Going To Buy A Lathe... Thoughts, Input Solicited By Inexperienced Dufus

4gsr said:
I have a 20" Lodge & Shipley lathe, I mean boat anchor, that's not too far from you. It has a 1-3/4" hole in the spindle with about 78" between centers. It's wired up with a static phase converter, all you have to have is a 50 amp welders receptacle to plug it into and run. I can make you a screaming deal for you if interested. See my ad in the classified section at the bottom of the forum page, not at the top of the page. Ken
Click to expand...
Ken, Thanks, replied as your already know in your ad thread. It's a beautiful lathe.
 
samthedog said:
A Colchester Triumph 2000 would hit the target.

http://www.lathes.co.uk/colchester/page21.html

They were sold in large numbers so may even be available on your side of the pond.

Paul.
Click to expand...
Paul, that lathe looks very much like the Clkausing Colchesters I've seen that are 1500 series, I thin 15"x54" (ish). They are on my list to locate. I've seen a couple, but problem is most don't have a taper attachment, and looking around for that part, I found one for a 13x40 CC lathe on ebay that was around $1300. Ouch. So I'd have to find one that already had this or likely do without it for a while and/or pay through the nose if one comes along somewhere.
 
mksj said:
Getting a used machine everything with a taper attachment and metric threading in good mechanical shape with a tight budget is a tall order. A few forum member purchased a PM1440 LB and PM1640 (there are various versions) from Quality machine tools and they very happy with it, they also make a PM1660 version if you can't live with 40". Otherwise it would meet your specifications. Being mad in China, the pricing is realistic for what you are getting. The first one listed below is a lot of machine for the price. There are also 1640 versions.
PM-1440E-LB http://www.machinetoolonline.com/PM1440.html
http://www.machinetoolonline.com/PM1640.html

I am always hesitant spending a significant chunk of money on a machine that you cannot inspect directly, but something like these might be a consideration and you would need to hunt down a taper attachment:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Clausing-Colchester-Lathe-15-X-50-Gap-Bed-5c-Collet-Drawbar-/262501879259
http://www.ebay.com/itm/NARDINI-15-X-60-GAP-BED-LATHE-MODEL-ND-1560E-INCH-METRIC-/252232909714
Click to expand...

I've actually looked at those lathes on ebay. The CC is the one I look at carefully because it fulfills all my needs IF it has the taper attachment. I've looked at a bunch of them, and looked at one in Louisiana on Craigslist but was too late finding it. Was a decent price. Looked in good shape. Had the taper attachment. WAS ALREADY GONE... Story of my life. Would have been pretty much perfect for my needs. As I mentioned to Paul, my only trepidation about buying one without a taper attachment is the trouble in finding one, complete, and at a price that won't set me back so much. Tall order from my preliminary research. Thanks!
 
GA Gyro said:
Just a thought here...

If you back off the 48" and the 2" bore...
You will increase the choices many fold!

There are lots of 40" laths with 1.5 to 1.75 bores available.
Click to expand...


John, I know. I've thought about this at some length. Here's the story of my life: If I could "get by" with a 40" lathe, for most things, I will wind up needing 48", and eventually, 60," and eventually 100". That's the way my life works. So as a general rule, I try to think about the largest capacity of a thing I believe I will need for some use, because nothing is worse than to spend a chunk of cash on a thing and find yourself wishing you'd have gotten something a wee bit bigger or more powerful or whatever. As it is, the longest thing I might have to make(that I can reasonably conceive of on my farm and for the uses I might have) is about 46" long. There's no doubt this is a tall order, and a limiting factor. I'm thinking I need to be patient. Had I found one listing on craigslist a couple of days sooner, out of Louisiana, I'd have filled the bill with a very nice machine at a very reasonable price. Yep, it is certainly limiting the size of the field from which I can draw. Absolutely true. And what I know is that what I buy now, I am going to have to live with for a long time, maybe the rest of my life, so I'd better get my money's worth and not regret it two months from now when something breaks and I have to make a new one from scratch. If I had $100 for every time this scenario has played out against me, I'd be able to buy the biggest, baddest, most capable, optioned-out lathe in the new market that I could fit in the barn. I look at the list, and it's lengthy. Bought a half-ton truck, wound up realizing I needed bigger. Bought a 1-ton with 2WD and wound up needing 4WD. Bought a 2WD drive 45HP tractor, good little tractor, reliable and does all it promised and then some, but turns out, should have sprung for the 4WD version. Bought a post-hole auger for the 3-point on that tractor, came standard with a 12" auger, could have upgraded to 15" for less than $100. Took exactly two months until I could have kicked myself for skimping. To buy the 15" outright after the fact was $250. The extra three inches would never have hurt, not once, but not having it did. Dumb. Just dumb. It's not that I couldn't find the extra $100 at the time. It's that I actually dared to speak "Nah, I'll never need bigger than 12." I should have stopped right then and fetched out the extra $100 because I had effectively cursed myself. So my rule is "buy the capacity I can stretch to afford" when buying equipment. Bought a home. "How many square feet do we really need?" Yeah. Kick myself, kick myself, kick myself....LOL Thanks!
 
