Superior Motor lathe
 

I am looking for some help. Anyone have experience with various motor lathes, which brand and model is the "superior" comm lathe and why? Also wondering everyones various techniques for breaking in motors and why they use that technique. Really appreciate advice and help, thanks guy.

Fantom makes the best quality lathe....it just might be at a price a lot of people are not willing to pay but you have to figure the lathe comes with carter diamond bit, the case, 4c battery, on/off switch, lathe base = 1 chunk of alum so it's not going to tweak unless a bomb is set off on top of it, slave motor...might come with some other smaller things too but can't remember. There is some other lathes out there that cut good for the price range they are in...like Cobra...use to have one of those. Then Hudy I'm not sure on it's exact price range but pretty sure it's cheaper than Fantom and more than Cobra and people said they like that lathe also. Don't get a lathe that uses bearing guides or even has that option....just don't! Maybe someone else can get you the motor info you want....I just cut 'em and run 'em.

I have the Hudy and with the bearing guides. I have used it for about two years and never had any problems with them. What kinda of problems are people having with the bearings?

I think some people have trouble with bearing lathes because they get copper shavings in the bearing races.

I myself just ordered a Hudy Tech lathe with V-blocks. I've heard nothing about good things about these lathes. They arent particularly cheap, but if you want an inexpensive lathe look at the Orion one. Here is a link to the Hudy lathe. http://www.hudy.net/xhudy/products/p...9&kategoria=61

Ah.......gotch ya! This is the setup I have

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/7640/bearing9km.jpg

I have pulled the bearings one or twice and cleaned them, maybe that is why I have never had a problem.

They say that the bearings wear out and create slop. In theory this should be true, but I've never seen it. You should be safe either way, but if there is an option, go with the V/U blocks.

I've owned a twister, hudy, and now orion. I always liked the orion even before getting the hudy. I loved my hudy though. No particular reason why I suppose, I just liked it. I like this orion too. It's probably the most convinient of the lathes I've owned because of the way the arm is locked into the grooves. You don't need to use a pinion to keep if from shifting like most. I do miss the hold downs on my hudy though, and the rumor is that hudy is the most acurate, but you know how that goes in our hobby! More expensive means better right? ;) I'd recommend either the hudy or the orion for different reasons. Go with a diamond bit just so you don't have to switch out the bit every 10 cuts.

sounds like some good info to get me started on my quest to finally purchase a motor lathe. I am going to check out the hudy and the orion. Do the diamond bits ever wear out?

Diamond bits never wear out, but I've heard that its really easy to chip them. Not sure how easy it really is, but I've heard lots of stories online. If you just get Carbide bits you can sharpen them with a diamond file, so you can get by with a few carbide bits for a long time. And carbide bits are only $3.25 at mcmaster.com, so they certainly arent expensive.

water break in
 

What is this water break in I have heard about for brushed motors? Do you use your regular battery and esc and tx and drop the motor in a glass of water and run it? Variable thottle? 10 minute?