LOOKING FOR H/F JET 9X20 LATHE SOUTH SEATTLE

[riversidedan]

looking for a jet or H/F 9x20 lathe , will travel 100 miles from seattle for the right one at the right price...send PM thanx

 

[Bi11Hudson]

Mine isn't for sale, and out of your range anyway. There are several manufacturers of that size. It was a very common build for years, before the wonders of electronics and an exploding market brought along fancier models. A point to watch for, but I don't know how absolute it is, deals with whether it was built in Taiwan or mainland China.

All the machines I have encountered that were from Taiwan have a spindle nose of 1-1/2 X 8. And all the machines I have encountered from China have a spindle nose of M39 X 4. This may or may not be absolute, but is an indicator to me.

I have a Grizzly, model G-1550. It was built in Taiwan. The current model, almost identical, is a G-4000, made in China. The only difference I have seen is the spindle nose at 1-1/2 X 8 versus M39 X 4. All such machines require some cleanup and fine tuning. My machine is from Taiwan so I tend to prefer that direction. There may well be some other differences in finish, I won't expound any further on that subject. They are a very good machine, albeit limited in size. But that is a normal situation, there is always a job that would be do-able if I only had another inch swing. I also have an Atlas / Craftsman 12 X 36. Got that job done, but many others. . .

Besides Jet and Horrible Fright, there are Grizzly, Enco, and numerous others. I even saw one at a (traveling) tool show with a Canadian name. But don't remember the name. . . They all are essentially the same, some 9X19, some 9X20, etc.

You have obviously done some homework and know what you are looking for. Such a small machine in the used market will be less likely to be widely advertised. They were sold to many "wanna be" machinists (like me) whose fancy soon turned to other pass times and the machines got shoved into a back corner and forgotten. "Word of mouth" and sites such as this will be the most likely successful.

.

.

 

[riversidedan]

Mine isn't for sale, and out of your range anyway. There are several manufacturers of that size. It was a very common build for years, before the wonders of electronics and an exploding market brought along fancier models. A point to watch for, but I don't know how absolute it is, deals with whether it was built in Taiwan or mainland China.

All the machines I have encountered that were from Taiwan have a spindle nose of 1-1/2 X 8. And all the machines I have encountered from China have a spindle nose of M39 X 4. This may or may not be absolute, but is an indicator to me.

I have a Grizzly, model G-1550. It was built in Taiwan. The current model, almost identical, is a G-4000, made in China. The only difference I have seen is the spindle nose at 1-1/2 X 8 versus M39 X 4. All such machines require some cleanup and fine tuning. My machine is from Taiwan so I tend to prefer that direction. There may well be some other differences in finish, I won't expound any further on that subject. They are a very good machine, albeit limited in size. But that is a normal situation, there is always a job that would be do-able if I only had another inch swing. I also have an Atlas / Craftsman 12 X 36. Got that job done, but many others. . .

Besides Jet and Horrible Fright, there are Grizzly, Enco, and numerous others. I even saw one at a (traveling) tool show with a Canadian name. But don't remember the name. . . They all are essentially the same, some 9X19, some 9X20, etc.

You have obviously done some homework and know what you are looking for. Such a small machine in the used market will be less likely to be widely advertised. They were sold to many "wanna be" machinists (like me) whose fancy soon turned to other pass times and the machines got shoved into a back corner and forgotten. "Word of mouth" and sites such as this will be the most likely successful.

.

.

good info thanx

 

[chip maker]

I have the Grizzly 4000 and I purchased it in 2000 it was built in China 12/1999. I can't say that I have had alot of issues with the lathe. I have done many updates to it but it has always been a good machine for what I do I am just a home shop. The lathe has made many repair parts and also many of its own updated parts. The only big thing I just done a short time ago was the spindle bearings. Belts have always been a bit of a headache but seem to finally have that figured out. Good luck but be sure to check out a used machine if possible, take someone along that may be helpful in looking it over.

 

[Manual Mac]

Bill, thanks for the 1-1/2-8 thread spindle vs M39X4 spindle info.
good to know.
i believe the lowest speed for these lathes are 150 RPM. Or 130?.
either way it would find it too fast to thread for me.
maybe thread away from the chuck?
OP, there has been one on CL in Seattle for some time.
seem to be too much $$ but close to you, maybe offer less.
happy hunting

 

[Aaron_W]

Mine isn't for sale, and out of your range anyway. There are several manufacturers of that size. It was a very common build for years, before the wonders of electronics and an exploding market brought along fancier models. A point to watch for, but I don't know how absolute it is, deals with whether it was built in Taiwan or mainland China.

All the machines I have encountered that were from Taiwan have a spindle nose of 1-1/2 X 8. And all the machines I have encountered from China have a spindle nose of M39 X 4. This may or may not be absolute, but is an indicator to me.

