My Taig Lathe

I am amazed at what a workhorse the Taig lathe has proved to be. It is accurate, easy to use, and does not take up much room in the shop. For its size and cost I can not really see the Taig being beat. There are a stream of cheap lathes coming out of China at the moment that have more advanced features like power feed and gear cutting options. While fully tooled up the Taig ends up costing more then one of these lathes, I learned a lot from the kit like nature of the Taig. I highly recommend it as a first lathe for the home hobbyist.

As for the kit like nature of the Taig my setup is fairly stock. I used a metal mounting plate for rigidity and so that I could mount other modifications securely later on. The metal cover also make cleanup easier because oil and cutting fluid do not soak into the metal. One place I do suggest using wood is the riser block sitting under the lathe bed. The wood block acts as a vibration dampener.

	Here is the lathe set up for light milling operations. The milling cutter is collet fit into the spindle and the chuck is mounted onto the vertical axis. In this type of milling the work piece is moved around the cutter as opposed to a normal setup where the milling cutter is moved around a stationary work piece.
	This picture gives you a good idea of the scale of the Taig. It really is a desktop device and, I have found, stores easily when not in use. I built the metal base and motor mount. Other Taig owners have all sorts of other ways to set up the Taig, they are all fairly small though.