New Lathe - Boxford MKIII BUD

After using my Chinese mini lathe for a year or so I decided it was time for an upgrade. Most projects involve the lathe and taking tiny cuts on larger stock quickly becomes tedious. I would say that they are great to learn on though, handling smaller projects well (even in mild steel). Anything over 50mm in diameter starts to become a pain.

I spent weeks (possibly months) scouring the internet for information on the best lathe for a hobbyist, it was a tossup between the Boxford, a Myford or a Colchester Bantam. The Myfords and Colchesters tend to demand a high price, whereas the Boxfords seem to be cheaper, even for a good example. Although the accessories demand a premium - especially the traveling and steady rests.

Shortly after pickup

Keeping my eye on eBay and lathes.co.uk for some time, I eventually came across a Boxford MKIII BUD. Originally looking for a lathe with a thread cutting gearbox, such as the Boxford AUD, the lathe seemed too good to miss. Changing the gears manually for different threads and feeds can be a pain, but as a hobbyist one thing I've got is time. As a bonus the lathe did come with a full set of change gears, allowing me to cut both metric and imperial threads.

Cleaning, setup and first chips complete

Picking up the lathe involved hiring a van and convincing a friend that it would be an exciting adventure. We took an engine hoist, some small metal dollies and all the tools I could possibly imagine needing. The lathe was kept in a shed at the bottom of a garden and needed to be partially dismantled for us to move. I removed the tailstock and saddle, then split the bed from the cabinet - I didn't want to do this but we wouldn't have got it in the van otherwise. It did involve cutting the drive belt, but this was very warn and I planned to replace it. The two of us could carry the head and bed assembly, but the cabinet required the engine hoist. I put lifting straps through the holes at the top of the cabinet, which left about half an inch of headroom when loading in to the van. Overall pickup, dismantle and unloading took us around 12 hours, with three hours of  driving.

Chinese lathe replaced by the Boxford. Quite the upgrade.