I have a Grizzly, model G-1550. It was built in Taiwan. The current model, almost identical, is a G-4000, made in China. The only difference I have seen is the spindle nose at 1-1/2 X 8 versus M39 X 4. All such machines require some cleanup and fine tuning. My machine is from Taiwan so I tend to prefer that direction. There may well be some other differences in finish, I won't expound any further on that subject. They are a very good machine, albeit limited in size. But that is a normal situation, there is always a job that would be do-able if I only had another inch swing. I also have an Atlas / Craftsman 12 X 36. Got that job done, but many others. . .

Besides Jet and Horrible Fright, there are Grizzly, Enco, and numerous others. I even saw one at a (traveling) tool show with a Canadian name. But don't remember the name. . . They all are essentially the same, some 9X19, some 9X20, etc.

You have obviously done some homework and know what you are looking for. Such a small machine in the used market will be less likely to be widely advertised. They were sold to many "wanna be" machinists (like me) whose fancy soon turned to other pass times and the machines got shoved into a back corner and forgotten. "Word of mouth" and sites such as this will be the most likely successful.

.

.

That very much fits my experience. Mine is an early 90s (1992-94 dont recall exactly) Enco, made in China and has the metric thread. I had seen comments that Enco used the 1-1/2-8 thread. So I was disappointed when I found mine had the metric spindle as I already had a lot of 1-1/2" tooling.I know some early Enco lathe were made in Taiwan so China vs Taiwan being connect to spindle makes sense.

Also agree on quality. Personally I'd prefer a shortbed Southbend 9A, but the 9x20 is a perfectly adequate lathe and quite a deal for the price. Also better than most of the smaller import lathes. It is only about 6-8" longer than the ubiquitous 7x12 mini-lathe family.

Bill, thanks for the 1-1/2-8 thread spindle vs M39X4 spindle info.
good to know.
i believe the lowest speed for these lathes are 150 RPM. Or 130?.
either way it would find it too fast to thread for me.
maybe thread away from the chuck?
OP, there has been one on CL in Seattle for some time.
seem to be too much $$ but close to you, maybe offer less.
happy hunting

There are tons of mods out there online for these lathes, pretty sure there are some which offer ways to provide slower spindle speeds.

 

[wachuko]

I really like mine... Have not had it long... but it is where it all began for me...

How I started using it...



And now with a better cabinet...

 

[Bi11Hudson]

Bill, thanks for the 1-1/2-8 thread spindle vs M39X4 spindle info.
good to know.
i believe the lowest speed for these lathes are 150 RPM. Or 130?.
either way it would find it too fast to thread for me.
maybe thread away from the chuck?
OP, there has been one on CL in Seattle for some time.
seem to be too much $$ but close to you, maybe offer less.
happy hunting

The slowest speed (box stock) is 130 RPM. I had devised a speed reducer that lowers the speed to 42 RPM for my G-1550. It will fit any number of such machines. Made from (scrap) automotive transmission parts, it is fairly simple but takes a considerable time to build. The text, with a few pictures, is posted by nyself in the last few weeks on this site. I can't remember just where, just look for my name for posts. 20 odd pages of PDF, when you find it. Basically a planetary gear system, based on a Ford Model T transmission. And as I understand, a Craftsman 109 series 6 inch machine.

Note that threading away from the chuck will yield left hand threads, but the leadscrew must be reversed relationship to the spindle to do so. Mine has this capability, but is another gizmo I built. There are many versions available on the web, that's why I didn't document my own version.

Someone had noted that belts were a problem that needed to be solved. FWIW, the belts are a Gates 5M series. I use a 5M710, I have seen others that use a similar size, almost but not quite. 5M720?????

.

 

[Jim F]

Might be worth your time to look at Atlas, SB, Logan and such.
They are 9" to 10" and a 3 1/2' bed will get you 22"between centers.

 

[wa5cab]

As the subject came up, I.m not really familiar with the details of the SB or the Logan but the Atlas made from 1932 to about 1937 was a 9" available in center-to-center distances of 18", 24", 30" and 36" with 1-1/2"-8 spindle nose threads It was an all-belt-driven machine. However the replacement parts situation is not too good and they are what I would call rare, anyway. However, in about 1935 Atlas started supplying a more conventional back-geared 10 inch model with the same bed length options. First production had babbit spindle bearings but in 1936 they added Timken roller bearings and a 12" variant (sold by Sears). Over the next 20-odd years they made various improvements and dropped the babbit bearings and the 18" and 30" center-to-center beds. And if 9" or 10" swing is larger than you need, over the period 1937 to 1981, Atlas also made several versions of 6" lathes.

I don't have the details handy at my finger-tips but over pretty much the same decades South Bend and Logan made some or most of the same changes or started with the same or similar improvements. Anyway, there are (or were) USA made equivalents to most of the imports.