TongTai -vs- Johnford

[JAMMAN]

We attended the Absolute Machine Tools open house in southern Ohio, the owner is one of our customers for tractor pull parts.

 

Anyhow we are in the market for a small cheap lathe and looked at the Tongtai TS-85 and a Johnford SL-300... shamefully neither had I heard of before. They both look like decent cheap little lathes, was looking for real input from someone that has had to deal with one for a year or so.

 

Jim

[jeff]

I've heard of Johnford before, a few years ago, but haven't heard anything about them.

[MIL-TFP-41]

Johnford's are commonly called "Junkford". Never heard of the Tongtai.

[SKIR68]

we had 2 "Junkford's in our mold shop....they were used for roughing before heattreat. They were not capable of holding finishing tollerances (.0002 repeatedly) like our V-33 Makino's.

jm2c, ymmv!

[Cannon]

We have Johnford SL-50 lathe and it is actually quite rigid and accurate machine for the price. Only problem that I can think of is the way oil dripping to the coolant tank so it needs to be cleaned more often.

 

 

 

They were not capable of holding finishing tollerances (.0002 repeatedly) like our V-33 Makino's.

 

Thats not very fair comparison, Makino cost atleast twice as much as Johnford so of course you it will perform better.

[Newbeeee™]

There was a tie up between Tongtai and Hitachi as the MS400 (quill type hori) was made by them for Hitachi.

Can't vouch for the lathes though.

[JAMMAN]

I'm looking at this thread every half hour or so, thank you for the input so far. Just wanted to let you know you are not posting in the wind

 

Jim

[SKIR68]

We have Johnford SL-50 lathe and it is actually quite rigid and accurate machine for the price. Only problem that I can think of is the way oil dripping to the coolant tank so it needs to be cleaned more often.

 

 

 

 

 

Thats not very fair comparison, Makino cost atleast twice as much as Johnford so of course you it will perform better.

 

CORRECT! You get what you pay for! If you want a machine for pre-heattreat +/- .01 Tollerences, then a Junkford would be a choice to consider. For holding .0002, i wouldn't even consider it!

[JAMMAN]

So nobody has run a Tong-Tai. Usually no news is good news because bad news travels faster than the speed of light.

 

The TT has almost double the rapid feed as the Junkford (lol). We don't have to buy either but it would make getting a new one easier because of knowing the owner.

[robk]

Never heard of Tong-Tai, but we have a few large Johnford turning centers in here. Never had any problems with them. We run the same jobs on the Johnfords as we do on our Okumas with same speeds and feeds. Cutting only exotic materials here with lots of ceramic turning.