Made in America - once upon a ..

mmcmdl said:
Plenty of big old iron machines are floating around still . Most shops around here only do production on CNCs due to the lack of qualified machinists available . There are programmers , set-up people and button pushers . The older guys who used to perform all these tasks have all retired or quit the trade as I myself did . Most hobbiests don't want or need a lathe larger than maybe a 12" or 13" lathe which limits what they can get as far as quality . I find the Hardinge or Monarch to be the quality standard . Tough to find them , and expensive when you do .
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Yes - some time ago, I had already concluded that for you, you would only really stay happy if you owned from among the best! :)
 
I dunno... I dreamt of resurrecting big iron in my home shop/museum, but whenever I got close enough to inspect those machines I ran away screaming. You just can't expect something that represents a capital investment, embodies the means of production, and is also 75 years old to have had some kind of pampered life. Those machines were squeezed for every copper penny of profit by their manufacturing capitalist owners during their useful lifetime, and that lifetime is now oil-soaked dust in the chip tray. I ended up buying non-asian foreign made machines from the last quarter century for my shop. The Lagun is Spanish, its electrics are French. The Nardini is Brazilian. Both companies still make machinery. What's better is that I found good machines with straight ways and lots of useful life in them. And I can work in English or Metric, thread for both without change gears, they have modern electric cabinets with TEFC motors, asbestos-free construction, and fully enclosed guards. I feel good about my choices every day, no regrets this time around.
 
So I just picked up a Lagun-Republic lathe that is very nice , pretty stout being a 14" x 60" , and I've owned plenty of FTV-1s and 2s mills . All are on the top of my go to lists . We had a few Clausing-Nardini lathes at one place that were nice also . I've seen Clausing Metosas , Clausing BP clones ( which I didn't like ) , but I think these are all owned by Bridgeport these days . :dunno:I just find it hard to keep up these days . Although I'm sure outdated these days , the Makino CNC lathes and mills were my favorites back in the days .

Edit ........BP owns Hardinge .
 
Clausing-Metosa is a different beast, but there are good Romi-Brazil made Clausing-BP-DoAll lathes out there. They are pretty nice, but they are not equal amongst each other, because each parent brand had their own specs and price points. For example, the Clausing and BP lathes had carriage stops on a bar like Takisawa (probably originated elsewhere) where the Nardini has an extra fifty parts in the carriage for its elaborate carriage drive system. The BPs had plastic handwheels. Stuff like that. These were considered B-line machines, where customers can save a few bucks by buying an import over the domestic flagship models in the line. Most of these are 14" and larger lathes, so really the upper end for home shops.

The Republic lathes were similar, made in China under Lagun-Republic supervision. They are excellent machines, because the design specs they were built to were provided and verified by Lagun. China is capable of good manufacturing, it just isn't common to see anybody really pay for it. I think the Republic lathes are a great example of tightly controlled Asian manufacturing. They were doing it pretty early, too.
 
Well, Grizzly may own the name South Bend but they didn’t build my lathe.
but I guess I’m part of the problem, my 1978 Troy-Bill horse tiller was built in Troy, NY.
But it now has a HF Chinese engine.
so it goes.
 
Manual Mac said:
Well, Grizzly may own the name South Bend but they didn’t build my lathe.
but I guess I’m part of the problem, my 1978 Troy-Bill horse tiller was built in Troy, NY.
But it now has a HF Chinese engine.
so it goes.
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Good Lord! You actually Chinezified an American kit after it was manufactured! :)
 
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