Minimax T124 - cutting rest/follower rings?

[Brian Holcombe]

recently replaced my T120 with a T124

Tried sourcing these at SCM but they only have one size. I have three already but none of them work for the project coming up. Are there any sources for these outside of SCM? I assume Centauro lathes use a similar thing.

Thank you.

[Brian Holcombe]

I think I have this figured out, one of followers has a press in part that offers a few smaller sizes so I’ll just bore out one of the larger ones.

[Erik Loza]

Brian, I remember this being a "thing" during my Italian days. There were only certain diameter rings available and customers were always asking for something in the middle. Probably 99% that the Centauros will NOT work on the T-124 parts. Whole different animal. The T-124 is a cool machine, nothing else out there quite like it.

Erik

[Brian Holcombe]

Thanks, Eric! Appreciate your comment. Build quality seems pretty high on this one, especially for the compact size and dedicated usage.

[Richard Coers]

Brian, I remember this being a "thing" during my Italian days. There were only certain diameter rings available and customers were always asking for something in the middle. Probably 99% that the Centauros will NOT work on the T-124 parts. Whole different animal. The T-124 is a cool machine, nothing else out there quite like it.

Erik
Curious what you mean by "nothing out there quite like it". Nothing else because it's a singular design? I picked up a HAPFO copy lathe a couple years ago which makes your statement interesting to me.

[Brian Holcombe]

Richard,

I was set on a Hapfo but couldn’t afford the space. This machine is unique in it has a compact footprint but retains features only otherwise present in the larger machines such as the follower device.

[Erik Loza]

Curious what you mean by "nothing out there quite like it". Nothing else because it's a singular design? I picked up a HAPFO copy lathe a couple years ago which makes your statement interesting to me.

Richard, I'd never actually heard of that brand. I'm no expert on lathes but what customers would tell us is that the we had the only 1-phase option that was available and in-stock in the US. Also, nobody ever complained about the T-124 price so I assume it was/is a good value for the dollar. The typical evolution was that a customer, like Brian's story, either already had an older MM lathe and needed a new one or their Vega died and they were somewhat forced to upgrade. Every other option seemed to be a giant hydraulic unit. So, I always assumed that the T-124 filled a unique niche.

Erik

[Brian Holcombe]

Hapfo is more comparable to Centauro and likely a bit nicer. Hydraulic tracer lathe. Smallest one I could find was 120” plus room for the knockout bars and around 45” depth. I found a couple Hapfo lathes I wanted but no way to fit them into my current space.

Neat thing with Hapfo is that the follower rest contacts the square sides of a blank and so the two cutters are both positioned after the follower, one rough, one finish.

The Minimax is 75” OAL and takes around 20” depth.

[Richard Coers]

I made mine fit because of the price. Picked it up on eBay for $850.441146

[Erik Loza]

I made mine fit because of the price. Picked it up on eBay for $850.

Yours is about twice the size of a T-124, LOL.

Erik

[Brian Holcombe]

Cheapest Hapfo I found was 10k, which I strongly considered but that also made it much more difficult to muster the will to ‘trim to fit’.