# Quality Lathes



## jonathan01 (Mar 15, 2012)

Right now I am looking for a new lathe under $4,000. I am looking at the PM1236 with the preferred package as I said before. But, say that I come up with a way to have $10,000 to $14,000 for a new lathe, what do any of you know about these Baileigh Precision lathes. It looks to me that the Baileigh E models (economical) are cheaply made in China, and the Precision models are made in Taiwan. They say that the Precision models have Meehanite® castings, and factory installed Mitutoya DRO on all the precision models.

http://www.baileighindustrial.com/lathes/

http://www.baileighindustrial.com/lathes/precision/pl-1340.php

http://www.emachinetool.com/new/catalog/single.cfm?DestinationCategory=Engine Lathe&ProductID=1087


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## jonathan01 (Mar 15, 2012)

I am planning on starting out as a hobby, which I know this is way to much money for a hobby. But I am planning on turning the hobby into a small shop in a year or two. I was just throwing this out to see how much better are these lathes than say a PM1236 or Grizzly4003g, just in case I came across some extra cash, snice I am planning on starting a small shop someday. 

I am not planning on the shop to become a 40 hour a week job, so i can't spend 20k-50k on a lathe though. This was the first Taiwan lathe that i could find a price for on the internet. From what I have been reading is that Chinese lathes are junk, better than what they were, but still junk, and Taiwan lathes are pretty good machines, but you pay for them. I haven't had to time to look up the castings yet, but would think that it is better the normal chinese lathe.

As of now I am only looking to spend $3,000 to $4,000, but in a few months i may have some extra cash. Any other lathes yall can point out would be helpfull.


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## Tony Wells (Mar 15, 2012)

I've no connection to selling them, but as happy owner, I can recommend Acer lathes as a good quality Taiwanese machine. I bought one new in 97 and it still runs as good as it did then. I bought a Dynamic 17 X 60, with a Sony DRO factory installed. Unless my memory is failing, it was less than $14,000. The do offer a little smaller machines also along the same design lines. Might be worth a look if you decide to go up a notch in size from what Grizzly offers.


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## jonathan01 (Mar 16, 2012)

Thanks I will look into Acer more tomorrow.


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## Tony Wells (Mar 16, 2012)

http://www.aceronline.net/acergroup/laths.htm


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## CharlieW (Mar 16, 2012)

You might want to consider a used lathe to start with.  I bought this used, 1983 Goodway 1440 gap-bed, 4-5 years ago, for $2000.  It is quite heavy at 3300lbs.

It has hardened ways, a royal style collet closer & collets, face plate, 8" 3-jaw & 10" 4-jaw chucks, steady & follower rests, 50-1800 rpm, 5hp motor, flood coolant pump.  It looks a little dirty, but is as accurate as any new lathe in it's class/size.

This is the picture of it in the rubber molding shop where I bought it.




Charlie W.


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## British Steel (Mar 16, 2012)

*+1 on the used lathe...*

I'll second that idea - don't know about the USA, but here in the UK there are a lot of *very* nice used lathes selling for less than a new Chinese mini-lathe - and from your choices so far, you can accommodate an industrial machine!

I went the "classic lathe" route, and bought 4500 pounds of 1955 Holbrook toolroom lathe for quite a lot less than your initial $4000 - less than $1000, in fact.
Depending on the use you're planning to put it to, for your budget you could have (assuming you can find one -Ebay comes up with 'em now and then) a Monarch 10EE, an American Pacemaker, if you were lucky and had a love of the "elegant" a Dean, Smith and Grace or a Holbrook... Be warned, though, older lathes come with their quirks, I've probably put hours in enough to get me close to your $4000 budget!

Dave H. (the other one)


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## jonathan01 (Mar 16, 2012)

I an going to call a local guy in my area and see if he has any american lathes that have very low hours. If he dosen't, than i would rather buy a new one, either the $3,500 Chinese or a $10,000-$15,000 Taiwan.


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## jonathan01 (Mar 17, 2012)

Hi dalee, as far as going with CNC, I see needing it for a full time machine shop. Right now I am going to start off as a hobby, than try getting some paying jobs. I plan on getting a manual to get things going and if i find that i am able to get alot of jobs, than I won't mind spending $50k for a nice CNC lathe. I am going to start off with just a lathe and try to get some small jobs to pay for the lathe, than get a mill, than get the mill paid for, etc. My plans right now are to get into a little machine work as a part time job, basicly to work when i want to and not 40 hours a week. I am not planning on machine work being my full income. I plan on buying pieces of land and growing hay or something on them, doing machine work, clearing overgrown land, and some other part time jobs as i want. I am hoping to do the machine work for some income, and as a paying hobby, in between hay cutting times.

