Review – Harbor Freight 8×12 Lathe
After two years of use, we pause to take stock of the 8 x 12 lathe from Harbor Freight. Our conclusion is that the lathe itself is an excellent choice for the home machinist, but that Harbor Freight is no longer price competitive. At this point, we would purchase from LatheMaster.com for the benefits of accessories and support. Too Many Parts aims to provide viewers with brief reviews and how to demos presenting tools and machines of interest to the home machinist, mechanic and hobbyist. The demonstrations and opinions are based on equipment and machinery we bought and use in our home garage workshop to restore cars, build electric vehicles (EVs) and do general machining of metals (steel, aluminum and brass) and plastics (including urethane). We try to show you the good and bad features and present the pros and cons so that you can make an informed decision about what brand or model to buy and where to get it, hopefully at the best price.
@BudFox559 – Yes, my motor died the first time I used the lathe — a capacitor blew. It took months for HF to figure out that they could not source a replacement (odd since they still manufacture the lathe). I installed a new capacitor from eBay and used it for years until recently the other capacitor blew. I used that as an excuse to get an AC motor and speed controller. That worked great for me, but if I were trying to solve the problem through HF, I would be very disappointed.
I bought a Harbor Freight 12 X 36 65044 lathe and the YL90L-4 2HP motor died on me in under a year. I ordered a motor under warranty and have been waiting three months and never received one. I get the run around every time I cal them. The lathe has a one year warranty, but it is worthless so just keep in mind that if anything breaks you’re on your own. I’ll probably have to replace all of the electrical to get mine going again. I feel bad about saying this but it is the truth.
good to know, thanks.
@mysusualchannel – All the gears on this lathe are metal. It is quite robust and accurate. Really no comparison to the smaller models.
@fwdsystems – LittleMachineShop dot c-o-m has quick change tool post sets for this lathe. Their part number is 2713. They are great folks to do business with.
@myusualchannel – All the gears on this lathe are metal. It is very robust.
– Absolutely.
Hanging shirt sleeves?.. Not Cool!!
Can I get a quick change tool post set for the Harbor Freight 8X12 lathe? If so, where and what model would it be? I’ve searched but no luck..
The reason why we want a metal gear is to be able to tap the ends of shaft and do small, precise press fits.
Nice video 🙂
The robotics shop where I do most of my work borrowed a HF mini-lathe similar to what you have, just a bit smaller. It turned out to be rather useless as I had to re-machine virtually everything because the finishing passes had been omitted (as could be expected with cheaper tools). Once that was fixed we quickly noticed that the gears in the tail-stock were plastic. Is it the same on this more expensive version?