Rick Draper

I have been offered a brand new Hudy com lathe for £130 with a dimond tip it has only been used once as the guy brought it but is giving up racing. What are peoples opinions on the hudy lathes? I have heard all sorts of opinions from them been crap after a few cuts to been the best you can buy. Its not the automatic one!
Thanks for any help
Rick

Darkseid

iTrader: (9)

Man, I've never heard of anything made by HUDY being crap.

Rick Draper

Thats just what some people said to me. Do you think its worth it then? Rick

F1-Fanatic

I like the Hudy products very much.. the only time I have heard of them going bad after a few cuts is with the standard bit (NOT THE DIAMOND) which is why it is very important to get a diamond bit from the start. Only thing I can say is get the lathe with the "V" guides and not the bearings... The bearings can shift durring a cut and the "V" guides only require a small dab of bushing oil to produce very high quality cuts.

Good luck with it!

F1-Fanatic

Speedo

I have Tru Lathe 2 and a Fatom. The Trinity is a POS, the Fantom is great, though you have to play with it a bit to make it nice and smooth.

I have heard nothing but praise for Hudy products, I can't see why it would be a bad deal.

Go for it,
Josh

STLNLST

iTrader: (32)

How does the bearings shift when they are supposed to spin freely in their set points? I'm asking this as a real question and not as a smart butt. I'd really like to know because I have the Hudy lathe with the bearings and I'm not happy with the way it's been cutting lately. I thought that it was out of alignment so I realigned it and then I thought that it was my diamond bit but it's not. The thing cut flawlessly for the first year but these last two months have been terrible. Do the bearings need to be replaced? Thanks in advance for any help you may give.

Trips

iTrader: (16)

The bearings wouldn't actually shift, but all ball bearings have a certain amount of play in them. If a piece of dust or dirt (like a tiny copper particle or several) gets inside the bearing race, it can cause the bearings to run slightly untrue, which can compromise the cut quality. A few ten-thousanths of an inch of runout in one of the bearings would be enough to reduce the cut quality. I'd try a thorough cleaning of the bearings, or even replace them, or better yet, swap them for a set of v-block supports.

It's also possible that a particles of copper right on the outer surfaces of the bearing could cause the armature shaft to "hop" over them as it spins, but I'd think a particle inside the bearing where you can't see it would be a more likely culprit.


Trips

Jarrod Langlois

iTrader: (1)

speedo, on your tru lathe 2 do u have play in the depth feed, because thats the problem that i had with mine,and i was getting horrible cuts every time, and it was pretty new, so i sent it to trinity and they sent me a new tru lathe 3 with v blocks and an extra set of ball bearings, and ive been able to get pretty decent cuts with it now. just thought id let u know cant guarantee trinity would send u a new lathe but they might be able to hewlp u out if it is fairly new. i still dont think the trinitys are as good as the hudys and cobras

Speedo

No, there is no play, and it does do decent cuts, just that for the money what you get is outrageus. First one I got was really messed up, all jerky etc, so they replaced that...

Much happier with the fantom though

Josh

STLNLST

iTrader: (32)

Trips- How do you get the bearings out to do a little cleaning to them? I took a closer look at the bearings in the lathe and the set on the right side have a rusty ish looking color to them while the other set look like bearing should look. I'm thinking replacement for both sides but I really want to know if this is the problem. Bearings are cheap but if it does the same thing then it's a deeper issue that I have no clue as to how to go about fixing it.

Jarrod Langlois

iTrader: (1)

yai think id stick with the fantom too.

dtm

Hudy lathes are fine. I've had mine for a few years now. Original diamond bit still cuts great after well over 100+ comms!

Boomer

Hudy is definitely the "Mercedes" of lathes - well built and very solidly designed. Not sure how much 130 pounds is in dollars, but unless it's 2:1, that sounds like a killer deal.

I use a Cobra lathe - v-blocks on it and it works the best of any lathe I have used.

I had an original team Twister lathe and it was smooth and wonderful. The thing was 10 years old but worked like it was brand new. I was a dumba$$ and sold it. . .wish I had it back!

I had one Trinity lathe (built on the Twister patent) that used bearings rather than v-blocks. The play in the bearings is lateral play and it just didn't work as smooth as I wanted - also little bits of comm (that of course fly all over) tended to get down in there and make the bearings get kinda grindy. I spent a lot of time cleaning them. No problem with a V-block. . .

Trips

iTrader: (16)

I've only owned Cobra lathes, so I have no idea how you'd go about cleaning or removing the bearings on a Hudy. Sorry.

T

Bosscat

If you check the prices on the Apex site you'll see the basic lathe is £129.95 plus £49.95 for the diamond tip so assuming the diamond is ok you're best part of £50 up. If however is got the bearing supports as well then they cost another £79.95 in which case its a good deal go for it. If not then its marginal depending on the tip condition unless you know where you can it re-dressed at a reasonable cost