Turning on a budget

Both hobbyists and professionals looking for an economical option for machining small parts can turn to the 127 mm (5″) slant-bed lathe from Palmgren.

“When we launched it, everybody loved the little 5″ for space savings and overall ease of use,” said Donald Yonkers, parts and service manager at Naperville, Illinois-based C.H. Hanson Co., which owns the Palmgren brand. “You can put this in your garage and be making parts in an hour.”

Suitable for parts 31.75 mm (1.25″) or less in diameter, the 5″ turning center also can be used at machine shops for short production runs, one-offs and prototyping. The small size and footprint of the lathe — it measures 1.4 m (55″) long, 0.77 m (30.25″) wide and 1.6 m (63″) high — make it a good choice for shops in need of a secondary machine or an additional chuck, according to Palmgren. For larger parts, the company offers a 203.2 mm (8″) version of the lathe measuring 2.08 m (82″) long, 1.65 m (65″) wide and 1.8 m (71″) high.

Priced at about $26,000, the 5″ lathe certainly falls into the budget category. But Yonkers maintains that users won’t be compromising on part quality.

The 5″ slant-bed lathe is a compact, low-priced machine for making small parts at a garage or machine shop. Image courtesy of Palmgren

“If I put this machine next to a (high-end) CNC machine,” he said, “it would do the same part at the same time and you wouldn’t notice a difference between the two.”

In China, every one of the slant-bed lathes is manufactured and tested to ensure that it meets high quality and accuracy standards, according to Palmgren. When the machines arrive at Yonkers’ facility, he tests them as well and reports repeatability accuracy of around ±0.000381 mm (0.000015″).

The company attributes this accuracy in part to the use of high-precision linear rails for positioning the x- and z-axes. Another key factor is the rigid construction of the machines.

“They’re built like big CNC machines with accuracy in mind,” Yonkers said. “They have a full cast-iron frame and base, so they don’t twist and move around a lot like some lower-end CNCs do when their frames are bolted together.”