I want to buy a lathe...suggestions?

[prebancolt]

I want to buy a lathe. I know very little about using a lathe. Where should I start looking, what should I be looking for, and how much is an entry level lathe (new or used) going to cost me.

I'll be using it for small projects around home, gunsmithing, barrel work, etc.

Thanks.

J

[tp555]

The usual questions. How much money you got to spend? What do you want to do with it? How heavy it is( do you want to move it alone). For starters get at least a
9 or 10" .Look around for used one's in your area.If you want to make a rifle barrel then length of bed becomes important. You want 36" bed for that.Look into what type of motor the lathe has,110v 3/4 hp or 220v 1 hp. Where are you going to put it? Do you have room? After you get the machine you will have to buy tools, bits,tool holders,chucks and more. Easily a few hundred bucks there.
The 10" atlas is a great starting machine if you can find one. Cheap too.If your rolling in dough then get a 11 or 12" for about $1200 new. The taiwan mfg are better then the chinese. Still they weigh about 900 lbs. You can do some serious work with them ,but they don't have the power for heavier jobs. Heavy as in remove 2" of material from 4140 6" round stock. I have a 12" x 36" that I use for threading. Does fine work. I also make ar-15 barrels for a living on this machine. ( ar-15 barrels custom made), see add in the gun list, end shameless plug. This lathe did not have a stand when purchased. So i made one. Another consideration.You will spend for tool holders chucks and other things.Very easy to blow $1000 on accessories, but it makes work easier.You might get lucky and fine a used one with enough extras to get started.regards.

[prebancolt]

Thanks a lot for the info. I'm new to lathes, so I didn't even know what questions to ask, but I think you have pointed me in the right direction.

Now, it's time for a lot of reading........

Thanks.

J

[Alan in GA]

that is what I was told and it worked!
Try tro find someone who is lathe experienced to help you find or decide if a lathe found is any good. LOTS of trashed lathes out there. You want to mostly work on guns and stuff, NOT the lathe itself unless you have LOTS of time and energy to do tedious work of disassembling, cleaning, picture taking [to know where the parts go back to], and assembly with care. I did this on my first large lathe [12 x 36] because it had lots of brass chips in the gearwork area. Previous owner left the cover open [DOH!].
It was kind of satisfying to have done it and I learned a lot about my lathe. I would rather spend whatever extra money it takes to find a lathe that has been taken care of and kept CLEAN!
As I said, beware of machines that have not had good care by knowlegable owners. Your time will be BETTER spent USING your lathe, not repairing or restoring it!
When I was shopping, I would have to say I saw one really nice lathe for every 10 lathes I found. The rest had been 'thru it'.
Hopefully you will find a good teacher or friend to show you the lathe. It will look like a "too complicated" machine at first, but the interest you have indicated you have will go FAR to get you running the machine quickly. I was fortunate enough to have a gunsmith friend PUSH me up to his lathe and say "do it". Just be CAREFULL at all times around the machine, it can hurt you if you don't be very careful.
I enjoyed learning about lathes and their use and would do it over again if I had to. It's VERY NEAT to be able to step over to YOUR lathe and fit/trim/cut/shorten/thread/clean/bore/ream/or MAKE, etc, etc. anything you might be working on!

[rmossuk]

hi J

I found the following lathe site very helpfull when i am looking for lathes.
It has both CNC lathes and manual lathes and allows you to search within all specifications to narrow down the lathes. Then enables you to compare the resulting lathes side by side.

Has 1000's of specs, photos, videos etc

www.findamachine.com

Hope this helps