What Lathes do you use for gunsmithing?

DIGGER2

DIGGER2

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Hey guys, I'm thinking of getting into doing some gun smithing & general machining on the side here at home. (I'm a Tool and Die maker by trade just FYI) Looking at buying a lathe 14"x40 ish in size. I'd love to buy a new south bend, but the price range is a bit heavy.(?)Looking to spend 10k+/- or so for the machine. What manufactures are you guys using for your lathes? Looked at new Grizzly and Precision Mathews, they seem to have decent reviews from what I've seen so far. What's your guys experiences & recommendation?

Thanks.....
 
I have an Enco 13x40. It is a decent lathe for the money.

The Grizzly 13x40 is, or used to be, identical to my Enco. I never had any issues with it. Bought it used on Kijiji for cheap.

The size really depends what you are intending to use it for. Spindle bore diameter is really important. Minimum 1-1/2". If you are planning to thread between headstock the short length headstock, but if you are planning to thread between centres then 40" is minimum.

GST
 
Are you looking for new or used? If I were buying a new lathe, I would seriously consider one of the Grizzly gunsmithing lathes. Established company, and desirable features.
I bought used, a Standard Modern 1340.
 
1973 - if you can find one... it was the finest gunsmithing lathe available in 1971, 72, 73... then Rockwell went into the space industry and stopped production.

48 inch flame hardened bed, 1.375 inch hole, variable speed 45 to 1500 rpm.

11_inch_Rockwell.jpg
 
The new " south bend " are really just taiwan machines, nothing special other than the price... the old "real" ones were nothing special either...

I do most of my personal stuff on my Kingston HJ-1700, but its a bit big for gun stuff but for my 1 barrel per year its no problem, someone doing just that everyday it wouldn't be ideal. HLV-H type are too small, not ideal for it either.
Many just use small 14x40 lathes, they're kinda weak in many ways but its ok if you work within its limitations.
 
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I use a Nardini 14x40. Its a beast for the size, love it. Its a very rigid machine which is hard to find with the smaller/tiwanese stuff. I used to use a modern 14x40 and there is really no comparison between the two. That being said i still managed to get great results out of the modern. Id like to get my hands on a mini lathe one of these days thinking it could be handy.
 
Hey guys thanks for all your replies it's much appreciated. I was looking around at used older lathes as they are generally well built, but I figured if I'm going to start doing this as a side business I might as well invest some money into a new lathe. The Grizzly G0509g lathe has some great reviews as do the others offered by Grizzly (G0709) Precision Matthews is another one I'm looking at. I'm still in early stages of this venture,but I know a lot of you guys do this as a business so I figured you'd know best for suggestions. Thanks again for all your input!

Cheers
 
Don't know where in Ontario you are, but if you are close to Toronto there is always great deals on Kijiji. You have to be ready when they pop up as they do not stay on there long. I got mine on there for about $1000 less than it should have sold for with lots of tooling. I bought it on the phone without seeing it. It was from a company, they just happened to upgrade it to a much larger unit and wanted it gone ASAP. I trusted the guy and picked it up. Maybe I got lucky but the deal was too good to pass. When I called him he already received over 100 emails in a few hours.

GST
 
Basically anything that is at least 40" between centers will work great. Make sure you check the dials and thread options though. Some "imperial" lathes are rebadged metric lathes and have a bizarre selection of fine threads and weird dial readouts. Make sure your dials advance in a predictable manner such as; 1 turn equals .250, .200 etc, and not .2362 (6mm) or something else nonsensical. Bigger is better. Cast iron stands beat out sheet metal everyday of the week, but both will function just fine.
 
DIGGER2 said:
Hey guys thanks for all your replies it's much appreciated. I was looking around at used older lathes as they are generally well built, but I figured if I'm going to start doing this as a side business I might as well invest some money into a new lathe. The Grizzly G0509g lathe has some great reviews as do the others offered by Grizzly (G0709) Precision Matthews is another one I'm looking at. I'm still in early stages of this venture,but I know a lot of you guys do this as a business so I figured you'd know best for suggestions. Thanks again for all your input!

Cheers
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check out the sharp 14x40. They are imported by Sharp here in North Van are are a good deal with a lot of tooling included

http://www.sharpmachinetools.com/PDFs/1440G.pdf
 
Anybody have any experience with Acer lathes? They seem to be consistently slightly higher priced, and I am wondering why that might be.
 
amosfella said:
Dean smith and Grace lathes show up on GC surplus auctions a lot. Sometimes Hardinge HLV-H. I think the hardinge could have the tools built to do most of one practical gunsmiting needs.
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Great machines, for their own purposes, but not great 'only' machines for a generalist gunsmith, I think.
I should also mention, having a smaller 'second' lathe, free to use for quick light jobs, can sure be handy!

The DSG lathes are massively heavy built machines that generally come with a huge long headstock spindle bore length, making a cat head at either end, only an option with very very long barrels. Some are actually longer through the headstock, than their between centers distance. Makes for a great heavy duty lathe spindle, not so much for gunsmithing.

The Hardinge is a great lathe for making small precision parts, but not a great generalist lathe either, as much as I lust after one.

I had a 10 inch Rockwell for a while, much lighter than the 11 inch model, more along the lines of an updated 9 or 10K South Bend.

We had a very new(ish) 13x40 Standard Modern at work, that the folks looked down their noses at because it wasn't a hulking big brute of a machine, but it was easy to use, and made good parts. I actually bid on it, and was out by a couple bucks (IIRC, just under $70) on my bid, so it went to someone else. IIRC, they replaced it with a slightly larger Colchester machine.

I have a Myford Super 7, that is pretty well tooled up, I have a essentially NOS Emco Super 11, sitting on a pallet awaiting some love and attention, and a 13x40 Colchester Master 2500, that is awaiting the install of a new motor (220v, in place of the original 550v) and VFD. <sigh> Too many toys, not enough shop! :)

If you gotta have a new lathe, I can't much help you, as I have not stayed very current there at all. If you can deal with a used machine, check out the lathes.co.uk website, as a reference source, to see what the various machines that get listed, amount to.

There is a decent looking LeBlond on Crown Assets right now, from the Halifax Dockyards. It looked about the right size, has the shorter headstock, allowing barrels through the headstock work, and may fit your needs.

Cheers
Trev
 
Awesome info guys, lots of reading to be done. I always reasearch things to the max to ensure it's going to do the job I want before I cut the cheque.&#55357;&#56835; A lot of the equipment I use is CNC, so my experience in what's good, what's not is not up to snuff on the smaller manual machines. I again appreciate all of the great info and links to equipment.

Cheers
 
Have a look at sharp of cyclematic. Cyclematic will ship a lather from the factory to your door. Heard their customer support is really good as well...

However, for the money you spend, I'm of the opinion that good quality used german, european, or english iron is the way to go.

If all you want to do is chamber and thread barrels, and make small parts, the HLV-H of clone is almost impossible to beat. And, I bet that with a special jig, you could set up for action truing as well...
 
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