Advice on lathe for home shop

I haven’t heard back from the seller of the Cincinnati , I’m hoping he’s just missed the email and not rejecting it as not worthy of a response. In the mean time I’m still interested in the LeBlond and scanning the internet. Yesterday this MSC lathe popped up on FB marketplace. I believe these were Taiwan built, there’s a picture of the motor which shows a 1995 date. asking price is 1800 what is the general opinion of theses machines? I believe some of MSC’s machines were built by Enco any idea who built this, the white paint makes me think Jet possibly?
 

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I doubt the seller of the Cincinnati is ignoring you. If he's already been negotiation with you he knows you're interested. Apparently the machine has been up for sale for at least a few months if not longer. If he has had other offers, has already sold it, or isn't interested in selling for the price you offered I'm sure he would rather tell you than let the emails and calls go unanswered.

You mentioned in a previous post the business is moving to another location. I'm sure that along with trying to keep customers happy is taking the majority of his time. Sometimes this process takes longer than expected. I first learned of the Sheldon lathe I eventually purchased in January of 2016. I went to inspect it in February, but It wasn.t until late March before all the pieces fell into place and I finally picked it up.
 
That’s what I’m thinking, he’s just got other things going on. I reached out by email as the phone number I have has never seemed to work very well, when I was there looking at the machine he was having trouble being heard by a caller and had me call him to test the phone. That’s why I sent my offer by email , and emails are easily missed, I’ll sit on it for a few days before I rattle his cage again.
 
GSweldmech said:
what is the general opinion of theses machines?
Click to expand...

I have a Taiwanese version of this lathe in 14X40. They can be very well made, Like any offshore product it can be ordered in a wide variety of quality values, from tool room quality to near-junk. they have to be inspected carefully before purchase.

Even the poorest quality version of this lateh is generally better than the smaller offerings, such as the 7X28, etc

I paid 4400 CAD for mine, so 1800 USD is a great starting price. Especially if it has a nice toolpost, both chucks and both rests.

-- I'm biased, but I think the LeBlond has more value in it.
 
I emailed the seller of the MSC lathe and he only has the follow rest. I asked about the metric threading arrangement on this lathe as I believe it requires changing end gears. He had never done any threading on the lathe So he has no idea about the gears, he doesn’t have the gears (unless they are in a stud under the gear cover and he’s never noticed). Does your lathe do metric threads, what’s the requirement for swapping gears.
 
Enco was just a reseller like Grizzly, Jet or many others, so this is probably going to be very similar to many import lathes of this size which makes parts less of an issue. MSC may even still stock parts for it.

I have an Enco 9x20 and I can use parts from Grizzly's G4000 9x19. I would double check origin though if that matters to you. My Enco is a 1994 model and I also thought the older Enco machines were all made in Taiwan. Mine was made in China, the 9x20 is a much lower end machine though, so probably would be among the first to change source.

As far as the Cincinnati, you said it is a business so it is also possible there is more than one person involved in approving a price if it goes below a prior agreed on price.

Obviously you have options, several already in hand and new ones popping up. Take your time, and make sure you are going to be happy with what you get.
 
Mine uses a stack of 6 gears, of which I have 4. You can get the 5 most standard threads for imperial without any change gears at all, if he has the 20t gear installed. Change gears aren't all that expensive, between 10$ and 20$ each, and can be bought as needed (with a little preplanning). Our gear hobber here needs 4-5 weeks lead time.

If you want to learn a new skill you can make your own with some study and practice.
 
Thanks Dabbler, that’s great information to have if I decide to go take a look at the MSC lathe. Looking at MSCs web site they still sell a lathe that looks identical to this one, I wonder if they would have gears as the seller doesn’t seem to know about them so I doubt he has them.
 
I’m getting g a little concerned that the Cincinnati seller hasn’t responded, if he needed to run it by his colleagues you’d think he’d of at least acknowledged the offer. I’ll give him a day or two and then I’ll move on. I’ll look at the MSc a d then decide if I want pursue the leblond, it’s a great lathe, but I’m concerned if the servoshift goes repairs could be expensive.
 
Expect to pay about 30$ per gear for an OEM gear, or a little discount for the whole set. (not too bad a price BTW)

On the LeBlond: Don't be too worried: you can get it to engage in one of the medium gears and VFD the drive motor. Lots of guys have done it that way. That's my exit strategy when my ServoShift dies. Some also make a yoke and make it manual. I don't know how much of a kludge it is, as I've never seen pictures of that mod.

I bought my 40 year old LeBlond, with one gear not properly engaging (the 256RPM) and I'm not worried at all. I'm thinking It needs a fresh oil flush and an adjustment, is all.

You can see a picture of my machine here
 
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