Best bang for buck metal lathe .. price range $1,200-$2,000

Continued pursuit on ebay and craigslist suggests a threshold of $2K for a running US lathe stripped, and the same for used Chinese. I have not touched any of these, but have looked at hundreds of ads. Here in Portland half way decent- appearing Chinese are snapped up for $2K (list price-at least they disappear from the ads). And Atlas-Sears range from $1500-$3000 . Most disappear. I want a good, 13-40 minimum tooled lathe for $2500; ain't gonna happen for me. But I wish you the best.
 
customchris said:
That would work great Thanks For that. That way will cut down on the time to make them a lot ..
Click to expand...

I think I would set them up to do some steps in batches as well. For instance after cutting a batch to length, set the lathe to drill common bore diameters in groups. Being a wood turner you are probably aware of a pin chuck used by pen turners. I think I would try mounting a pin chuck I made in a MT collet mounted in the spindle. Slide the bore of the handle over the pin chuck and bring the live center up to support the end. If you used the turret tool post on a lathe like the G0602 you should be able to mount 4 tools and rotate it to quickly switch tools. Haven't decided if 4 tools would be enough to do the job. A QCTP would also be useful if the budget supports it.

(An expanding mandrel would work well in place of the pin chuck too.)

Dave
 
I think I would be looking for a lathe with a taper attachment.
For the short, steep taper a hand-ground form tool might work. It could probably be made so that it could cut the long taper as well, doing most of the length in one setup.
 
You can also make a taper attachment if the saddle will allow for it.
 
do you know of anyone making a taper attachment on the g0602 with pics or video
 
I wasn't able to find any in a quick search. I don't know if the back chip guard would interfere, but taper attachments are very simple devices.

Here's some examples:
Basically two attachment points and a straight shaft with a bushing that is attached to the leadscrew on the cross slide


A tracer is a big difference. It works similarly, but it follows a contour and needs constant force (typically hydraulic) to press the cross slide against the trace shape. Keith Fenner has several videos of using a tracer attachment on his lathe on his YouTube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6d57HgTUm0
 
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