"Metric threading" is a bit misnomer of advertising. JPIGG is right, with the correct change gears, you can make about any lathe cut metric threads. All the "Metric" leaver on the front of a lathe that is set up for imperial threading means is that it engages the 127 tooth gear and the vendor has done a little math for you. If you check the available metric pitches that are on that front data plate, very few align to a standard metric thread. This should not be a surprise - since the lead screw is imperial - any pitches which happen to line up are pretty much a fluke. To get a meaningful selection of metric threads (when you have an imperial lead screw), you still need a couple sets of change gears. The manual is also very nice to have, since someone else will have done the math to determine what change gears to use and what to select on the QC gear box to get a particular metric lead. If you are stubborn enough, you can do the math yourself and make about any imperial lead screw achieve a lead of xx millimeters per revolution. The issue is not the lathe, it is due to the lead screw. In order to get different leads you set the lathe to perform "mechanical fractions" - commonly referred to as a gear ratio.

The reason for the 127 tooth gear is that is a ratio of the standard mm:inch conversion. 25.4 mm=1 inch. 25.4 x 5= 127 That gives you the metric conversion and then you fix the ratio to what you want with additional gears.

Keep looking. With what you are after, I think you need 2 or 3 lathes to get the desired features. Can't have too much iron.
 
Taper attachment?? Ho humm. Yawn. Of course, nice to have. Really not something that gets used very much (an opinion pole comes out every year or two). The reason I'd advise you not to worry about that is because: 1. you can usually work around the issue some how, 2. the range of application is pretty limited (for how steep the angle and how long the run). Definitely, if you cut quite a few tapers that are within the capabilities of the taper attachment, then it is awesome to have. However, don't pass on an otherwise nice machine, just because it does not have a taper attachment.

I have two lathes, both have taper attachments that are straight forward and easy to use. I have used both of them. On my 15" lathe I have used it once in the 33 years I have had the machine. On my 11" lathe I have used it once in the 4 years I have had the machine (and I could have used the other lathe but I wanted to be able to say I had used the TTA).
 
Chipper5783 said:
"Metric threading" is a bit misnomer of advertising. JPIGG is right, with the correct change gears, you can make about any lathe cut metric threads. All the "Metric" leaver on the front of a lathe that is set up for imperial threading means is that it engages the 127 tooth gear and the vendor has done a little math for you. If you check the available metric pitches that are on that front data plate, very few align to a standard metric thread. This should not be a surprise - since the lead screw is imperial - any pitches which happen to line up are pretty much a fluke. To get a meaningful selection of metric threads (when you have an imperial lead screw), you still need a couple sets of change gears. The manual is also very nice to have, since someone else will have done the math to determine what change gears to use and what to select on the QC gear box to get a particular metric lead. If you are stubborn enough, you can do the math yourself and make about any imperial lead screw achieve a lead of xx millimeters per revolution. The issue is not the lathe, it is due to the lead screw. In order to get different leads you set the lathe to perform "mechanical fractions" - commonly referred to as a gear ratio.

The reason for the 127 tooth gear is that is a ratio of the standard mm:inch conversion. 25.4 mm=1 inch. 25.4 x 5= 127 That gives you the metric conversion and then you fix the ratio to what you want with additional gears.

Keep looking. With what you are after, I think you need 2 or 3 lathes to get the desired features. Can't have too much iron.
Click to expand...
Chipper,

Thanks! I guess the deal is this: Can it be done? I'm sure it can. It would have to be possible but at this point, that's WAY over my head in terms of making gears. It's not that I'm afraid of doing the math. It's that I'm a beginner and I suspect I will need metric threading capabilities long before I know how to go about making gears my lathe could use to cut them. When I get to that point, I hope you're still active here because you can bet I'll be asking you.

I may have a line on a lathe right now. It has every feature I'm looking for, but it has electrical deficiencies. I'm going to inspect it, probably this weekend, have made contact with somebody who is willing to give me some guidance, and will in that way help me to decide whether this is something I can/should tackle.

I love a challenge. Making gears for a lathe is something I should probably leave be just now. On the other hand, if the lathe I'm going to look at pans out, I might have to ask you to retract the "you can never have too much iron" remark for fear of what a certain Frau may do to me if she ever catches wind of me nodding in agreement. We'll see. If this one doesn't work out, on we'll go.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top