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| Do you have any retired machinists that you know ? these guys can help a TON ! I had a guy I got my lathe and mill from, that ended up being a 3rd grandpa to me, then I have several friends and some family that worked maintenance or in machine shops that gave me all kinds of different ideas.
What kind of work do you want to do ? intricate, medium / average, or heavy duty ?
How much space do you have, not only for the machine, but tooling as well ?
What about power ? single phase ? 3 phase ? will you need a phase converter ?
Do you want CNC or numerical DRO display ?
How much work do you want to do ?
Do you have equipment to be able to move it in your workspace or move it out of where you purchase it ?
I know lots of questions, but kind of a reality check....
FWIW, I have a 19" swing Heavy duty LeBlonde lathe, 1931 vintage, an older heavy lathe with about a 6ft bed.
http://talk.newagtalk.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=598658&mid=496...
This is a nice size for me, average size farmer, and self employed mechanic / fabricator. I use mine to make many of my specialized tools and pullers, build up / turn down shafts, make new shafts, and have even turned down some brake drums and rotors. I even made a winder jig, so I can wind small spool gun spools of aluminum welding wire off of a large spool to single 1 lb spools. I have knurled some tools but the thread cutting can get a little perplexing for me, especially the internal ones, but with a little practice ahead of time, can get it done.
I also use a smaller Craftsman lathe with a 3 jaw chuck, that I have set up more for intricate work, like bushings, 1" and smaller, but I can do it with the LeBlonde too.
Mine has a taper attachment, that I do use occasionally, and I posted recently of installing a cheap way to DRO a lathe, see link below.
http://talk.newagtalk.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=598658&mid=496...
I have a 3 jaw check and a 4 jaw, and use both, depending on the job, but the 3 jaw is on there 90% of the time
My one retired machinist neighbor has had several, but uses a rebuilt Atlas lathe quite a bit.
He had another from the late 1800's ( 1878 ? ) anyhow was belt pulley powered and he converted it to be powered by a electric motor and chevy 3 speed transmission, and it really worked and was made to look just like it was made for it.
Practical Machinist is a good website to browse, and I like watching TubalCain on YouTube. He is the one that really helped me nail down centering work for a 4 jaw chuck.
We have Yoder Equipment close in Toledo, and they are a tooling reseller outfit, and will have lathes of many brands and sizes.
South Bend and Monarch are good ones too.
You can have mine........when you pry my cold dead fingers from them.....I dont use them everyday, but I could not be without one anymore. My next thing to buy for mine is a tool post grinder for it. They get addicting once you start playing with them and doing some projects.
Good luck, and have fun.
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used metal lathes
