This was the first lathe I owned. I came across Sherline on the web (their
web site is excellent and well worth visiting if you have any interest at all in machine tools). Sherline tools are made in the USA at their facility in southern California. By good fortune a business trip took me to San Diego, and I carefully arranged a free half day in my schedule to drive up to visit Sherline. I met Joe Martin, owner and CEO, who showed me around. I now have two of their machine tools and numerous accessories. Their tools are excellent for the type of work that I do.
The lathe is about 8 in. between centres and 2 in. swing above the bed, and is thus similar in size to the more familiar (to the UK) Unimat. It lacks the solidity of the Cowells lathe, but that is much more expensive. For me, the plus points of the Sherline lathe are:
Solid bed gives it more rigidity than many small lathes
Electronic speed control gives high torque at low speed
The very neat and effective zeroing of the handwheels on both axes is well worth the small extra cost
Huge range of accessories
The minus points are:
Absence of rack feed means lots of leadscrew-turning to move the toolpost along the bed
Ultimately, it is too small and light for a few tasks
The last of these applies particularly to turning large driving wheels. The swing above the cross slide is limited, and in spite of the electronc speed control, the lowest speed is really too high to achieve a fine finish on cast iron. But for smaller turning jobs, it is still very frequently used. the photograph shows a collet holder in the headstock, which is how it usually is. I also have three-jaw and four-jaw chucks, so I can hold most things.
For a while I also used the lathe for a variety of small milling jobs, using various lash-ups to hold the work. Fortunately the acquisition of the
Sherline mill put paid to most of that. But it did show me what could be done with a bit of ingenuity.