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Originally Posted by ajlapp
I'm currently outfitting a small machine shop. I've already purchased a Bridgeport vertical mill, which was a no brainer, but I'm finding it increasingly hard to determine a reliable lathe brand or even the specifications that I should be interested in.
Anyone one with an opinion or real-world experience with different lathes please pipe in and offer your two cents. Thanks a lot.
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Before it is possible to provide any informed answer to your question, you need to decide on three important pieces of information:
- What size lathe are you seeking? When you say a "small machine shop," how small is small? Most lathes fall into three size categories: small "toolmakers lathes" (up to 10" swing, generally benchtop models, mid-size "engine lathes" (8-16" swing, 24-48" between centers, generally free-standing floor models), and "honking-big specialty lathes" (>14" swing, anywhere from 24" to 960" between centers*). Figure out the largest part you are ever likely to want to produce, then double it. That is the minimun size lathe that you should be looking for (because you will ALWAYS want to make a part that is just slightly larger than whatever your lathe can handle
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- How much are you willing to spend? If you have less than $1000 for the lathe and tooling, then we can talk about Hardinge, Leblond, South Bend, etc all day, but you are going to end up with a benchtop Taig or Sherline at best. But if you have $10,000 or more, then we can get serious and start to have some real fun suggesting brand new Clausings, or a high-end Dainichi. But reality is probably somewhere in-between.
- New or used? You will obviously pay top-dollar for a brand new machine, but with it you will get full knowledge of the work history of the lathe, and a full set of accessories and manuals. You can save a lot if you get a used machine, but you better know what you are doing if you want to avoid getting duped. Nearly perfect used lathes and lathes with 25 mils of wear on the ways will look nearly identical - do you know how to tell the difference? If you don't know how to identify a good used lathe, or you aren't looking to spend a lot of time (and dollars) to recondition one, then stick with a new purchase. Otherwise, be prepared to get someone who knows what they are doing to scrape the ways, re-true the bed (and maybe remove any bed twist), rethread the spindle nose, shim and recenter the tailstock, etc.
There are a couple of on-line resources that you might want to review first. Check out:
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Machine Makers and Buying Considerations is a slightly dated discussion on the fine points of buying a lathe. The prices may be old, but the advice is still valuable.
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Some helpful hints on selecting a lathe from Meridian Machinery. The info on this site was very useful when I was buying my lathe (a slightly used Enco 1150).
- the "
I need to buy a lathe" thread on the
Home Shop Machinist BBS recently addressed the same question. See what they had to say on the topic.
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Lathe Buying Advice from the Lathes.UK web site.
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engine lathes for sale list compiled by MachineTools.com - enter the criteria outlined above, and it will list available lathes for sale that suit.
-dave
* yes, that really is 960 inches / 80 feet! There are a few monsterously big special-purpose lathes out there! I know of one at the Boeing/McDonnell-Dougles facility in Huntington Beach that they use to turn the entire first stage of Delta rockets.