Recommend me a lathe.

[Beau]

I'm lookin for a decent lathe that won't break the bank (<2k). Will use for smithing and other small projects. Anyone have suggestions from first hand use/experience?

 

[jontheturboguy]

Look for something used such as an old LeBlonde or South Bend.
Jet lathes, although import, are decent quality.
Ive yet to hear anything good about the Harbor Freight or Grizzly brand lathes.
Enco also makes a good import.
Any way you go, it can get expensive in a hurry!

 

[1911ly]

If you have the room for it a South Bend Lathe will do what you want. Just check it over really well. And a usually found a a good price. just about every High School metal shop had one. They are plentiful.

 

[mom45]

We have an old American Tool lathe that we picked up REALLY cheap in great shape. The machinist was going more modern and had it sitting there trying to figure out what he was going to do with it. We just happened to ask at the right time if he had one for sale. Don't hesitate to ask around.

 

[freekforge]

South bend lathes are awesome they are my absolute favorite. Grizzlys are decent and cheap I used 2 of them in school and you can make good stuff on them

 

[winchester]

southbend 10 k

 

[AllenM]

I am using a Grizzly. "gunsmith" lathe I bought new and as a beginner t does what I wan and more. seems nice enough but I Have never used a south bend so I have no point of reference. Only advice I have is, this is my second lathe. My frst one I had to manually change gears to cut different threads, all I can say s stay away from that.

 

[Slow Hand]

Yes, definitely go with a quick change gear box if you get an older one. I have a little Atlas 9x18 with manual gears and it's a big pain! A great lathe, especially for what I have in it, but that part stinks! Oh, and look at getting a quick change tool post if its an older lathe with the 'lantern' style tool holder. I got a QCTP for Christmas and its totally changed how I can use my lathe.

Keep an eye on Craig's List, I was looking last week and saw a couple of nice, big, older American Lathes for well under $2K

 

[ghuns]

Look for a SBL heavy 10 inch with a 2 1/4"-8 spindle nose or a 13 inch with the same. The larger bore thru the headstock is something you'll be glad you have.

 

[Trigger Time]

I recommend craftsman. I have a larger one that has quick change gears. Basicly it's just levers
both of my craftsmans are old but work great

 

[Modhydro]

Logan is another to look for in older lathes. I had a SB 10" model A and sold it to a buddy when I had a line on a Logan 10". The Logan is simply a lot heavier and stouter machine in the same listed size.

Any old machinery if reasonably well taken care of will work fine and in many cases be build nicer than current production. Be very careful though. While the machine may be reasonable, the tooling is where the $$$ can add up in a hurry.

Steve

 

[CountryBoy19]

The thing you have to watch on older lathes is the spindle bore and bed length. Most older lathes have small spindle bores. It's hard to run a barrel through a spindle bore that is only 3/4" for threading etc, so you then have to find a lathe with a longer bed length so you do barrel work. Also be careful on South Ben lathes because the "bed length" was measure as the overall length. For example, my 42 inch 10 K (light 10) only has a center to center distance of about 20" if I really push it. The longest barrel I could possible work on is a 20" barrel.

IMHO, there is nothing wrong with a Grizzly lathe for what you want to do. I ran one for years when I was learning and I can say that I would much rather have a Grizzly lathe (with a large spindle bore) than my South Bend 10 K that is practically useless for any rifle barrel work. Grizzly is one of the few Taiwan import lathes I would trust but if/when received new I would inspect it top-to-bottom and inside-out. I wouldn't trust ANY Chinese import lathe. I've seen some of them and you couldn't pay me enough. I've run Smithy brand and they are pretty crummy.

Also be careful running a quick change tool-post on any older lathe like South Bend. They were made for lantern style tool holders and the cross-slides are narrow because of that. When you put a quick-change toolpost on, the cutting forces are offset a few inches to the side of the cross-slide putting a large twisting force on the cross-slide and you can get a LOT of tool chatter (I have this problem).

 

[IndyGunworks]

I would avoid old American, unless you are VERY savy working on them.... I went that route with an older south bend tool room, and spent more time working on it than with it....

I would look up Mathews precision.

 

[engineerpower]

I would avoid old American, unless you are VERY savy working on them.... I went that route with an older south bend tool room, and spent more time working on it than with it....

I would look up Mathews precision.

Depends on the condition of the lathe. SB's have a huge community of users to support you, lots of documentation and parts, forums going over almost any issue you'll have, rebuild parts and manuals, etc.

Look for a SBL heavy 10 inch with a 2 1/4"-8 spindle nose or a 13 inch with the same. The larger bore thru the headstock is something you'll be glad you have.

This is EXACTLY what I have, and it's almost perfect. I got mine 5 minutes away for $700 delivered to my door, from a friend I afterwards found to be a brother. Mine is a tool-room model, FROM SB's actual tool room (how cool is that?). I tore it down to just about every individual part for cleaning, lubrication, and paint (fire red), and it's not hard to do or service parts. The only thing the newer lathes have on it is that some have a lever you can throw to switch between imperial and metric threading feeds, while you need to plug in a couple change gears on mine.

Stay away from small mills and lathes, you'll quickly outgrow them and wish you'd put the money towards a real machine. The actual machine itself is just the start, expect to pay double the amount in tooling.

 

[olhorseman]

Probably South Bend, Atlas, or Clausing in that price range, LeBlond will probably be more. If you come across a Hardinge HLV under $5k please PM me.

 

[ghuns]

If you come across a Hardinge HLV under $5k please PM me.

A shop I worked at had one of those. The name Hardinge HLV shouldn't really be mentioned in the same breath as the others. Not that the other are bad. There's just nothing else as good.

Monarch is another one that's really good.

 

[Beau]

Thanks for the input everyone.

 

[engineerpower]

Probably the easiest way to find a lathe is to watch craigslist, and be fast! There have been several recently that came up in the Indy area that would work for you. They tend to be overpriced around here (we're in somewhat of a machine drought), but if you want one they're out there. Just ask somebody who knows before you pull the trigger on one.

 

[ghuns]

Right after I graduated from high school, early 90's, Penn High School got rid of a bunch of old lathes at auction. The 9" SBLs sold like hotcakes, all beat to hell, for around a grand each.

They almost couldn't give the 13" ones away. They had a half dozen or so to choose from, all in near perfect condition, and they all went for right around $500 each.

The shop teachers rarely had the kids use the 13s because they had plenty of 9s to go around and most projects didn't require anything bigger.

 

[freekforge]

Indy what sb did you have? i rebuilt my own in 10th grade and rebuilt 3 of the schools in 11th grade. they are all still running fine to this day. SBs are the easiest to work on in my opinion