Hobbyist or Entry Level Lathe recommendations

With respect to moving lathes down stairs...
Hired movers to do it.
16" South Bend with an 8' bed. I disassembled it, which made the move possible. Even then, taking the bed down a flight of stairs was a bit scary.
Fortunately, there was an "I" beam in the ceiling. I was able to reassemble the lathe using a chain fall. The bed had to be lifted so the cast pedestals could be placed underneath it, then the headstock lifted onto the bed. Ran a large pipe through the spindle, looped the chain around the protruding ends.
Anyway the move was successful, no one got hurt and no damage was done to the machine.

My current shop door is 9' wide. The bucket on the neighbour's loader is 8' wide. My Standard Modern is about 7' long. Everything fit. The bucket went through the door, tipped the bucket slightly, and we slid the lathe onto the concrete floor. The pedestals have 4 screws each for levelling. Used these with a ratchet wrench to lift the lathe enough to put pipe rollers underneath. Using the rollers I was able to waltz the lathe around the room and get it positioned where I wanted it. Having set it back down, I realized I had to get behind it to complete the hookup. Had to raise and roll it again. Those screws in the pedestals made levelling straightforward. Those rollers are now the cheater handles for my action wrenches.

Everything else being equal, a good larger lathe will be less expensive than a good smaller lathe, because the size intimidates hobby users.
Be careful moving one though. A lathe has a high center of gravity, and if one tips, you aren't going to stop it.
 
tiriaq said:
With respect to moving lathes down stairs...
Hired movers to do it.
16" South Bend with an 8' bed. I disassembled it, which made the move possible. Even then, taking the bed down a flight of stairs was a bit scary.
Fortunately, there was an "I" beam in the ceiling. I was able to reassemble the lathe using a chain fall. The bed had to be lifted so the cast pedestals could be placed underneath it, then the headstock lifted onto the bed. Ran a large pipe through the spindle, looped the chain around the protruding ends.
Anyway the move was successful, no one got hurt and no damage was done to the machine.

My current shop door is 9' wide. The bucket on the neighbour's loader is 8' wide. My Standard Modern is about 7' long. Everything fit. The bucket went through the door, tipped the bucket slightly, and we slid the lathe onto the concrete floor. The pedestals have 4 screws each for levelling. Used these with a ratchet wrench to lift the lathe enough to put pipe rollers underneath. Using the rollers I was able to waltz the lathe around the room and get it positioned where I wanted it. Having set it back down, I realized I had to get behind it to complete the hookup. Had to raise and roll it again. Those screws in the pedestals made levelling straightforward. Those rollers are now the cheater handles for my action wrenches.

Everything else being equal, a good larger lathe will be less expensive than a good smaller lathe, because the size intimidates hobby users.
Be careful moving one though. A lathe has a high center of gravity, and if one tips, you aren't going to stop it.
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I'm very jealous. I found a Colchester mascot 1600 8 foot bed, but my budget and shop is too small. Hoping in a couple of years to move and down size the house and up size the shop.
 
gaff said:
I'm thinking you need to get that 3hp in your 2500 sooner than later.
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LOL! Yep!

tiriaq said:
With respect to moving lathes down stairs...
Hired movers to do it.
16" South Bend with an 8' bed. I disassembled it, which made the move possible. Even then, taking the bed down a flight of stairs was a bit scary.
Fortunately, there was an "I" beam in the ceiling. I was able to reassemble the lathe using a chain fall. The bed had to be lifted so the cast pedestals could be placed underneath it, then the headstock lifted onto the bed. Ran a large pipe through the spindle, looped the chain around the protruding ends.
Anyway the move was successful, no one got hurt and no damage was done to the machine.

My current shop door is 9' wide. The bucket on the neighbour's loader is 8' wide. My Standard Modern is about 7' long. Everything fit. The bucket went through the door, tipped the bucket slightly, and we slid the lathe onto the concrete floor. The pedestals have 4 screws each for levelling. Used these with a ratchet wrench to lift the lathe enough to put pipe rollers underneath. Using the rollers I was able to waltz the lathe around the room and get it positioned where I wanted it. Having set it back down, I realized I had to get behind it to complete the hookup. Had to raise and roll it again. Those screws in the pedestals made levelling straightforward. Those rollers are now the cheater handles for my action wrenches.

Everything else being equal, a good larger lathe will be less expensive than a good smaller lathe, because the size intimidates hobby users.
Be careful moving one though. A lathe has a high center of gravity, and if one tips, you aren't going to stop it.
Click to expand...

The two pieces of gear that changed how I do things, the most, (and likely a pretty good sign of a bad habit or two!) were the hand hydraulic pallet dolly, and a folding hydraulic engine hoist.

About all I could think of that would stretch my capabilities way further would be to get my mitts on a surplus Hydro Pole truck with the picker/auger combo unit on it. :D

Movers. If there are machinery riggers available in your area, they are worth every penny!

And yeah, lots of great, big ol' machine tools go to scrap or go for nearly free, because the average guy has not the means to move the bigger gear.
From experience, I can move about a 4500 pound machine around on level ground, but need to hire a picker truck or tow truck with a decent boom, to load/unload same off a trailer. It's nerve wracking, but if you think lots and move slow, you get there in one piece!

As for homes, I have developed an appreciation for the Basement walk-out style, for some reason or other.... :)
 
A walk-out basement is ideal for an in-the-home shop.

