home depot to carry 3d printers

[HankB]

The one commandment of HF:
Do not buy anything that could maim or kill you upon failure

I actually ran one of their mini vertical mills and mini lathes for years, and if you spend a little bit of time truing things up & improving tolerances, and if you understand the limitations of smaller, lower quality machines, they're an excellent value.

HF lathes are made by SIEG in China, which makes the majority of mini-lathes sold in the USA. The design is fundamentally sound, but they're a little short in fit & finish. I have a MicroMark 7x14 mini lathe - a longer version of what HF sells - and after fabricating tapered gibs and doing some fitting on the carriage, cross slide, and compound, I reduced the measured slop from >0.005" down to around 0.0002" - 0.0003", about as fine as I can measure. And it's a LOT smoother. Given the limitations in rigidity and such, that's pretty good for a relatively cheap benchtop machine.

 

[barnbwt]

Mach, I think it would be difficult for that little lathe to kill you or maim you if you were using it safely in the first place, under any circumstance (okay, maybe it could electrocute you through faulty insulation or start a fire). My axiom still stands. Besides, as HankB notes, they aren't an HF-specific product (Grizzly sells the same, but with real customer support) so I would only half-count them. I've heard the larger welders they sell aren't total garbage, either, but I've little experience and would probably kill myself with any welder at this time .

I do know they couldn't even make an anvil right (soft, mild iron? really? ) Color me suspicious. I know try to avoid buying anything sharper than a boiled egg that can; shock me, immolate me, crush me, or impale me

TCB