Help a brazilian - questions

[elizio]

Hi guys:
Please, help me:
1 - I want buy a micro lathe in USA adress (june/Brodak) - What is the procedure, or company who send me, by low cost, or acceptable cost, by container, USA to Brazil?
2 - Without Lone Star, who suplly a balsa wood (type 4-6) good quality in USA?
Thanks for help.
elizio

[Don Curry AMA 267060]

Try Balsa USA

[Tom McClain]

Harbor Freight for the minilathe www.harborfreight.com and National Balsa for excellent contest grade balsa (413) 277-9500 www.nationalbalsa.com/

[fred krueger]

There are 2 U.S. manufacturers of micro-lathes:

Taig
http://www.taigtools.com/

Sherline
http://www.sherline.com/

I own a Taig with a variety of accessories.  To date, I have only made some venturis  (see examples below)

Parts and service for the U.S. made tools is excellent.  I don't know how good parts and service are for the Chinese made tools.

Fred

[elizio]

Thanks guys!

But my problem, is know a company for carry a leathe by container USA to Brazil. The travel, two or three months delay, no trouble; but if possible, no very expensive. (in normal business: US$ 600 the micro lathe and US$ 800 the mail).
I need hope.
elizio

[Bob Reeves]

Hi Elizio,

I just went through the process of doing the homework and deciding on a mini lathe.. The one I ended up buying was the MicroMark Microlux 7 X 14 http://www.micromark.com/ grabbed it when they had a sale for $99.00 less than the normal price.

Not sure if they can ship to Brazil or what your budget is but in my opinion the micro lathes are not worth having unless all you need is to turn small parts from brass, aluminum or plastic. I Sold a Unimat-III for enough to buy the MM because the Unimat simply wasn't robust enough to do some of the things I wanted to do.

This is basically the same lathe Harbor Freight and Grizzly sells but it has a longer bed, more features and is a little better QC'd. If I hadn't bought the MM I would have bought this one http://www.toolsnow.com/browse.cfm/4,876.html It comes with a few more accessories than the others but it's also a 7 X 12.

Best I can tell you on shipping would be to get in touch with the companies and find out.. Doubt anyone here in the states has ever asked if they would ship to Brazil 

[Bryan Higgins]

Hi Elizio

You could take the weight of the tool and give it to UHL and see what there cost is
for shipping it to you.  That's all i can think of right now.

Wow Bob thats a nice Lathe. 
I would like to add that to my shop.                                        Bryan

[elizio]

Hi Bryan:
the weight is 90 pounds (or 100+acessories).
Please, look the price in UHL.
Thanks.
elizio

p.s.: this shot was obtain today.

[Paul Smith]

Balsa comes from Equador (your neighbor).  It seems a waste to ship it to America and back.

Maybe instead of buying a lathe, your could buy some balsa saws and sell us 4-6 pound wood.

[elizio]

Hi Paul:
yes, balsa is native in Amazonian forest (remember a RAF Mosquito = balsa and plywood? Or Solarbo balsa wood?).
Have  balsa in Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Brazil and Colombia of corse.
But, in Ecuador, the tree is native and cultivate, and very good treatament.
The businnes are in greate scale, not is my necessity.
4 - 6 pounds, I always buy for Lone Star, and absolutely satisfied. The fire was a calamity.
Thanks for your opinion.
I'm sorry my bad english.
elizio

[Paul Smith]

Well, it's a business opportunity for somebody who lives in South America.

If you could saw the wood BEFORE shipping it would eliminate shipping a lot of scrap halfway around the world.  Cut out the middlemen as we say.

[elizio]

Hi Paul:
it's the ideal procedure; but impossible in actual world .
It's possible too, what the american lathe use a manganes minery, obtain in my State, we have the greatest mine of world (Urucum - Corumbá - MS). This city is mencioned in various books of John Grishan.
Have a good day!
Your brother in CL.
elizio

[elizio]

Fred:
great job. Yours lathe pieces are a professional worker.
elizio.

[Leonardo.STUNTI]

About the oversea shipping take look : http://www.shipoverseas.com



Regards,

Porto Alegre

[Steve Helmick]

I used Google to search for DHL and UPS websites, where you can calculate shipping costs. I couldn't make either work for me, without enough data to input, plus it looked like air freight, so rather expensive. I would be tempted to contact MicroMark and see if they would arrange shipping. The link provided by Leonardo.Stunt looks useful.

The mini-lathe I bought is a Grizzly. It has a longer bed than the Harbor Freight version, but shorter than the MicroMark, otherwise the same. I only got the 3 jaw chuck. I bought a 1/2" Jacobs type chuck for the tailstock, but a 3/8" would probably be better. Generally, Jobber length drills are almost too long. With the short bed of the Harbor Freight lathe, the 3/8" chuck would be almost required. Grizzly can provide chucks, arbors,  centers, etc. I would really like a good toolpost to replace the box-type. Something like an Aloris or KDK would be sweet, but I haven't found such a unit that's small enough. I considered making a simpler version, but haven't.   

I've made a fair number of venturis (mostly Delrin), and modified a few prop-drivers, spinner backplates, spinner cones, adapter nuts, and such. Generally pretty satisfactory, but I'm a machinist by trade and ran some lathes at work that were much worse!  The machine is made as a Metric, and to make parts in inches can be a problem, but that's my problem, and you'll be making metric parts, I'd think.  For the things I do with it, it's been quite satisfactory. I have always used it in "low range", BTW.  It would be fine for making a cylinder head or backplate,  but not an  entire engine!  Steve