I have the chance through a few contacts (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) of a Milnes lathe the same as the first picture Here It has 3 phase motor but I can get an inverter if the motor is dual wound.

What I really want to know is are they a good lathe. It is in excellent condition with lots of tooling and different chucks e.t.c.

Anybody got experience of them.

I'm going to have to call on a few favours to get it delivered/unloaded so need to know if it's worth it.

If you have the room could be worth it, lathe's like these are so well built compared to the flimsy ones today. Just check if it needs the tolerances adjusted as they go out with use. I couldn't cope with the imperial nonsense though, and spare parts might be virtually non existent. Think I'd check first as that might be the reason its up for sale, check it well

[Edited on 3/2/09 by Mr Whippy]

Definately worth getting, just change the motor to a single phase 240v job, you don't need anything more than 1hp 1500RPM, these things are so geared down the torque at the chuck is phenominal.

My ML7 runs hapily on a 1/2HP motor, and you wouldn't want your hands any where near the spinning bits.

Where do I get a motor suitable?

hi there
you need to get a few things in to perspective, if the lathe is not completely claped it will last you a lifetime. should be capable of holding good limits etc.
a 1 h.p. motor will be usless if you want to do any real work eg reasonable stock removal, big drills or high speeds.
it cant be compared with a "toy" myford.
i have a colchester student with a 2 ho 1 phase motor and that struggles a bit at 900 rpm and a 3mm cut even in ally.

some good sites on the web ,google lathe or turning.
regards graham

This site is a great source of info.

LINKY

He lists details of almost every lathe sold in the UK since they first made lathes, and he's also great for stuff like made-to-measure flat belts, some spares, etc.

As for its accuracy - ask the current owner to do some turning in front of you. Take a length of steel bar and ask him to turn it for as far as he can along its length. When he's finished, measure its diameter with a micrometer or digital vernier in several places along its length. It should show the same diameter all the way along. It may be slightly out of parallel (easy to adjust) but in that case it should show a steady increase from one end to the other - no unexpected dips or bumps. If it'll do that then there's not a lot wrong with it.

Mechanically, try all the speeds, set the screw-cutting gearbox (if it has one) to a few positions including max & min feed. Work all the controls and see how much slack and backlash there is (there's always some, but there's a difference between 'normal' and 'too much'!). All the feeds wheels should turn smoothly, with no tight spots. Look at the vernier dials - are they readable, or not.

Just remember that if it's cheap you can put up with a lot of faults, and can learn to live with errors as you find out how to compensate for them.

Finally, don't underestimate the weight on these beasts - my Colchester Student is regarded as a light-weight, but it's heavier than my Locost!

When you get lathes of a certain age, 20/30 years old plus, I don't really think there were any inherently bad ones...they were all built rock solid and accurate. Some better than others of course, but all very good. I'd definitely be checking the condition far more than being concerned about the brand.

Alan (serial lathe owner for 40 years)