Craftsman 109 Lathe Question

[Nubble]

Out of curiosity, what do you plan on doing with the lathe? Or is it just "because"? And there is nothing wrong with that answer!

Mostly i just wanted to expand the capabilities of my little hobby shop, for the most part I go around to antique stores and flea markets and buy old tools to fix and sometimes there are just pieces that I cannot buy anymore that I could very easily make on a lathe but I've never had one or used one, the only lathe experience I have is with using a wood lathe so they're not that different, plus I just figured it would be fun to have one. And I always have these thoughts where it's like you know this would be very easy to make if I had a lathe!! And every time I go into harbor freight I would look at their little 7x10 mini lathe but after looking at all of the hoops I'd have to jump through just to get the thing working properly I'm like you know what I'll buy a vintage American lathe, just not something that's absolutely gigantic because I don't know about you but most of us do not have the space for a giant 20 horsepower monarch lathe

 

[Aaron David]

That is an excellent answer! And, from from what you are saying, the Craftsman/Atlas 618 is probably the best bet for both size and function.

 

[Nubble]

So while looking through some of my stuff I found this book that belonged to my great-grandfather.

 

[wa5cab]

Looks like a potentially useful reference book to have around. You might want to publish the Table of Contents. If you do, start a new thread and make the subject the book's title. Or scan the whole thing and put the scan into Downloads as a .PDF.