On Fri, 15 Aug 2008 21:06:35 -0400, Kyle Boatright wrote:

In the spirit of the Harbor Freight thread, I was at the local Tractor
Supply Co today and came across their version of the 7 x 12" mini-lathe.
Apparently, they are discontinuing the item as it was on sale for $388.
Plenty of places carry similiar lathes, the backstory being that all of
them are supposedly made at the same factory in China. The best deal I've
found other than the one at TSC is at toolsnow.com and is $399 plus about
$60 in shipping... Harbor Freight lists theirs at $499.

Thoughts? What creative uses can a homebuilder and handyman find for a
little lathe like this?

I got one of the Smithy units years ago when they used to have a booth
at Sun-N-Fun. I'm not sure what their lowest price unit is these
days, but I would expect it's more than the HF unit. The Smith is not
a bad unit and was a good fit for me, as a novice using a lathe or mill.
I've made a lot of parts with it. Now that I have some time under my belt
with a lathe and mill, I'd like to move up to a higher quality, larger
machine one day.

--
Joe Chisolm
Marble Falls, TX