Used lathe opinions
- Thread starter nbmonte
- Start date
Yiminy frick!
Looks like they just let it sit outside under a tarp until they finally got around to listing it.
We had a couple of those in the last shop I worked in, they were a pretty decent machine. The variable speed was pretty handy, and they were pretty capable lathes.
Someone is gonna need a big bucket of rust remover though...
Looks like they just let it sit outside under a tarp until they finally got around to listing it.
We had a couple of those in the last shop I worked in, they were a pretty decent machine. The variable speed was pretty handy, and they were pretty capable lathes.
Someone is gonna need a big bucket of rust remover though...
Nope. Had a 12 inch Atlas, it was the best of a bad lot, but only by default, as the other smaller size lathes were such crap. That I gave away. It had a great steel bench, and lots of spare chucks that would be able to be transferred over to a 9 inch South Bend or similarly sized Lodan or Sheldon machines. Sold a 10 inch Rockwell to a friend, who replaced his useless 10 inch Atlas with it, and refused to, and I quote, "Do That", to anyone. He still has the Atlas buried in a corner of his shop, and last I heard, was fairly zealous about showing it off and explaining why you don't want one. Ever.
The six inch Atlas lathes were crap, too lightly built, even for the small size work that they could fit. The spindle was too thin, and too unsupported, and was a ,major source of chatter when trying to turn.
Sad as it is to say, there WERE actually worse machines than Atlas out there for sale during the last century. But, to find them, you pretty much have to dig through old Hobby metalwork magazines and look through the adverts.
The good is, that we are so bloody spoiled for choices these days, and that the Chinese getting in to the small lathe market, has driven prices way down to affordable levels, for some pretty decent hardware that was actually designed to do real work.
www.lathes.co.uk is a great resource to look up unfamiliar names and to get some idea of strengths and weaknesses of various machinery, mostly sizes listed that would make good Home Shop stuff, rather than entirely Industrial machines.
- Location
- Vancouver Island
Back in the 80's, I managed to get a summer job for 3 years in a row working at an irrigation company that had a rather large machine shop.
For one glorious summer (the last of the 3), I was given the position of being the sub-backup-assistant-fourth-string machinist, and was lucky enough to get some very basic training on running the lathe for machining pvc and (sometimes) metal pipe. Didn't quite get to the point being capable of doing the initial setup of the machine for production runs, but was able to keep it fed, measure the results to ensure consistency, and make some minor adjustments when needed.
Can't recall the make of lathe, but I'm pretty sure it had a chuck capable of handling 10" diameter pipe. Size-wise, I'd guess at 8 to 10 feet long, but memory and years may have exaggerated both those numbers a bit.
I do recall being blown away by the amount of tooling and measuring instruments required and available, given that the most accurate measuring of anything I'd done up to that point would have been with a tape-measure... The main machinist was pretty good about letting me using his gear - but my offer of going home to get my tape measure might have helped with access to the calipers/micrometers, etc.
Threads such as this bring back some great memories of those summers. Would love to install a small lathe down in the crawlspace just for (re-)learning and the occasional actual useful activity, but it would probably annoy the spiders...
For one glorious summer (the last of the 3), I was given the position of being the sub-backup-assistant-fourth-string machinist, and was lucky enough to get some very basic training on running the lathe for machining pvc and (sometimes) metal pipe. Didn't quite get to the point being capable of doing the initial setup of the machine for production runs, but was able to keep it fed, measure the results to ensure consistency, and make some minor adjustments when needed.
Can't recall the make of lathe, but I'm pretty sure it had a chuck capable of handling 10" diameter pipe. Size-wise, I'd guess at 8 to 10 feet long, but memory and years may have exaggerated both those numbers a bit.
I do recall being blown away by the amount of tooling and measuring instruments required and available, given that the most accurate measuring of anything I'd done up to that point would have been with a tape-measure... The main machinist was pretty good about letting me using his gear - but my offer of going home to get my tape measure might have helped with access to the calipers/micrometers, etc.
Threads such as this bring back some great memories of those summers. Would love to install a small lathe down in the crawlspace just for (re-)learning and the occasional actual useful activity, but it would probably annoy the spiders...
My fascination with lathes started in High school shop and then I had a part time and summer job working for a construction company. They had a huge lathe, from the war time Ogden shop production line and one of the owners was a bit of an inventor, think he actually held a couple of patents. He could work wonders with that dinosaur. They had a smaller one as well and I'd sneak into the shop and play with it after hours.
Grizz
In Ontario we have it pretty good for equiptment... I usually buy from school auctions on govdeals. There are 5 lathes on there right now... Years ago I had a King 12x36 lathe and import 3/4 size knee mill... The king lathe was not accurate.. I sold both of those in my last house move.
