Hobbymat MD65

I′ve owned this lathe from new, bought around 1982.

Review

Specification:

Centre Height: 65 mm (2.6")

Between Centres: 300 mm (12")

Turning diameter over carriage: 62mm

Cross slide travel: 80mm

Headstock: MT2

Headstock bore: 12mm

Tailstock: MT1

Motor: 250W

Spindle Speeds: 250, 500, 1000 and 2000rpm

Price: you can pick up a Hobbymat MD65 lathe on ebay for between £300 and £450.

Have had this lathe for more than 25 years and it still does as good a job now as ever.

For a 25 year old lathe it cleans up rather well and with careful care, adjustment and oil the results are still as good as when it was new.

The spindle speeds are limited as you can only go down to 250rpm, but the swing over the bed is limited and so this lowest rpm is not that much of a handicap.

Turning

The lathe shown in the process of being used to turn a wooden ring. I must admit that it is not really correct to turn wood on a metal lathe as the dust gets into slides and bearings and does damage. However, only having one lathe means that sometimes it is necessary.

The thing to do is to hoover the lathe carefully afterwards and then oil the slides and leadscrews.

Turning a ring using a support bar in the tailstock - see Rings.

Gear Cutting

As yet haven′t written anything about the general use as lathe, but have just been cutting some gears and thought it worth taking some photographs and writing up some comments.

I fit a Unimat 3 milling pillar onto the angle plate on the Hobbymat cross-slide, an indexing plate onto the back of the lathe spindle, a Unimat 3 milling head with gear cutter and I′m able to machine small gears.

The angle plate came with the lathe and is used when you want to turn the lathe into a mill. I drilled and tapped two 6mm threads in the plate so that I could mount the Unimat 3 piller directly to it. The top edge of the angle plate does limit the lowest position of milling head, but even so with the quill travel it can easily reach the centreline of the lathe.

The first thing to do so as to stop any unwanted accidents is to remove the lathe drive belt. I also unplug the lathe motor. Double sure that I cannot switch it on and have everything spinning.

I then remove the collar that retains the drive belt pulley on the lathe spindle and in it′s place attach the indexing plate.

Very easy with an indexing plate to lose count as to where you are and where to move next, one hole out when making multiple cuts would be horrific as you would need to start again, so I mark the holes I′m going to use with a permanent marker.

I also mark the first start finish point (the "O" on the outer rim), just makes it easier to know exactly where you are - light at the end of the tunnel!!

The indexing point is just a point that a tapered point that locates in a hole. The point is brazed to a 5mm diameter piece of silver steel and then locates in a hole in a wooden block that is fixed to the work bench.

The silver steel is springy enough that you can pull the point out of the index hole, rotate the indexing plate and then fix in the next hole.

Just remember that the rigidity of the lathe head is defined by how rigid this bar and fixing is as this is all that stops it rotating.

A small amount of force is applied to remove the point from the plate.

Just make sure the milling tool is clear of the part before you move the index on to the next point.

In this case you can see the part after the first cuts. I then move the tool in further and once again make each cut and then index the part round.

Take your time as the milling head is not as stiff as it could be when mounted to the saddle.

However, the results are worth waiting for.

Conclusion

See also: Tools.