Another Leblond Question

eodcoduto

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I just picked up my Bridgeport mill, and I am still looking for a lathe. I've found a LeBlond locally that I feel is a decent price. I am waiting on the model # from the seller, but it is a square head that looks to be in the 14" range. What should I be looking for on these, and does anyone have one that can tell me the details on it? Here are the pictures.
s-l1600.jpg s-l1600 (1).jpg s-l1600 (2).jpg
 
That's a nice Regal! Buy it!!! Provided the ways are decent. Shame it doesn't have a taper attachment, but not a deal breaker.
 
You may want to see if you can remove the headstock cover and inspect the gears for broken teeth. That might be a deal breaker because getting replacement gears is prohibitively expensive unless you luck out and find a good used one (not common) for a reasonable price.
 
You may want to see if you can remove the headstock cover and inspect the gears for broken teeth. That might be a deal breaker because getting replacement gears is prohibitively expensive unless you luck out and find a good used one (not common) for a reasonable price.

Well, maybe, but I doubt it. If so, Leblond, I'm sure keeps a decent stock of replacement gears in stock at extortion prices!:frown:

Even though it is not under power, you can run it thru all of the gear ranges by hand and find out quickly if any teeth are missing. Back gear will probably the only range you wont be able to check. If it can be powered up, by all means, run the lathe thru all of the speed ranges.
 
Thanks for the input so far, it is the heaviest lathe in my area and is in my price range. A few Sheldons as well, but I know even less about those.
 
Thanks for the input so far, it is the heaviest lathe in my area and is in my price range. A few Sheldons as well, but I know even less about those.

Sheldon's are good lathes, too, if you can find one that has not been molested too bad. I own two, one a 13" that I've had for over 35 years and a 15" that I bought a couple years ago.
 
I can say that it is hard to find what I want, there is a 13" Sheldon close with 1200Rpm max while the LeBlond can hit 1800. So many choices!
 
My 13" Sheldon-Sebastian lathe is the gear head version, it only goes to 900 RPM. I hardly ever run it over the 600 RPM range. You're not running a CNC lathe, the higher RPM's really don't help you unless you are polishing a shaft or something. Even then, I can polish things at 300 RPM just fine! If your machining small parts under 1" OD where the RPM's are needed, I can see that, but you would be better off with a smaller lathe in MHO. Ken
 
Thanks for that reality check, I have been basing my RPM needs off of experience with a friends Haas TL2, and he says his biggest regret was not having enough spindle speed. He is maxed out at 2000 RPM and does smaller aluminum parts.
 
Yeah,!

My brother works for DMG/Mori and he gets to play with or I should say set up the new machines for the customers and show them basics of running them. And it's not unusual to have a lathe that maxes out at 35K RPM!!! Most of them max at about 10K RPM. And these machines have fairly decent capacities them. Of course, the bigger thru hole machines have a lot less RPM's. A 12-1/2" hole machine can still turn around 1200 RPM. Way too fast for me!
 
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