I now have a Standard Modern Series 2000 11x24 lathe and a KBC Tum1vs mill both bought from auctions on gov deals.. I have no issues with the 24 swing as the bore hole is 1.375 but would of bought a Standard modern 13x34 or 14x40 if the prices were right. I really like Standard Modern lathes. They are very accurate and North American made.
The nice thing with gov deals is you can usually inspect the equipment before you buy it. When I bought the lathe I bought 2 in case I needed parts. They were sell 8 the exact same from one school. They were just under $800 each plus tax/fee's. A few years ago the current standard modern equivalent was $12000 new.
My knee mill I just got last year from the auction. It was almost never used and the shop teacher said they could not find a teacher to teach it.. Came with 2 vises. Mitutoyo dro, collets etc. Was $3600 plus tax. Current new is $14000 plus tax..
Gov deals sells school/military/municipality's stuff. Its a great place for tools. Would be worth making a drive for a good deal...I should add I only buy from high schools not colleges.. The high school stuff usually isn't used near as much..
I now have a Standard Modern Series 2000 11x24 lathe and a KBC Tum1vs mill both bought from auctions on gov deals.. I have no issues with the 24 swing as the bore hole is 1.375 but would of bought a Standard modern 13x34 or 14x40 if the prices were right. I really like Standard Modern lathes. They are very accurate and North American made.
The nice thing with gov deals is you can usually inspect the equipment before you buy it. When I bought the lathe I bought 2 in case I needed parts. They were sell 8 the exact same from one school. They were just under $800 each plus tax/fee's. A few years ago the current standard modern equivalent was $12000 new.
My knee mill I just got last year from the auction. It was almost never used and the shop teacher said they could not find a teacher to teach it.. Came with 2 vises. Mitutoyo dro, collets etc. Was $3600 plus tax. Current new is $14000 plus tax..
Gov deals sells school/military/municipality's stuff. Its a great place for tools. Would be worth making a drive for a good deal...I should add I only buy from high schools not colleges.. The high school stuff usually isn't used near as much..
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Some good stories here.
Back in the early 70's in high school had a lot of fun sharpening HS bits and making school projects with lathes, shapers and a Bridgeport mill. During that time from 12 to 17yrs old I worked at a garage most nights after school, weekends and summers. I pumped a lot of gas, changed oil and tires on cars. Got pretty good at changing engines in the end. The boss had a room in the back with a SB 9", a small mill and all the machines to do automotive and engine work. He said if I wanted to use the machines I could after work anytime. So I did and leaned a lot about machining engine parts. When I was done high school I got a summer job at a machine shop. Swept a lot of floors, and mostly cut stock to feed the huge axle lathes. They had a tool room where there was nice SB lathe for making one off things. I was allowed to use it with permission from the foreman off hours. From that I did other trades jobs just to see what the world had to offer, but I had some good experience in the machine shop trade to know what tolerances were and how to use measuring instruments.
I was always into firearms since I was a boy and always thought that I might get a lathe some day. Life moved on and had to make a living. During the 90's in my travels I was making a delivery at a hospital in Hartford CT. Off to the side was a nice 13" SB toolroom lathe. I asked what's it doing there? Was told they bought a new CNC machine and it was going to the surplus dealer. It was hardly used and just collecting dust in excellent shape. Made a deal and it was loaded on my truck. The following year found a J-Head Bridgeport in Oshawa, ON for $1000. It needed some work to bring back to spec, but not a problem for me. Ended up paying $900 and loaded that on the truck as well. They key is when buying used is to know what your looking for. I also saw a lot of them old machines and parts that I wouldn't take for free. They were scrap.
In my early 20's I had a Swede Mauser that was in fair shape, but no collector. I wanted to mount scope rings as was the thing to do back then for a $50 milsurp rifle, but had no idea how to do that. Sent it to local smith to get it done. Picked it up and was excited to get my first drilled and tapped Mauser to the range. After installing the scope I noticed how badly the scope holes were misaligned. There was no way I was going to get on target with that. Just looking at that I realized I could do better than that. I did and that started my hobby as a smith. It's just a hobby though. I like making my own tools and doing my own gunsmithing. Back in those days I also bought a lot of tooling used from eBay and other sources, but a lot of that has dried up. If I had lost those machines and wanted to start again I would seriously look at a new Taiwan lathe than go down that rabbit hole again.
