What do you think is the best small shop manual lathe?

HMF

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if you could have ANY manual lathe for your shop, price no object, what would it be and WHY?

Monarchs ?
Clausings ?
Victors ?
Atlas ?
South Bends /
Myford?
Leblond ?
Grizzly ?
Enco /
Hardinge ?
Hamilton ?
Rockford ?
Colchester ?


Let's hear YOUR opinions!

Best,


Nelson
 
Just my opinion, but i think it really depends on an individual,ones own likes and dislikes.
 
Interesting question.

In school I had a small opportunity to handle a Standard Modern but do not ask which one, this was 35 years ago, I then had more time on an old SB babbit type, had lots of fun learning what to do and not. 20 years ago I purchased the Atlas that I currently have 10 X 24, the seller had taken in trade a Harrison lathe and thus the Atlas came out.
Over the years I would look at lathes with QCGB and wonder if I should trade, but having the Atlas with change gears has allowed me to make parts for people that needed those odd threads that the QCGB would not easily make or not at all. At work I have a Colchester Student and a Jet GB1340, either one does what I need to do there. The Colchester Student I find to be harder to use, but it is an older round top.

Really the lathe of choice is the one that gets used but one that has a good supply line for repair and support forces me to think North American made first.

I made my decision a long time ago, I will keep my Atlas.
 
Re: What do you think is the best small shop manual lathe?

Depends on how small you want to go - I like the Boley....mine runs off a sewing machine motor.
Here's a pic - (not mine, same model):
 
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Re: What do you think is the best small shop manual lathe?

Alchymist, your Boley bears a close similarity to an early Hardinge I used to have. The Hardinge spindle was driven by flat belt rather than "V" and had a tailstock end bed support like the one under the Boley head. The Hardinge cross-slide & compound clamped to the bed the same as that pictured. The Hardinge tailstock was of a completely different design.
Please recall that I said early Hardinge....early enough to have been built in Chicago, before Hardinge moved to Elmira New York.
Passed it on to a friend who is working on restoring it. Rumored it was bought new by one of the Remy brothers. It did come out of the long gone Delco Remy Plant 1.
 
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Re: What do you think is the best small shop manual lathe?

I went from a 7X10 and Sherline to a 3-in-1 to a Monarch and Bridgeport.

For what I do hobbywise that's more than enough. I have more "serious" machines at my factory, like surface-grinders, CNC mills, a BIG K&T Ubermill and several brand new BP clones.

Funny story about the big K&;T mill. It came up on Craigslist, $1000 no kidding. I showed my wife and she cut me a check out of her bank account. I told her "this thing is HUGE I have no place to put it."

SHE said "well store it at my father's warehouse until you get the factory up and running. I'm not going to sit here and listen to "the one that got away" stories!" (*)

Smart woman. :) No you can't marry her sister. Hands off my daughter. :p

Anyway, it all depends on what you want to do. For a casual machinist Horrible Frick machines are more than enough. They are fine to learn on, and if you put some effort forth you can make some fairly good parts on them. You CANNOT hold micron tolerances or hog 2" of hardened steel per pass with them... but seriously how many hobby machinists need to do that? ;)

[size=6pt]

(*) I had a HUGE mint-condition war-vet W-S turret lathe get away and I whined about that for months. No clue what I would have done with it really. The K&T mill can do engine work and mold work so that was a sound investment.[/size]
 
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A grey 1949 Ford V8. The sweetest whisper quiet flathead I wish I can find another one, but that
amounts to a South Bent Model A, not a V8, but a sweet Model A 4 banger which is 4 ft bed.
 
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