Looking for new 10" x 16" , or thereabouts, metal turning lathe. Any suggestions for quality machine, where to purchase. Thankee
Scour the Craigslist and other places for an old Hardinge, South Bend, or other quality brand. Even a 40 year old Craftsman is a good, US built piece. Don't waste any time, effort or money on a modern, cheesy Chinese copy of an old machine. It won't do anything well, even once.
I'm curious about your "10 X 16" spec. Are you wanting a 10" to 16" swing, or do you want a 10" swing and a 16" bed? like this? http://stlouis.craigslist.org/tls/2064076552.html Anyway, I'll second what Concours suggests and look for an older lathe in good condition. The chinese machines will take as much fiddling to do as good a job and the classic american ones will still be around in 3o years, I suspect not a lot of the chinese ones will be.
Sounds like somebody has never taken a cut with a Chicom lathe. Are they perfect? Certainly not. Might they be more capable than a clapped out, abused, piece of once glorious American iron? Very likely. Then there's the price difference, and how much are you really going to use it and what for. Buy whatever you want, but don't disqualify import stuff based on nothing.
NOT based on nothing. I repair machine tools for a living. VERY frequently, I'm the guy who has to deliver the bad news to the owner of a not very old cheesy piece of Chinese made junk that his (SOFT) bedways are worn out, spindle and headstock bearings are flopped out, he can't make good parts and he can either buy another piece of junk or pay more than it's worth to repair this one. Now, tell us all about your vast experience....
Man I have (hate) to agree with Concours. I use and repair modern and old machine tools every day. My experience with Chinese and some other Asian tools has not been good. Inaccurate and cheesy to start with and it only goes downhill from there. Why was my first post deleted? What rule did I violate? Uhm nevermind there's two of these threads. Doh!
Easy boys. I took exception to "It won't do anything well, even once." The OP didn't say what he was going to do with it. Is he making brass candlesticks or turning shafts out of 4140? I'm surprised anyone would bring you a Chinese lathe for a rebuild, it's fairly obvious a new one would be cheaper. The range of quality I've seen in Chinese stuff is pretty wide, 'King' looks very good to me, while the red things Princess Auto sells, I wouldn't bother dragging home for free. I don't repair machine tools for a living. I'm not a licensed machinist. I do own a Craftex B2227L which allows me to work to .001" without trying very hard and I've managed to make some very nice parts with it.
Now's a VERY good time to look into a good used lathe. Present economy, if you arrive with cash in hand it's a buyer's market. You can find a very functional SB or similar and haggle without mercy.
Just my .02 If was buying a lathe for my home shop, occasional use, making a few tools, bike parts, etc., it would be an OLDER, quality made (didn't mean to exclude the Canadian, German, Swiss, etc., etc., NON-Chinese made lathe. Got a buddy that's a machinist? have him go with you to look. As for a "wide range of quality" well, some stuff works a little. Are you going to buy it because it "looks very good". I hope it works out for you.
.001 is closer tolerance than .02 i think he has you beat???? By the way i have a VanNorman Per-Fecto 944 (sounds like a cigar) cylinder boring bar with stand i'd like to trade for a lathe, comes with all attachmnets and bores straight.
I bought a SB 9"x18" about 13 years ago, $1000. It wasn't in a production shop, so it wasn't worn out. Built in '63, got it from the original owner. Stuff like that shows up on CL, no CL back then. Looked in the paper for 5 years before one showed up. Also got the Bport there, again not a production machine so it was tight. Toughest thing about the old iron is finding one that hasn't been run 40 hours a week for 30 years. If you're good, you can work around the problems. But a noob is gonna have a tougher time. And the low hour machines are really scarce. I bought a Freejoth 13"x 40" 25 years ago. It was a year old. Got it from a noob gunsmith that found out the liability insurance for a smith was $4000 a year; AFTER he bought his machines. That one is accurate, parts from Grizzly or Enco if I need them. They still make this style machine.
+37 I paid 750 or 800 for all this (I forget). Hey Concours, what would you charge to put new gears (all 4) on the gear box shafts if I shipped them to you?
I did the same thing 30 years ago with my 9" SB which was about $750 with LOTS of tooling . It's perfect for my small projects.