Back in the early 70's in high school had a lot of fun sharpening HS bits and making school projects with lathes, shapers and a Bridgeport mill. During that time from 12 to 17yrs old I worked at a garage most nights after school, weekends and summers. I pumped a lot of gas, changed oil and tires on cars. Got pretty good at changing engines in the end. The boss had a room in the back with a SB 9", a small mill and all the machines to do automotive and engine work. He said if I wanted to use the machines I could after work anytime. So I did and leaned a lot about machining engine parts. When I was done high school I got a summer job at a machine shop. Swept a lot of floors, and mostly cut stock to feed the huge axle lathes. They had a tool room where there was nice SB lathe for making one off things. I was allowed to use it with permission from the foreman off hours. From that I did other trades jobs just to see what the world had to offer, but I had some good experience in the machine shop trade to know what tolerances were and how to use measuring instruments.
I was always into firearms since I was a boy and always thought that I might get a lathe some day. Life moved on and had to make a living. During the 90's in my travels I was making a delivery at a hospital in Hartford CT. Off to the side was a nice 13" SB toolroom lathe. I asked what's it doing there? Was told they bought a new CNC machine and it was going to the surplus dealer. It was hardly used and just collecting dust in excellent shape. Made a deal and it was loaded on my truck. The following year found a J-Head Bridgeport in Oshawa, ON for $1000. It needed some work to bring back to spec, but not a problem for me. Ended up paying $900 and loaded that on the truck as well. They key is when buying used is to know what your looking for. I also saw a lot of them old machines and parts that I wouldn't take for free. They were scrap.
In my early 20's I had a Swede Mauser that was in fair shape, but no collector. I wanted to mount scope rings as was the thing to do back then for a $50 milsurp rifle, but had no idea how to do that. Sent it to local smith to get it done. Picked it up and was excited to get my first drilled and tapped Mauser to the range. After installing the scope I noticed how badly the scope holes were misaligned. There was no way I was going to get on target with that. Just looking at that I realized I could do better than that. I did and that started my hobby as a smith. It's just a hobby though. I like making my own tools and doing my own gunsmithing. Back in those days I also bought a lot of tooling used from eBay and other sources, but a lot of that has dried up. If I had lost those machines and wanted to start again I would seriously look at a new Taiwan lathe than go down that rabbit hole again.
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LOL!
Yep, started in High School, grade 8, in the metal shop. We did some blacksmithing, sand casting aluminum, lots of file and hammer work, and lathe work as well as some mill.
Once i got done with school, I wanted a lathe and started following what was available. Actually got a quote from South Bend, just before they cratered for the first time, early 1980's, and then, they wanted over $10K for a bare 9 inch lathe. Pretty steep!
I eventually got hooked up with a pretty well tooled out WW Pattern Watchmakers lathe for next to nothing, and eventually found a Myford ML7, after a lot of auction sales seeing absolute crap selling for amazing money.
Lots of years and many machine tools later, and it still interests me enough to make me care.
Yep, started in High School, grade 8, in the metal shop. We did some blacksmithing, sand casting aluminum, lots of file and hammer work, and lathe work as well as some mill.
Once i got done with school, I wanted a lathe and started following what was available. Actually got a quote from South Bend, just before they cratered for the first time, early 1980's, and then, they wanted over $10K for a bare 9 inch lathe. Pretty steep!
I eventually got hooked up with a pretty well tooled out WW Pattern Watchmakers lathe for next to nothing, and eventually found a Myford ML7, after a lot of auction sales seeing absolute crap selling for amazing money.
Lots of years and many machine tools later, and it still interests me enough to make me care.
trevj,
Back in those I could never afford a new lathe either. Too busy paying bills and a mortgage. Being a trucker I visited a lot of eastern US auctions/surplus dealers and was amazed to see so much stuff in the 80's/90's. You would have been like a kid in a candy store then. I could have bought all of Winchester's barrel making machines if I had the money. The best thing I did was try dozens of lathes and mills with power and see the difference of good and bad with prices. The further west you went, the prices went up and quality went down.
Here's my 1979 SB 13x40 when I first got it home. That's the original paint on it and it comes with a taper attachment.
My 1962 J-head mill before and after rebuild. I tore it apart and cleaned it out. Found the ways were very good and some new parts. It will cut within .0005 for 12".
Back in those I could never afford a new lathe either. Too busy paying bills and a mortgage. Being a trucker I visited a lot of eastern US auctions/surplus dealers and was amazed to see so much stuff in the 80's/90's. You would have been like a kid in a candy store then. I could have bought all of Winchester's barrel making machines if I had the money. The best thing I did was try dozens of lathes and mills with power and see the difference of good and bad with prices. The further west you went, the prices went up and quality went down.
Here's my 1979 SB 13x40 when I first got it home. That's the original paint on it and it comes with a taper attachment.