I am pretty good at drafting and using AutoCad, so I am sure it would be easy for me to pick up the CNC stuff. Right now I am pretty much limited to 220v single or three phase with a phase converter.

Thanks


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## samthedog (Nov 23, 2012)

Jonathan, I don't know your situation so take everything I say with a grain of salt. Having owned my own business that required a substantial investment in tools, I have some experience. Buying a tool before you know the market, the work and while having no customer base is making a sizable investment with no guarantee of return.

If you are just getting into machining and your goal is to turn this into a business, then the biggest job is to work out what your hourly rate would be as a beginner so that you not only break even, but also return a small profit. This includes material cost, electricity, insurance, consumables, maintenance etc...

The point I am making is if you are doing this as a hobby, then it simplifies things. If you are doing this as a business, you really need to know what you are doing if you are looking at investing so much money and time with an idea to make some cash on the side. In my experience people often use the side business idea to justify investing a great deal of money into a hobby. First thing you need to do is to be really frank and decide if you are blending a hobby and business idea.

If you decide you are doing this as a hobby and will see where it goes, then start off cheap. You won't initially need the best and greatest since you won't know the basics and will likely be doing smaller projects with the potential of crashing the machine at some stage. Mistakes on a cheap, used machine will be painful, but will not cripple you financially. 

As I said, take this with a grain of salt and good luck with what you decide.

Paul.


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## Ray C (Nov 23, 2012)

Perhaps I overlooked it but, didn't see a statement about these Baiyleigh units being made in Taiwan.  They appear to be pattern identical to the PM lathes.  I'd be a little annoyed if I paid nearly 2x the price for what the PM cost and later found out it rolled out the same factory door.  I've got PM equipment and have no complaints.

+1 on the advice of shopping around and getting used equipment.

++1 on Paul's thoughts eluding to the "joys of doing this full-time".


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## Jerry (Nov 23, 2012)

Although there is nothing wrong with buying used if you have the expertise to assess the machine in question, the imported alternative is ok too. I think, if one is starting out a new grizzly would be good for anyone. High on the list is their customer service, second they seem to listen to the market place. I have thought that Wholesale Tool markets a cheaply made tool without the refinements of the Grizzly. The Grizzly seems to have some attention to detail and after sale service.
Jerry


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## ranch23 (Nov 26, 2012)

I have run into a couple of really decent used machine tool dealers. They are knowledgeable and friendly, I also ran into one who told me that people from Wyoming still have horse s@#* on their boots, yeah permanently.  Anyway, don't discount that source of help.


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## jonathan01 (Nov 26, 2012)

Hey, I just seen yall replys here. I bought a PM1340 with a taper attachment and dro. Thanks for yall respones. I think I will be happy with this machine.


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## Larry42 (May 2, 2017)

How has the lathe worked out?
I bought a PM1440HD last year (2016) to use mostly as a hobby machine but I also make repair parts for my business. The company that sold it has been good about a few minor issues and taken care of them. The machine seems quite well done and has worked well. I bought the taper attachment and a collet chuck with it in addition to all the stuff packaged in the deal. I haven't mastered setting up the taper attachment yet but it works OK. The collet chuck is very nice and features the "run true" sort of technology that allows dead on centering. Not as quick to use as a drawbar type but very nicely made.
I found that the threading screw had a steel spring pin instead of the brass shear pin that it says in the parts book, so I put a brass pin in it.  Better safe than sorry. The hard  stop that comes with the machine is stupidly designed with the attachment screws on the bottom and nearly impossible to use when up close to the head stock. I modified it with screws from the top making it better. It is so long that it can't be used when you want the stop very close to the head stock. I've gone to using Joe Pieczynski's upside down and backward method of threading and find it much easier. 
The lathe has some but not all of the metric threads you may want to machine by using the change gears. M1.75 is missing BUT like several metric threads there is a near match in imperial. In this case 14TPI is nearly perfect. Using change gears is a PIA but gets you there. The main threading gear box has all the Imperial threads I've needed and is easy to use.
I opened all the gear boxes and checked to make sure they didn't have contaminates, they were clean.
I've had a used Jet 9x49 mill for several years. It is OK, I've had to do some repairs on it but it is still accurate enough for my use. The variable speed belt cost $72 with shipping and was a pain to install.


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