lathes, what's best?

[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.

[sanddrag]

The machine shop we use has Le Blond lathes. They work very well in my opinion and have all the features, however I don't have experience with any other brand.

[Jay H 237]

I'll start off by saying that I'm not a machinist and I don't have a professional opinion. With that out of the way I will tell you I have used several different lathes between our robot team and where I work. I don't know the model numbers off hand but the brands I've used are Acer (where I work), Jet and South Bend (robot team). I am most impressed with the South Bend and least impressed with the Jet. The South Bend seemed to be built better and is more "refined". The Jet seemed "flimsy" (for lack of a better word) and didn't run as smooth as the other two. Now it is possible that the other two are "lower models" in the product line than the South Bend was and may not reflect the Acer and Jet brands as a whole.

[Ryan Curry]

South Bend lathes are the most reliable and consistent lathes that I have used. I have one in my basement and woulnd't use any other.

[ebmonon36]

Originally Posted by Ryan Curry

South Bend lathes are the most reliable and consistent lathes that I have used. I have one in my basement and woulnd't use any other.

I too have a South Bend lathe and it is probably about 60 years old - still works great
Eric

[Dick Linn]

South Bend is good. Hardinge may be even better, and they also now produce and service the Bridgeport mills, if you need parts. Many modern shops still keep a Hardinge Precision Toolroom lathe around (HLV or DV models). Hardinge's been around for over 100 years. Clausing, LeBlond and others are good.

There are lots of good brands, especially the older ones that might be more affordable. See http://www.lathes.co.uk/index.html for more info,. The index page at http://www.lathes.co.uk/page21.html lists about 300 lathe manufacturers!

Browse http://www.machineryvalues.com/ to see what's available and what the price ranges are. emachinetool.com also has listings.

Good luck.

[Greg Needel]

i have used a bunch of types of lathes and most professional lathes are comperable to each other. the thing you need to look at is the price of the accessories and what is available. for example different lathes require different jaws and have different requirements when it comes to collets and so on. you will want one that has easy available parts for replacement and innital purchas. you also want to look to see if there is a taper attachment (making life much easyer), what different tail stock supports they have (drill, point, clamp, etc) all of this stuff is important.

[cmaccoy]

Are you putting anything else in the Machine Shop?

[nobrakes8]

Hardinge Lathes are the best. We use them at Utitec Inc. to machine parts to .0003" tolerences or even tighter by hand (No CNC machine could handel those jobs). Hardenge lathes last a long long long time, and they run very conecentric. In the manufacturing business Hardinge lathes are like the mercedes benz of lathes (best example i have heard from my shop instructor). We also have Harrisions which are very good lathes but as the get older they don't hold up as well. Our Harrision lathes are probably 10-15 yrs old, brand new the tool makers tell me they were very good, now they taper about .002" if we stick a part out of a collet more than 5-6 inches. Depending on what you need to do you may not need to spend the money on a hardinge. IMO stick with the major companies (Bridgeport, DoAll, Hardinge, Harisson and.. i forgot the other company)

[dlavery]

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.

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 )

- 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:

- 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.

- 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.

- Lathe Buying Advice from the Lathes.UK web site.

- 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.

[Stu Bloom]

Dave, I don't doubt your figures ... but how in the heck to you support a piece of stock between 80 foot centers ??

[nobrakes8]

Originally Posted by Stu Bloom

Dave, I don't doubt your figures ... but how in the heck to you support a piece of stock between 80 foot centers ??

A steady rest

[Andy Baker]

From what I hear, these guys have really, really big lathes. They probably cost a bit more than Anthony's price will allow. Heck, for the right price, those crazy guys will probably build one as big as a tractor-trailer!

Andy B.

[dlavery]

Originally Posted by Stu Bloom

Dave, I don't doubt your figures ... but how in the heck to you support a piece of stock between 80 foot centers ??

When the piece of stock is 12 feet in diameter, it is not too much of a problem!

(but it is not really just a solid piece of stock - it is actually the outer skin walls of the first stage of the rocket, which is made of three isopanels, bent to shape and welded together into a cylinder; the whole assembly is then turned on the lathe to true it up as the tank end caps are welded on).

I have a picture of this bad boy somewhere. I will post it if I can find it. But in the mean time, take a look at this big Bridgeford lathe being used to turn a 20-foot auger bit.

-dave

[Kevin Watson]

Originally Posted by dlavery

I have a picture of this bad boy somewhere.

Is this it?

-Kevin