My wife won't let me have one of those.not a China Maid.
I’m going to see if I can go check them out this week if he doesn’t sell them. I’m a bit shy liquidity wise so I needed a few days to dump some stuff I’ve been sitting on due to being lazy. Or tired. Or both.QCGB is a good thing, single tumbler suggests the extra change gears are to extend the range. Sort of a hybrid.
I'd say that the price is decent, go for it.
I was going to ask about that. What is he using that for? It looks like he has a buffing wheel setup on it and grinding stones under.I had the Jet version of that lathe and sold it about 5-6 years ago for $900. I don’t consider that a bad price for that lathe, but not good either. The Grizzly with the stand, shipping and tax is about $1,800, so about 50% of new. That is about what I would consider fair for a used machine in good condition.
It looks like the change gears are there, you will need them for threading. Are those grinding disks he has on the machine in one of those pictures? If so, I would not take it at any price.
To be honest an old usa machine would be my preference. Not really sure why but I’m kind of drawn to older ones.I have pretty much that exact machine. It is essentially the same as a Grizzly G4000, I have used Grizzly parts on my Enco. The G4000 sells for $1200 new +tax and $199 shipping. The stand adds another $315.
This design has been around for 40+ years sold under a variety of brands, Enco, Grizzly, Central Machinery, Jet etc so they are pretty common. I got mine a couple years ago for $300, but that was admittedly a good deal. $500-1000 seems to be pretty common, with the Jet lathes usually selling for a bit more than other brands.
They are a big step above something like the 7x14, but only a few inches longer / deeper. I think they are a nice small lathe option.
The gear box is primarily for the power feed, it will do a few different threads on a set of gears, so potentially you could get lucky and find your most popular threads fit into a set of gears, but you will not get away from change gears.
This is going to be the case with pretty much anything in this size class, you have to go vintage USA or 12" and larger to get a full gear box.
I also have owned a HFT Central version of the same lathe for 7-8yrs now. It was the last guys project to completely trick it out. There are several websites dedicated to this lathe and how set it up and mod to the 9’s. So it had all the change gears in metal and plastic. 5” 3jw, 6” 4jw, 4” 3jw QCTP and several holders and tooling but no stand and was basically brand new with original cosmolene for $650. It needed a lot of adjusting and tweaking (which they often do.Are those grinding disks he has on the machine in one of those pictures? If so, I would not take it at any price.