I just bought a Liberty 1340 lathe. It's a Taiwan copy of the Clausing and appears in excellent condition. In my searches, I haven't found much information on the lathe, company, etc.... Does anyone know the history of these imports, if parts, manuals, ect...are available? Any info is appreciated.
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[Lathe] Liberty 1340, American Turret Co
- Thread starter Rsc
- Start date
This is my first lathe and am somewhat a novice. So far I am very pleased with the lathe. Mine holds very good tolerances,runs smooth, all controls operate smooth. I have tried a few of the cheaper imports and the controls on this are smoother. It has a fairly stout bed and base which made leveling and setting up quick and easy. 1st cut had 0.001 taper on an 7 inch long cut. I still have not located any information or manuals but haven't needed to do any repairs. I believe it weighs 2500 to 2700 lbs. I loaded the lathe and a Bridgeport on a bobcat trailer and pulled behind a 1/2 ton truck with no issues. A standard 5000 lb car trailer would be adequate. Seems somewhat comparable to the Lagun American Turnmaster. I downloaded a Grizzly manual and with regards to operating and adjusting, it pretty much the same.
How are you finding your Liberty 1340 lathe after using it for a couple of years? I'm considering a Liberty 1300 which is supposed to be a copy of a Colchester 1800 Student lathe, the 1340 is a copy of the Colchester 2000 apparently.
Is your lathe still running smoothly? Do you know if the shafts are on bronze bushes into the castings or directly into the casting? Small things like these bushes are some of the ways the clones differ and how they reduced price, fine for hobby use but wear out quickly in production shop I've read. I don't know if the Liberty 1340 or 1300 are like this, would like to find out.
Is your lathe still running smoothly? Do you know if the shafts are on bronze bushes into the castings or directly into the casting? Small things like these bushes are some of the ways the clones differ and how they reduced price, fine for hobby use but wear out quickly in production shop I've read. I don't know if the Liberty 1340 or 1300 are like this, would like to find out.
I had one of those about 20 years ago, it had been used quite hard and had had a incident before I got it that had damaged some gears either in the apron or the feedbox, not sure which, but the damaged gears were with the lathe when I bought it.
There were also some other replacement gears with it, the gears weren't hardened they were just soft and had bronze bushes on the inside.
They are a quality lathe that is still made today by Turret in Taiwan and they aren't cheap.
Scott Machinery - Engineering Machinery Specialist - Conventional Machinery - Lathes - Medium - Turret ERL-1340 Premium Quality Centre Lathe
Conventional Machinery Lathes Medium LATHE TURRET ERL1340 340x1000x40 3HP 3PH
www.scottmachinery.co.nz
C/w New Guards, DRO & QCT, Scott Machinery - Engineering Machinery Specialist - Conventional Machinery - Lathes - Medium - Turret BHL-1550 Premium Quality Centre Lathe
Conventional Machinery Lathes Medium LATHE TURRET BHL1550 387x1250x56 c/w New Guards
www.scottmachinery.co.nz
They are copies of Colchester lathes and have a fantastic threading box as you can do imperial and metric without changing any change gears, but you do have to change gears if you want to thread module.
Currently I have another asian copy of a Colchester
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