Shop Fox M1049 9-Inch by 19-Inch Bench Lathe

This lathe is exactly what was needed in my small workshop. The minor amount of use its had to date has proven its value. I've used smaller lathes but find this lathe to be ideal for small part construction and with common sense of understanding its limits preforms well as a larger lathe. Will it cut has well has my 12 x 42 ?, no not even close but I don't expect it to. As for durability its to early to tell, its only been in operation for three weeks.

This was purchased to use for larger parts than our micro lathe. Some safety limit switches would be nice for the auto feed and there are no safety guards at all. That being said, very happy with the product and we are producing quality lathed parts with good precision.

i doe not know how to rate it until i use it. it looks like a real fine lathe the size is right

First of all I have yet to begin a project.Secondly, this thing was shipped in an impressive wooden crate and arrived intact.I will write more as I test it out....Pete in TEXAS, 6-25-12

I have had this lathe for a month now. I made four parts for a project I hope to paten, if I don't have to keep fixing this lathe after each part.Does it work? Yes but it will take a lot of tuning of the bed ways and dial tension.Forget about that snowy smooth finish you see, That's Photoshop at work. The real color is more like some bad dental hygiene, tooth yellow. Can we make this a new color for the Crayola Company? We can call it "Bad Hygiene Yellow". The paint looks like orange peel but it's not, it's the casted parts not being buffed out and then painted. Now I know you should not judged a book by it's cover. I have had some bad looking car finishes but the car ran great. Now just because the head stock spins around is not quite good enough to call it a lathe.Biggest problem was the thread dial. It was over a 1/4 inch out of place and the thread dial would skip when it came by the keyway on main feed screw.The next problem which is very serious. The two t-bolts that hold tool post and compound slide to the saddle and cross slide system. These t-bolts are less then a 1/4 '' and are not the proper strength for the job. I had to keep re-squaring my tool post to work when I found t-bolts where stripping. That would of sent tool holder and compound rest into the rotating head chuck. Besides the equipment damage this could of caused, you might be missing some fingers if you where holding or turning any hand wheels.Ran into non-hardened or treaded set screws which had to be drilled out and extracted.A poor casted hand wheel and one that was all hacked up on the face which had to be flied down before sanding smooth because marks where so deep. This lathe should of never made it off the factory floor. But it did. The seller wouldn't do any thing about it, So you'll be going through the distributor to handle the warranty . You need to be handy because they just send you replacement parts. I'm replacing all the set screws which will cost a bought $30.00 or more if you can find them. Like me you might have to order them. I use McMaster Carr on sizes of bolts what you can't find at town hardware store.I wanted full size lathe but just don't have room for it now. I can't say it will be better but bigger lathe bigger hardware. Hope to shoot video to show you but I can't swing it right now. Good luck with your lathe purchase. I'm giving it two stars. 1. it ran when I turned it on. And 2. Customer service is great.

I don't have this lathe but I do have the enco version of the same lathe. It's built by the same company in china and sold by Grizzly, harbor freight, Enco and Jet. They're all the same and the parts are exchangeable. I bought mine used; it was made in 2001 and I still use it.There's only 1 reason to buy this lathe and that is you don't have room for a huge monster. With that constraint, it's actually a quite full featured lathe for the benchtop series that are available.What I like:Speed changes are completed without tools (belt tension has a hand operated lever) and this is not available on even larger lathes. This is likely the best feature of this lathe since you do change speeds pretty often.Has separate carridge feed lever from the threading half nut (this is nice so that you don't wear out the threading half nut)Parts are exchangable with other sellers (you can search for the best price on replacement parts from Enco,Grizzly)What I don't like:Slowest speed is 130 RPM, which, is still a bit fast for threadingLightweight so had a couple of parts wear out fairly easily (but are replaceable of course)Lot of backlash in the compound slideQuick change gearbox doesn't get you much since it's only 9 gear selectable. You still have to change the gears for most things anyways.I added a quick change tool post, very handy.Made the 4 bolt tool post fixation for better stability.Added a magnetic base light.All in all it works well for what I need it for, and that is misc parts of steel and aluminum and some threading. I don't use it a lot but when you need it, you just need it. I've considered upgrading but until you get to the 12x36 lathe, they're hardly an upgrade.

it appears to have been assembled in a dirt hut, dirt grinder dust and grease everywhere in all ways and lead screw is bent so the saddle is hard to move towards the headstalk due to binding. IF you buy it be warned you MUST do a complete disassembly and cleaning and adjusting of everything including the headstock bearing (grinder dust) its like they greased everything and dumped grinder dust on it. Cheap Chinese junk with no quality control. I expected it would be bad but not a weeks worth of cleaning bad. Wish i would have bought a used english or US made lathe for less and fixed it up, better quality, less money for the same amount of work.Canceled Prime due to this and many more items being late, not showing up, defective or not as described. Why pay for prime when i can get free shipping on orders above $25 or buy for less on eBay