Opinions needed on many used lathes from Facebook Marketplace.

[G-ManBart]

Too many photos for me to scrutinize all of them so I will just give some general advice.
You absolutely want a quick change gear box.
Not many of those small lathes were run day in, day out so wear - though you should check for it closely is not likely to be a huge issue.
Absolutely get a lathe with roller bearings in the spindle. Forget those that have bronze or babbitt bearings.
They made a gazillion of those South Bends so parts and/or accessories will be much easier to find than for other brands.
Buy the biggest lathe you have room for and the ability to move.
Buying an older lathe that needs a bit of work - but not a lot of work - allows a guy to learn how the machine works before he learns how to make things on it.
I would ten times rather see a guy buy an older lathe from the US - or ANY of the nations we are allied with than a brand new poj from China.

Not entirely true when you consider that Logan is still selling new parts for their vintage machines. Not every part is available, but most are...not always cheap, but at least available. Used SB parts are definitely the most common, but for wear items I'd rather buy new when possible.

Clausing also still sells a lot of new parts for their vintage lathes, but not as many as Logan. I've owned all three brands and the edge goes to Logan for parts availability, by a long shot. They even still supply things like steady rests, follow rests and complete taper attachments...pretty surprising really.

 

[mac1911]

These parts you wish to make.
How is the volume to profit ?
If thinking of going into business
Why not look into a new machine ?
I would love to get to a point where I could get paid for making things on my lathe. Would be great.
I have saved enough making things for myself to pay for my lathe and 75% of my tooling. Lets me say this . Im not paying a lot for most tooling. Lathe was cheap enough you could call it free.
$200 and came with a bison 5” 4 jaw. Worth the price right there.

 

[Unix]

These parts you wish to make.
How is the volume to profit ?
If thinking of going into business
Why not look into a new machine ?
I would love to get to a point where I could get paid for making things on my lathe. Would be great.
I have saved enough making things for myself to pay for my lathe and 75% of my tooling. Lets me say this . Im not paying a lot for most tooling. Lathe was cheap enough you could call it free.
$200 and came with a bison 5” 4 jaw. Worth the price right there.

Thanks for the Reply.

Profit is very fluctuate. Some things are decent while others are very high. 100% everything will be sold in Amazon and alike.
Not sure how a new lathe can help me greatly compared to a used quality lathe at the beginning stage of online business, hope I can get some pointers why it would be smarter to get a new lathe. If a new lathe is simply faster this isn't really justifiable for me.

$200 for lathe, sounds like a great deal. What kind of lathe you have?

 

[Unix]

Too many photos for me to scrutinize all of them so I will just give some general advice.
You absolutely want a quick change gear box.
Not many of those small lathes were run day in, day out so wear - though you should check for it closely is not likely to be a huge issue.
Absolutely get a lathe with roller bearings in the spindle. Forget those that have bronze or babbitt bearings.
They made a gazillion of those South Bends so parts and/or accessories will be much easier to find than for other brands.
Buy the biggest lathe you have room for and the ability to move.
Buying an older lathe that needs a bit of work - but not a lot of work - allows a guy to learn how the machine works before he learns how to make things on it.
I would ten times rather see a guy buy an older lathe from the US - or ANY of the nations we are allied with than a brand new poj from China.

Thanks for the reply and hints.

I should check closes of wear on the bed and spindle?
Which south bend lathes models or lathe brands usually have roller bearings in the spindle?

 

[Unix]

The Logan in post #16 I'd go look at, and the SB in post #13 also looks good although I don't see steady rests
on either. The SB in post #14 has some wear on the bedways, but might be ok
A turret lathe probably isn't what you want, nor a vintage monster like post #17 (unless you can use a lathe that big)
The Hardinge while a good deal is a very specialised production machine and not an engine lathe- a totally different animal

Putting a large bar or pipe in the chuck and tugging on it will help you
feel/gauge how much play/wear there is. Sleeve bearing spindles like SB are more involved to recondition
A Logan with roller bearing headstock is easy to adjust for preload (providing the bearings are ok)

Scraping in a lathe is very involved and time-consuming to do correctly- I would spend a bit more to avoid the need for that
In severe cases the carriage drops so much the leadscrew actually has to be re-positioned and there are other gotchas- don't go there

Thanks for the reply.

Alright with this said, I think I should focus on getting a Logan then due to it having roller bearings and easier to adjust.
I'll try to find a lathe which doesn't require reconditioning and not fall into the rabbit hole of gotchas.

 

[Ischgl99]

Not sure how a new lathe can help me greatly compared to a used quality lathe at the beginning stage of online business, hope I can get some pointers why it would be smarter to get a new lathe.

You don’t know what you are getting with an old lathe, it could be one problem after another that needs to be fixed, taking time away from growing your business. Parts can be difficult to get with used lathes too. A new lathe will have a warranty and for the most part, ready to go once set up. As a hobby, getting a used lathe and needing to fix it is not necessarily an issue. If I am running a business, I want a tool I can start making money with right away. The lathes you listed may be fine, but then again, they may not be once you get them home and really start using them.

 

[mac1911]

Thanks for the Reply.

Profit is very fluctuate. Some things are decent while others are very high. 100% everything will be sold in Amazon and alike.
Not sure how a new lathe can help me greatly compared to a used quality lathe at the beginning stage of online business, hope I can get some pointers why it would be smarter to get a new lathe. If a new lathe is simply faster this isn't really justifiable for me.

$200 for lathe, sounds like a great deal. What kind of lathe you have?

Its a mid 2000s smithy 1220 and a royal pita for a a hobby guy like me.
My thoughts are If I was running production vs one off pieces I would want a machine that was accurate and faster. Something with DRO and power feeds? Time is money.
I would go nuts with this lathe trying to push out production for profit. Going into as a business perspective I might be looking at a CNC set up?

 

[mac1911]

You don’t know what you are getting with an old lathe, it could be one problem after another that needs to be fixed, taking time away from growing your business. Parts can be difficult to get with used lathes too. A new lathe will have a warranty and for the most part, ready to go once set up. As a hobby, getting a used lathe and needing to fix it is not necessarily an issue. If I am running a business, I want a tool I can start making money with right away. The lathes you listed may be fine, but then again, they may not be once you get them home and really start using them.

Fixing the old lathe is part of the hobby.

 

[Larry$]

You confuse me. Want to surface grind to .0001s but are looking at lathes that only a talented machinist could get .001"s out of when they were new. Hand scraping a lathe bed would take many, many hours that should be spent working on advancing your business not learning you can't really scrape old iron into working like new. A certified surface plate will cost almost as much as a decent lathe, maybe more than. In business, time is $. Some of the lathes you show require change gears for feed, some don't even allow threading w/o changing gears. I'm not trying to put you down, I'm trying to save you from yourself. Get a job in a decent machine job shop. You will learn more there in a year than struggling to make things w/o the knowledge that is required. Read, Watch, Ask, Learn, Work. Get a cheap lathe as a learning tool. Don't expect it to quickly make you into a machinist. That lathe's job is to teach you (how much you have to learn.) Good luck

 

[G-ManBart]

Fixing the old lathe is part of the hobby.

For some people, but he's talking about making parts to sell, so not exactly the same thing as pure hobby work.