My 1962 J-head mill before and after rebuild. I tore it apart and cleaned it out. Found the ways were very good and some new parts. It will cut within .0005 for 12".
Thanks, it's an old photo. Doesn't look that nice anymore. Starting to show some stain and use.
The beauty of these machines is I can actually makes parts for each other. They also cannot cut as fast as modern machines. They have their limits and can chatter.
Tagging in on this post.
I never took the leap into getting a lathe, just always struck me as a big leap that was a bit too steep a learning curve for me.
I am fortunate in that my local technical college offers night courses on machine shop stuff, with lathes being a whole set of classes teaching basics like measuring and setup to more advanced like threading and tapers. They also then offer a gunsmithing course. I intend to take those this fall to jump in, but like sticking around to gain some knowledge. Being able to do custom work on my rifles always has intrigued me. I like the idea of being able to do my own barrels. Once I take those courses, I feel I will have a better idea of what kind of machine I will be after, and how to budget for it properly.
I never took the leap into getting a lathe, just always struck me as a big leap that was a bit too steep a learning curve for me.
I am fortunate in that my local technical college offers night courses on machine shop stuff, with lathes being a whole set of classes teaching basics like measuring and setup to more advanced like threading and tapers. They also then offer a gunsmithing course. I intend to take those this fall to jump in, but like sticking around to gain some knowledge. Being able to do custom work on my rifles always has intrigued me. I like the idea of being able to do my own barrels. Once I take those courses, I feel I will have a better idea of what kind of machine I will be after, and how to budget for it properly.
I knew SAIT offered a gun smithing course at one time, didn't realize NAIT did. I think it was project oriented, you built a rifle.
Grizz
I have an Atlas 618, which I bought for $500, well equipped, including a collet set, 3 checks, etc. It is a small, lightweight lathe. It does have its uses, but also has its limitations. Certainly moving a lathe this size is easy.
My primary lathe is a Standard Modern 1340. The little Atlas is a toy in comparison.
My primary lathe is a Standard Modern 1340. The little Atlas is a toy in comparison.
Yep, NAIT does offer that exact gunsmithing course. You are required to bring your own action and barrel blank to build a rifle. But I still have to take the intro course to machining first. I want to take all of it. I missed the last semester's entry cutoff, so I'll be applying as soon as it opens for this upcoming fall semester. The night courses work for me since I have a full time day job and can't take daytime courses.
What I recall of the NAIT course was that it was very expensive, and that they seemed to be perpetually out of students enough to actually run it, even if you were signed up. I looked in to it when I was working in Edmonton in the early 2000's, so I may be quite out of date.
Not sure if the Alberta Model Engineers Network is still active, they were meeting at Arby's on the South side of Edmonton about once monthly.LOTS of talented guys there!
Not sure if the Alberta Model Engineers Network is still active, they were meeting at Arby's on the South side of Edmonton about once monthly.LOTS of talented guys there!
Funny you should mention Model Engineers. I scored a fistful of British Model Engineer magazines from the 90s at our local Library book sale. Hard to believe what those guys are capable of.
Grizz
A sad thing happened in Regina Sk.
I had been going in every couple weekends and had to kill time, and the Regina Public Library had a bloody GREAT selection of Model Engineer magazines in their archives.
I used to buy 10 or 20 dollars worth of photocopy credits there and work my way through a couple projects that were really interesting.
I went in one week and they told me that they had recycled the whole lot because "Nobody ever buys old magazines!". Frick! Had I known, I would have rented a truck to haul them, AND paid a fair bit for the privilege!
As it is, I was subscribed for a fair few years, plus I inherited a BUNCH of issues dating back into the late 1800's. It's really cool reading material, plus every now and again, you find a shocker, like seeing your home town mentioned in a British Magazine, during the early 'teens period, when you were still never quite sure if a letter was going to make it across the Atlantic....
Right now I figure I have maybe ten feet of shelf space of just ME Mag, lots more feet of space of other stuff. A friend passed away and he knew I liked books (understatement maybe, of the eon!) and gave me his library, on the condition that it did not get recycled.
I have boxes of books, that I move with a pallet dolly, now! LOL!
To a large extent, it is seeing what those guys had to deal with, that makes me thankful that we have so many really nice options these days!
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vagrantviking
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- High River, Alberta
Sounds like the Sait course in Calgary. Could never quite get the time and money organized at the same time and it sounds like it got cancelled as often as it ran. Don't think it's been offered in a long time now.
Inherited a Mastercraft Atlas 9in that I'm trying to get running right and was gifted/traded a 4-1/2foot South Bend 9c in a pile of boxes that I'll tackle afterwards. Going to be a heck of a learning curve since I haven't actually run one since high school. Hate to think about how long ago that was!