My Standard Modern was picked up with a boom truck, and brought to the yard just down the road. It was then transferred into the bucket on the loader for delivery to my shop. Fortunately my shop is straight through the door onto concrete.
I bought a load of tools from an estate. Lincoln stick welder, a grinder on a cabinet, power hacksaw on a cabinet, an Atlas shaper on a cabinet, and a mill/drill on a strong vertically adjustable stand. There was also a South Bend bench lathe, but it was spoken for. Fortunately, the folks liquidating the estate got the load up and out of the basement, and helped load everything on the trailer I'd borrowed. Had to unload the thing by myself. Disassembled the mill/drill. To get the mill/drill, and shaper back on their stands, I made a sturdy gantry from 4x4s, and lifted the iron with a come-along. Bit scary, but neither I, nor the machines were injured.
Moved a South Bend 10K alone once. Dismantled it. That would be about the limit for do-it-yourself.
Your dolly and engine hoist would certainly make life easier.

That 16" South Bend was a great old machine. 57" centers. I was making 36" muzzleloader barrels on it. Tapered octagon to tapered round. End-to-end I could hold .003-.005". It was made in 1932.
 
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After I parted with the Myford ML 7 I had my eyes open for a replacement that was of good quality and well tooled. I was doing all my lathe work on my Logan 14X40 but wanted something for precise chambering of rifle barrels.
After much research I had decided to be on the look out for a Monarch 10 EE which has a 10 inch swing and a 22 inch bed, the scarce 36 inch bed variant was way out of my reach and scarce as hens teeth. I found a 1973 round dial that had everything it left the factory with including the tooling cabinet which was a nice touch, 2 collet chucks, 2 three jaw chucks, a 6 jaw buck chuck, a 4 jaw chuck, 2 face plates and the icing on the cake was a magnetic chuck. The full set of Hardinge collets and rubber flex collets were as new as were much of the factory accessories that came with it. A Hindenhan digital read out was also part of the package. The bare machine has a weight of 3600 pounds and is vibration free even when run in high RPM's, the variable speed feature will run from a slow crawl to about 4000 RPM's.
Yes I am truly spoiled, but what an awakening when it comes to reaming chambers. D.H.
 
Yes, yes you are spoiled! LOL!

About the only bad thing I have ever heard anyone say about the Monarchs is that the headstock is pretty long and can make setting up a cat head at the back end a bit of a chore.
And that the pretty purple power tubes in them are bloody dear to replace!

A friend had a larger Monarch in his shop. Ostensibly a 13 inch swing, I think it was pretty close to 5 tons.

I somewhat regret not bidding higher on the Schaublin 150 that sold on Crown Assets early this year. I got to use one at work for a while. Yeah. Spoiled is a pretty good description.
When they were new, both the 10EE and the Sch 150 were lathes built to a specification, price be damned. From what I have read, the current price on a 'rebuilt' Monarch is well over $60K US. When the Schaub was new, they sold for more than the average house in Switzerland, where they were made.

Whole different animals from a new lathe made to a low price point!
 
The Monarch 10 EE is not the perfect gunsmiths lathe, not by a long shot. As you mention the spindle length wont allow support of the rear end of a barrel via a cat head on the out board end. I wont pretend to even begin to understand how the electromagnetic drive system operates and where to find a serviceman should the need ever arise if things go wonky. Fortunately my machine came equipped with quite a few spare parts including some tubes which are hard to get a hold of and costly. I read somewhere on the one of the machinery forums that the last new Monarch 10 EE was assembled and shipped in the 1990's and the price was somewhere in the $90,000 range. And I think that was in U.S. dollars.
There is a business in Salt Lake City called Machinery Consultants and they specialize in restoration and resale of U.S. manufactured machine tools, they also have British and European stuff as well. I like checking out their web site from time to time as they have the coolest old school stuff and no modern CNC.
 
TrxR said:
What is everyones opinion on a Standard modern ?
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They were Canadian made, up until very recently.

I ran a 1340 at work for a bit, and it was a nice machine. Light by the standards of the likes of Dean Smith and Grace, Monarchs, and similar hulking heavyweight lathes, but a decent machine.
The Bench top models were pretty common in High School and College shop classes for a long time, comparable or maybe even a little heavier built than the South Bend lathes.

Model, age, condition? You can check out www.lathes.co.uk to see what they have in their Archive, too.

If you are shopping used, condition is key! If you are not terribly confident when it comes to assessing the condition, one of the keys that I have found, is that it really does pay to consider the general presentation that the machine makes to you as a first impression. If it looks like it's beat to heck, it likely is, while if it is clean, well kept looking, few dings or other evidence of hard use, etc., that too is a pretty decent thing to go on, factoring that it isn't a spray bomb 'rebuild'.

I did a quick look, and they are still in business selling new machines. I don't think they are giving them away though!
Saw a post from 2011, that said that they had quoted $14K US at that time for a 1340.

Stuff like chucks can be got almost anywhere, steady and follower rests are a little harder to find used or otherwise, so see if they are with the machine you look at.
 
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I my memory serves me correctly ( questionable ) a year or so back one of the KBC mini catalogues they mail out had a Standard Modern 13 x 40 in along with their King and Kent lathes. I was under the impression that they were made in Canada, and the retail price would reflect that. Good machines I'm told. D.H.
 
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