New machine

Now that I have collected the money for it and got new one, it definatly opens up more options then the last setup. Ive used this thing a little today shortly after me and my dad muscled this thing into place (wieghts now around 600-700LB or so, it was a pain in the ass to bring it).
Its a lathe with a milling head attached onto it, both of which work very nicely, and are quite stable.

Im pretty satisfied with this machine, for what it does and the size of it. It came with all sorts of fun stuff to go along with it that will be rather handy in the future. The swing size is rather large, making the lathe 16 X 20.

This is the B2229 model by Craftex. no issues with it thus far. It will be undergoing some modifications such as a guard for the back motor against shavings and an oil system of sorts for the workpiece.
While I mostly got it for mechanical purposes, I will be using it for laser stuff as well.

:beer:

Re: A new mill/lathe.

hey my lathe has that same head as in the second picture but the gripping teeth are damaged do you know where to get a replacement.

Re: A new mill/lathe.

The chuck you mean?

Any metal tool working store will/should have replacement both for the entire chuck or its jaws. (also a variety of different chucks/jaws available.).

Re: A new mill/lathe.

Cool mine (Actually its my dads he lets me used ) was bought by my granddad used and given to my dad so it has alignment issues and the chuck wobbles I am going to post a thread with pictures asking people for some help fixing it when i get a chance.

Great find by the way you should be able to makes some nice stuff in no time.

Re: A new mill/lathe.

Main reason I even got this is before the only way was to use a mill or lathe seperatly, and that takes up too much room and is cumberson to move back and forth. I found this machine to not only take up less space, but will also do anything I need it to without much hastle.

Re: A new mill/lathe.

How many horsepower is the motor rated at?

Re: A new mill/lathe.

Wow! I would love to have a setup like this. My oldest son and I are looking into them at this time. There's a lot of nice stuff out there but the price and quality has to match well for us. Thanks for the pics man!!

Re: A new mill/lathe.

millirad said:

How many horsepower is the motor rated at?

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This thing has 2 motors, the motors are 3/4HP, one for the mill and the other for the lathe, both mill and lathe are belt driven. (7 speed for the lathe, 16 for the mill) (this is makes it nice and easy to replace if it wears out/tears.. gears would be a far bigger pain).

Tonga said:

Wow! I would love to have a setup like this. My oldest son and I are looking into them at this time. There's a lot of nice stuff out there but the price and quality has to match well for us. Thanks for the pics man!!

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If you have the money, I would really recomend this machine, it does the job of a lathe, a mill and a drillpress all in one, and is fairly compact. but warning, while it is compact, it is heavy as hell, niether me or my dad could pick this machine up by ourselves, we needed an engine jack and a hoist just to move it into place and onto it's stand. Cost wise though, for what it does im rather satisfied. It was on sale, so it was 1800 for the machine itself, and an extra 200 for the stand and all sorts of assesories that came with it (spare chuck jaws, tools, bits, milling chucks, centering stands, and much more).

Good machine and all, but my only complaint is that its very cumbersome and a pain in the ass to move around and set up.

When and if you do get yourself one, a good question to ask yourself is do you have anywhere that is fairly accessable to put it? or do you have a way of transporting it from the store to your house? if not, then it will be a limiting factor for a machine of this size. but then again it depends on what you want to do with it, you may just not need a machine this large to get your own projects done.

Re: A new mill/lathe.

That is a nice piece of machinery, and the "heavy and cumbersome" gives a great advantage in stability when using it.

Re: A new mill/lathe.

Nice piece of Machinery...
Wouldn't mind having that in the shop for prototyping..

Jerry

Re: A new mill/lathe.

GBD let's see some awesome custom lasers from you in the future.

Welcom back Lasersbee!:wave::wave:
Gosh am I glad you're back!

Re: A new mill/lathe.

anselm said:

GBD let's see some awesome custom lasers from you in the future.

Welcom back Lasersbee!:wave::wave:
Gosh am I glad you're back!

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Thanks anselm.... me too... :beer:

Jerry

Re: A new mill/lathe.

anselm said:

GBD let's see some awesome custom lasers from you in the future.

Click to expand...

Hehe.. thanks, but this is not my first well.. I didn't upload much of them, but I got one in my sig (the 445nm, im working on the 650nm).

Re: A new mill/lathe.

Nice piece of machinery, I wish I had the room for one like that.

Re: A new mill/lathe.

Craftex, is that from BusyBee tools? I was looking at the same lathe/mill combo
but read that its better to have two separate machines.. That thing must weigh a ton!
Ive looked at those up close at the store in Missisauga.

I have the CT-129N


I first bought the CT 133 which turned out to be an absolute piece of junk. I had less than 20hrs on it and it began changing speeds on its own.

Not only that but major design flaws, and overall crappy performance. Carrying these things out of your basement shop will make you resent a poorly made machine
and the sales reps fairly quick.

CT133

Re: A new mill/lathe.

Yes, its the one from busy bee, it came with a 2 year warrenty. Having used seperatly before, I can tell you I personally dont notice much difference (but yes, you do compromise on minor things in order to support a combination machine), and im quite satisfied with this unit. Although it does have some limitations, as the milling vice isn't high enough to do any percise work on it.

This machine will undergo alot of modifications and changes while its in my hands, so I hope it will perform even better then what I started with. (also, their stand isn't the best IMO, will probably weld a few support brackets and bolt them down to the concrete floor. This machine also has a design flaw that really gets my attention, and thats the possitioning of the lathe's motor, its in direct line for shavings to fall into the fan. so I will get some sheet metal and put a guard for it to prevent that.

Also, the tips it came with are rather shitty, so you are better of buying some decent carbide bits if you are going to do anything serious.. today I just used the bits it came with just to test out the machine a little more, but sometime next week I will buy proper bits.

Either way, its a fairly nice little machine (okay not little, the whole setup is probably 600-700LB). this is more or less why it was put inside the garage.. it was a pain in the ass as it is to unload it, I cannot even imagine how you would carry it downstairs into a basement.. the damn stairs will probably break on you (assuming you can find 4-5 guys to help you lift this thing).

well, it definatly is alot smaller then if I just bought 2 seperate machines of the same size.

A piece of 2.5" X 8" T6-6061 stock: