Help me buy a lathe

Lathe

I bought an ENCO Turn Pro 13x40 and R E A L L Y like it. It's a year old now and it is extremely accurate and runs smoothly and quietly. They offer them on special several times a year and give you an Anilam DRO and free freight. I find it waaaaaaaaaaaay better than the Chinese ones that are all over the place. One thing about a new one is there aren't any abuse surprises hidden in it, but there are also some great deals on used now for a far more costly lathe when it was new. I just didn't find anything I thought was a better value when I needed one. Good luck !!!!!!!!!!!!
 
This is a thread on practical machinist. I don't think you could do any better than this one for that kind of money AND the condition it is in.

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/showthread.php/sale-mill-lathe-cold-185754.html


MSC 14x40 Lathe
part#09521972
page 1429 in the "Big Book"

19" face plate
12" 4 jaw chuck
8" 3 jaw chuck
steady rest
follow rest
Phase 2 wedge tool post
4 tool holder
1 boring bar holder
Royal live center
0-1/2 Jacobs chuck
Taper attachment
Toolbox
220 volt 3 phase

$ 6500.00




Lathe is now 3500.00 . This is my bottom dollar. leaving for Kuwait at the end of the month. Would like the lathe to be sold! Thanks


KC

cell 614.209.9321
 
Any other suggestions?

I'm going to shop for a while, I don't want to rush out and buy something, just to find out that I could of bought something else that was better suited for smithing.
 
do a search on this forum for lathes, you will get enough info to read until sometime Saturday.
 
Take that $6,500 and carefully put it in a ziplock bag. Then, after purging the air from the bag, insert the bag into a mason jar and screw the lid on tightly..
Finally, during the dark of the moon, slip out into the back yard at midnight and bury the jar..
 
NOT Chinese

The ENCO Turn Pro is made in Taiwan. There is a HUGH difference in the two. Compare the specs on the website. I have had and run both & I'm happy with the Turn Pro for the cost vs quality. I also like NEW lathe smell and a warrenty.
 
Fwiw

When I first went to work for Nesika we were still waiting on our Harrison Alpha 1330U to show up. I had guns to build and the tightest spindle in the shop was our Hardinge tool room lathe.

If you like to work close to the chuck for barrel work instead of using a steady rest this little machine works really well. I made a spider that slipped on the back and we got a 4 Jaw chuck. So long as you don't turn a barrel larger than 1.25 cylinder diameter it will work fine. We did all our barrels indicating off the bore

The best feature was threading by far. So easy with the "quick shift" feed lever on the machine and the rapid feed/pull out lever on the compound. No half nuts to time. With a little practice I was making wrinkles in barrels at over 1300 rpm and getting right up next to the shoulder. This is really nice when using carbide insert tooling as the tooling actually starts to work the way its supposed to.

I've seen these machines go for close to 20K but they are now available for under 10K if a guy is patient and thorough on Ebay/equipment retailers.

IMHO a gunshop isn't a gunshop without one of these little guys. Making screws, pins, guard screw estucheons becomes a snap. it will pay you back in short order. Plus it doesn't eat up a huge footprint in the shop.

Just a thought.

Chad
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Pat B. said:
Take that $6,500 and carefully put it in a ziplock bag. Then, after purging the air from the bag, insert the bag into a mason jar and screw the lid on tightly..
Finally, during the dark of the moon, slip out into the back yard at midnight and bury the jar..
Click to expand...

...then dig it up next year and you'll probably be able to buy half the quality of lathe that you can now at the rate the printing presses are spitting out cash.
 
NesikaChad,

I was wondering about the Hardinge toolroom lathes for barrel work.
I have seen a couple for a good price here in the Northwest.
Could not find out what the spindle bore was.

Tim
 
Mike Bryant said:
...then dig it up next year and you'll probably be able to buy half the quality of lathe that you can now at the rate the printing presses are spitting out cash.
Click to expand...

I THINK I understand what causes inflation.
I was sure it was on the way.
I have been waiting for a year, and I am not seeing it yet.
It should start with shortages, and there are some shortages, but not across the board.

My lathe ordered in March took 4 months to get here from China.
Maybe that was a shortage.

The steady rest, lamp, coolant pump, paint job, and manual are low quality.
It seems that many brands of Chinese lathes have interchangeable parts, and those parts come from different places in China.
 
I forget the spindle bore ID but I know I did a couple monster contour varmint rigs with that machine. With the addition of a chuck the stand off from the spindle nose eats up most of the cylinder length anyways so all that's left is the taper running through the bore.

If I didn't have a slant bed CNC I'd be certainly looking for one of these with a CNC conversion on it. threading is just so easy with these little gems.

cheers,

Chad
 
Another vote for the Hardinge tool room lathe. We have a few at my work and they are the best of all the rest. Top of the line. Slowest spindle speed is about 70rpm.
 
Don't know if you already purchased a lathe but you may want to look into the Grizzly entry level Gunsmiths lathe. It has all the features you'll need.

With the $6500 you can get the lathe, a DRO installed and some good tooling to get you started!

I have a Smithy 1220XL with a Miester 3 axis DRO and a Precision Mathews 1236 with a 2 axis DRO.

I've built guns on both ! The bigger one is a lot faster but I learned a lot on the Smithy.

Good luck.
 
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