New lathe question

Looking at buying a new lathe.
The one I am looking at comes in imperial or metric. Being Australian we work in metric so I am thinking metric but?

My question is what are the threads in the Chinese lights imperial or metric?

thanks for any help.

What lathe you looking at? I’m thinking of upgrading my lathe but don’t really have the space :expressionless:

Personally I would stick with metric. You might find other things to make other than torches.

Not 100% sure yet but found a Myford ML7B in good condition but like the SUPER 7 with power cross.

All the Chinese lights should have metric threads

About any lathe with a gear box will do both imperial or metric. It’s just a matter of setting the dials on any I have seen. Most china lights are metric…. HOWEVER, not all. We have made a lot of parts for China lights that were imperial threads. I think it depends on what side of the bed they get up on that day!! :wink: TL

Edit…. on some lathes, you may have to swap out the change gears on the main drive shaft at the end of the lathe. :wink:

Metric.
As said before, usually you can switch between metric and imperial threads with famous 127-teeth gear.

Like the others said, Metric but most machines will do both with a gear change. Checkk head stock bearings and wear in all the slides. Voltage, single of three phase?

I thought it was changing the lead screw, not the actual gearing, since the tool will be driven by that. The chinese lathe that I use is set for imperial, but if you are already in metric land, stick with that.
The only issue is if you were making parts for something like Surefire, which are pretty standard at 20 tpi

Thanks for all the tips guys.
Yes with the MyFord M7 its ordered with a metric lead screw or imperial. After getting the quote of $2,500AUD for freight with the new lathe it pushes the price up to around $10,000AUD. I think I might just wait and see what comes up in the second-hand market now.

On many of the china lathes you can use the gearing changes off the spindle drive to cut most of either metric or imperial threads, but there are a few that you just can’t get.

@DD, i like the stop and the dial indicator set up for measuring tool travel—really useful on an older or low-cost lathe with backlash in the cross slide.

i’ve found it less stressful and keeps my underwear clean to cut external threads by mounting the tool upside down and running the spindle in reverse, cutting the threads as the tool moves away from the chuck.