Advice on lathe for home shop

[GSweldmech]

I’ve exchanged emails with LeBlonde and they’ve told me parts are available, they didn’t mention that they are likely very expensive but that goes with out saying......

 

[Flyinfool]

Don't be afraid to insult him a bit, It is not like you see him every day.
Make your offer and if you are far apart go for tooling to make up the difference.
Have cash in hand when you go and have your trailer in tow so he knows you are serious and not a tire kicker.

 

[GSweldmech]

Reading through your posts it sounds like the Le Blond is a better fit for you. The Cincinnati might be a better deal, but so what if it won't make you as happy.

I think you’ve hit the nail on the head, I’m gonna stew on this a little more but the LeBlonde is a better fit size wise, and it’s in better shape with the exception of the DRO which is easier and cheaper to fix than the feed nuts on the Cincinnati. It’s a few hundred more but that might be money well spent in the long run.


my better half brought up the Harrison I looked at first, the 25” long lathe was actually pretty decent. It had obviously been crashed a few times . What is the likely hood that the spindle bearings survived in decent shape if the shear pins did their job and parted when the collision took place? Is it likely that whatever school this was in had bearings/gears changed following any mishaps? I pulled the headstock cover off the longer one and I have to say it was clean and the gears looked great, i’m sure the 25” one that sounded better would look as good. I keep coming back to size, I doubt that I’ll need to turn items longer than 2 feet. If it turns out that’s an issue I could just sell it and buy a longer one. Honestly I don’t think that’s likely. I really like the notion of the inch/metric threading and it really seemed to run quite well. Plus it’s five miles away not 200 like the other two. he’s asking 2000 and it has the three jaw I want, a quick change tool post and one holder and a jacobs chuck in the tail stock.

 

[Mgdoug3]

I wouldn't want a short bed lathe. Even with my 3 foot Clausing, a shaft will take up a lot of space in a hurry. I've only had my 17x54 Leblond for a week but it's more user friendly than my Clausing 4914. I can change speed by moving levers instead of changing pulleys and I can reverse the carriage and compound feed with the machine running. I also like that the carriage lever and compound lever is the same lever. Flipping it up controls the carriage and down the compound.

I've never been around a Cincinnati lathe but I would probably go with the lathe with the most decent tooling. The Leblond can probably do metric threading by adding a transposed 127 gear. It can't do all threads but it covers the common ones.

 

[GSweldmech]

None of the lathes come with much tooling, the Harrison comes with the most, it’s got one tool holder and a chuck on a taper in the tail stock. The LeBlonde is 30” so it’s only 6” longer than the Harrison but it has about 5 times the amount of steel in it. The Cincinnati is almost bare, not so much as a chuck key for the four jaw, only a jacobs chuck in the tail stock. Both the LeBlonde and the Cincinnati can do metric threads if you have the additional gears, neither has them and I imagine at 55 and 63 years of age there aren’t a ton of them floating around .

 

[Aaron_W]

My "big lathe" is an 11x24, I think it is a very practical length but I'm mostly into this for model making. It seems lathes are always big enough until they aren't.

 

[GSweldmech]

My "big lathe" is an 11x24, I think it is a very practical length but I'm mostly into this for model making. It seems lathes are always big enough until they aren't.

My problem exactly, I’m certain 99% of what i’d do could easily be done on the Harrison , the LeBlonde could cover 99.5% but I'm still thinking the 42” length of the Cincinnati is pretty desirable and might be worth the extra space it takes up and the hassle of flogging it back into shape.

 

[projectnut]

In my world the Cincinnati would be the size of choice. It's big enough, sturdy enough, and powerful enough to handle any job I'm willing to do. The larger work envelope allows the tailstock to be moved far enough out of the way so as not to interfere with the operator or various tooling when not in use. A drill chuck, center or other tooling can be left in the tailstock without interfering with the operation at hand. It can then quickly be brought into position to drill ream, counterbore, countersink, or perform other operations.

The larger envelope for the chuck, and larger spindle through hole are also a plus. I can't count the number of times I've had to do work arounds on smaller machines because limited chuck or through spindle capacity. When I first got my Seneca Falls 10" machine I noticed the bed had been relieved close to the spindle. I didn't think much about it until one day when I needed to install the 8" chuck. It was then I found the relieved sections coincided with the jaws of that chuck. Apparently somewhere in it's commercial life it was just a bit too small for some critical operation that needed to be performed. Rather than purchase a new machine or farm out the work the company modified it to fit the job.

As mentioned in a previous post I don't like to stress the machines to the point they may fail. With that in mind I always try to purchase something that will put the maximum size of the work I do around 75% of the machine's capacity. In my opinion it not only extends the life of the machine, it literally minimizes the overall cost of the machine.

As for lack of tooling I think parts for older commercial machines are more readily available at less cost than those available for hobby class machines. These machines are now a small portion of the commercial market. They have given way to faster, more capable CNC machines in almost all production shops. It may be a function of where I live, but I have never paid more than $100.00 for a used chuck for any of my machines. In total there are more than a dozen, ranging in size from 5" to 10". There are about an equal number for each machine in both the 3 and 4 jaw configurations. Last year I purchased a like new 10" Skinner 4 jaw chuck with an L00 backplate for the Sheldon for $100.00 from a local used equipment dealer. By comparison I paid nearly $200.00 for a new 3.1" 4 jaw chuck for model work.

If I were in the market given what you've found my preference for machines in order would be 1 Cincinnati, 2 LeBlond, and finally Harrison. To be truthful I probably wouldn't consider the Harrison, mainly because of it's size and lack of rigidity compared to the others. However the type of work you do may be different from what I do, and may dictate a different choice in machines.

In any case I would courteously negotiate a price with the owner of which ever machine you pick. I have found over the years that even if you can't come to an agreeable price on a current machine the fact that you proceed through the negotiations in a courteous manner may help with future purchases. This is especially true if you are dealing with professionals in the industry. I leave a business card with anyone I've attempted to buy machinery from. More than once that information has been passed on to others in the industry that are upgrading, downsizing, or changing the type of work they do. It has resulted in calls and offers for machines I have been looking for. In several cases the offers have been too good to refuse.

 

[7milesup]

I would not buy the Harrison just because of size. That 24 inches, as Mgdough pointed out, gets eaten up really quickly. There is a reason that a large number of the new Taiwan lathes are 40", as in 13x40 & 14x40. I know that 40" would be the sweet spot for me.

I would have to go back and look what LeBlond you are looking at but the 15x54 servo shift can do all threads, metric and imperial, without change gears.

 

[Dabbler]

I made the mistake of getting a 12X37 - which I thought would be bigger than I'd ever need - besides I had friends with bigger lathes. After a few emergency visits to turn bigger things I broke down and got bigger. It seems that almost all I do is the bigger stuff these days.

One thing @7milesup My 1980 Regal still needs a small stack of change gears to get all the feedrates and threads, but that's not really a biggie either.