe, IMO anyway. If I had to run that thing everyday and depend on it for my livelihood I would not have even considered any Chinese import but for "weekend warrior" use and to just use it when I need it this thing will probably last what's left of my lifetime anyway and if it breaks something so what? It would be no disaster so why worry about it? Still I get a little ticked off when someone gives me that amazed look when they find I bought something like that lathe at Harbor Freight.

[Bill Pace]

Yeah, kinda funny ---spend 6 months looking for that "old American iron", get it home and find 6months worth of work and aggravation hunting parts scarce as hens teeth, pay premium dollars for them, etc, etc.

I only spent 3 months looking and realised how silly that was when I could be making chips, so I went and bought me some "old Chinese iron" 3 years ago, took it out of the box and been happily making chips since.

[Jeffw5555]

Also, one of the key issues of the "China vs Old American" debate is that people tend to generalize all of the Asian-made products into one dumpster. I have been posting about the 10X24 Shen Wai (Taiwan, vintage 1980) I recently bought. It was being used in a production environment (albeit just used to face-off small copper disks), and sat next to a clapped-out South Bend 9". The owner of the shop was liquidating everything, & I tried out both lathes. There was no comparison; the Shen Wai was tight & solid, yes it has a bit of wear on the ways, but nothing like the South Bend, which had the wheels and handles about ready to fall off and gouged ways. The owner of the shop wanted $900 for the SB. (& he sold it for that amount the very same day to someone else. ) I bought the Shen Wai for $400. I got a much better lathe for less than half the price.

Also note that I bought this lathe to replace the tired old Sheldon 12X72 I sold recently. The Shen Wai is a much better lathe for my purpose, much smaller, tighter, fits better with the hobbyist stuff I tend to do. Sure, I would rather have a Hardinge HLV-H, but you have to keep the cost/benefit perspective in mind.

I used to frequent the air-cooled VW newsgroups years ago when I lived in California. In those circles, it was German (supposedly good) vs. Brazilian (supposedly bad) parts. Again, it was generalizations that created these debates, fueled by the fact that a lot of really cheap (i.e. low quality) VW parts were imported from Brazil. A lot of it truly was low quality, but what these people didn't realize is that those same parts would be considered low quality in Brazil. If you spent time in Brazil (like I did), you realized that they made some very excellent quality stuff, better than a lot of the German parts, that rarely made it to the US, because people wouldn't pay the same price for the stuff as the relatively lower quality German stuff. Go figure.

The point of this ramble is you need to check out what you are buying and make an informed decision about what will work for your purpose. I buy a lot of stuff at Harbor Freight, but am choosy and check it out before purchase.