I'll be buying a lathe, and most likely a knee mill in a few weeks to a month or so. Tooling it comes with will decide on the amount I am willing to spend as I don't want to drop $10K on a machine or two, then have to spend that much again on tooling because the machine came bare. It's the accessories and tooling that will run you into the red real quick, lol.
Hoping to find a good deal on a heavy 14"-16" 40-50" c2c lathe that can do both SAE and metric. No benchtop hobby type stuff.
This maximat is just a tad too small and light for my needs.
You are shopping in a size range that is too heavy for most hobby guys, and that drives the price down a bit.
I would suggest that you keep an eye out south of the Border. Price differences that I have seen, have been such that trucking, taxes, brokerage, etc., all still add up to a better buy than buying locally, at times.
I have a 13x40 Colchester in the shed that I am working towards reactivating, switching out the 550v motor for a 220, and adding a VFD to control the speed. Will have to sort out the coolant pump too, eventually. That is about as big a lathe as I am looking for. I have an 11x20 or so Emco Super 11 that will take 1 3/8' through the spindle bore, as well as my Myford Super 7 with it's little bitty 5/8" spindle....and a WW pattern watchmakers lathe...<sigh> My name is Trevor, and I have a lathe problem....
Take a good look at the Mazak manual lathes. I think they would be right about what you are looking for. IIRC, there was a licensed copy made in Korea that is every bit as good and durable, as well as at least one outfit in the US (I think, Summit tools) selling a bunch of really well made clones. Worth digging around a bit on Practicalmachinist, among other places. Thing to know is that most folks don't recognize the name or associate it with a decent quality machine, so the demand is lower. Sometimes...
Have seen far better deals on manual mills south of the line too.
I have watched the stuff in Ontario come and go on Kijiji and craigslist over the years and there have been some pretty decent machines listed off and on. Try using Searchtempest to search through the craigslist entries over a wider area. Kijiji at least lets you search an entire province's listings at one go.
Cheers
Trev