been really wanting a lathe and been watching this OLD one on ebay, something like a craftsman AA from early 1900's, the price as of right now is like $90 with a day to go. It is missing a motor and other stuff but the price sems right and I am not looking to cut threads or such. What would be an okay price for this? I would spend $100-$150 on this if I do, is that reasonable? Don't mean to step on toes if you are also bidding but, go to a live auction and see how nasty shit gets- Thanks
just from what you said i would likely pass. these things can be picked up pretty cheap now, i'm going nuts cause i've probably seen a dozen lathes in the last year in the local papers etc, well under a grand and got no place to put one right now. you're supposed to be buying a precision tool, spend a few hundred. once you HAVE a lathe, you WILL want to do stuff like cut threads...next thing you know you'll pick up a british bike or something and have to deal with making your own fasteners.
It may look neat and be old and unique, but It probably is pretty worn out. The bed will probably be scored, chucks will be loose and so on. You'll have to restore it to do anything that will be precise, and by the time you pay for a new bed, you could have bought a new lathe.
kinda the old story, buy cheap and spend lots getting it up to snuff. What I thought but needed to hear it, thanks for grounding me--
www.homeshopmachinist.net www.practicalmachinist.com one of these places (i don't remember which) had a link to a site that explains what to look for when buying a used lathe.
what is the auction number? i'd like to check it out. just because it's old doesn't mean it's no good...i should know,i'm old... and so is my lathe,a 1941 Logan..it still puts out some good work,and sometimes i do too
The care and respect that a machine tool has been given during its life is vastly more important than its vintage. The worst you'll find came from production shops with low morale and high employee tunover. Some of the nicest lathes around can be found in R&D departments and research labs. Don't buy a lathe without a quick-change gearbox, which enables you to quickly vary the feed. Wear safety glasses. Dave http://www.roadsters.com/
I'd avoid it. At a minimum I'd be looking at small belt driven South Bends and if I had a little more budget I'd be looking at small gear driven lathes. Why? They have the ability to cut threads. They can get up to speeds and have the torque to use indexable carbide tooling (gear driven lathes) and will still have accessories and parts available for them.
If you live near a big city that has a 'recycler' type newspaper you should be able to find lathes advertised in it. I bought - sometimes refurbished - and sold several lathes when I lived in the Southland. Now that I'm up here in farm country you hardly ever see a lathe for sale. Dave has a good point about condition. If you find a lathe owned since new by a private party they are in good shape most times. A lot of the smaller lathes were purchased by machine shops for short job runs and they can have a lot of wear on the ways a few inches out from the chuck. Regardless, these are very usable once you learn how to compensate. Worst offenders in this regard are probably the Craftsman/Atlas lathes with their flat ways, but if you pay attention you can find some real jewels out there. You can cut gears on lathes without a quick-change gearbox, but try hard to get one with a gearbox. Makes life a lot easier. If you can't find one with a gearbox, try to find one with a big selection of gears. Many of the Craftsman/Atlas lathes come with extra gears and the manual - still available - shows you which gears to put where for whatever threads. You may not think so now, but you will want to cut threads. How else will you fit a new chuck or faceplate to your lathe? Assuming it has a threaded spindle nose which most smaller lathes do. Aim for a 12 x 36" (12" swing and 36" between centers) lathe, but a 12 x 24" or 10 x 24" is entirely usable. As is a 6 x 18" You can always trade up. The lathe should come with a minimum of tooling. Tooling can add up to some big bucks if you buy it new. There are used machine equipment stores in the big cities as well. Tooling minimums should be, 3 jaw chuck, 4 jaw chuck, centers for both ends, faceplate and toolpost. Toolpost preferably being the standard rocker style, but a block toolpost works fine. Better yet a quick change toolpost if you get lucky. A live center for the tailstock end is nice. A milling vise is not to be frowned upon. You can do some good stuff with these. I have a mill and still use the lathe milling vise for some things. A taper attachment is nice, but not used much. The tailstock setover technique will do most of what you need to do - and that consists of knocking out Morse Taper or other style taper arbors for adapting things to the lathe. A follower rest looks like a necessity, but it's not. I have one brand new in the box - from 17 years ago - and its never been used. Don't be afraid to buy a babbit bearing lathe with flat belt if it's in good shape. Many of these are darned good lathes. If the lathe is motor-less when you get it, you'll find a 1/3 - 1/2 horse capacitor start motor is fine for the 6 x 18's and a 3/4 - preferably one horse motor is what you'll want for the 10 & 12" swing lathes. When you look at the lathe, check the big gear under the lid. Sometimes these have a broken tooth and it's not noticeable until you put the back gears in for slow speed. If you find a good lathe with broken gear, but otherwise in good shape you can use that for a little whining and dealing on the price. These parts are available and depending on the structure of the gear proper - solid steel or sintered (sintered being a pressed powdered metal) you can make repairs. On the smaller lathes - bout 6 x 18" or so, be aware that many of them were made for cutting armatures and are passed off as regular lathes to nowcomers and are fairly useless. The nice thing about a lathe is that if it's running - even barely - you can use it to make repair parts. Best thing about using a lathe is how simple it makes some jobs. It gets you away from the file/hacksaw syndrome and knocking out something as simple as a drilled tube or enlarging the hole in a washer are easily and quickly done. I've made a few interesting parts on my lathe, not all of them visible on the car proper. A few internal engine parts of my own design and I'm leaning strongly toward making my own rocker arms due to the extemely high price of Buick roller rockers. (Unless I can adapt BBC rockers to the Buick and I think I can.) If you can dream a part, you can make it. You may have to make it twice cuz the first time around didn't work, but the second edition usually does it. Make three and you're an expert....
I meant to add to the above post, my friend just pulled a big Monarch out of his shop and is selling it. It's about 18 x 48" and maybe bigger. Has all the stuff far as I know. He replaced it with an even bigger Monarch. Wish I had the bucks and the room. He has a small Monarch, 12 x 36 I think and and the recently installed bigger Monarch, 24 x 96 I think and both of them, specially the smaller one are the smoothest running lathes I ever saw. If someone is interested I'll shoot some pics, get a price and find out what's what. Not trying to spam here, but if someone is looking, here's a good opportunity.
I wouldn't buy it either. I have found some good deals, i got a monarch 10 ee for 1000 bucks. Can't beat that for a small lathe, one of the best ever. Bought a smart and brown 1024 for 600 bucks. Very comparable to the monarch.. Quick change gearboxs, variable speeds and so on. I got a rockwell 10 x 24 that has variable speed, 3 jaw chuck, steady rest, quick change gearbox, quick change tool post that I am getting ready to sell. Nicer than south bends because of the variable speed. Runs on 110 or 220 I would like about 800 or so or trades???
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