buying a lathe

[Tiger]

Fellow metalworkers,

I would like to buy a metal lathe. I will need screwcutting and have read that anything faster than 50rpm makes that difficult. Therefore, I need backgearing which adds significantly to price. I would not want to exceed $1200. I would like to know what sort of things you check for on a second hand lathe and where to buy them from, what sort of tests do you run so you can ascertain that it works properly as second hand is probably my only option.

Thanking you,

Tiger

[Barry_White]

If you could get to Sydney or Adelaide you would probably get one from Gasweld or try Hare & Forbes

[ClintO]

If you are after a good quality small lathe (7" dia over the bed) then look at eBay and trading post there are usually some Myford ML7 or Super 7 lathes. These are excellent quality, My Dad has had a Super 7 for 40 years.
As far as I know they are supported by Emco in Sydney

[rodm]

You will be waiting a while to get a GOOD second hand lathe. For that price you are going to get an aged machine that most likely has had twenty operators and been thrashed beyond its capacity. If you can find one that a hobby machinist has had and treated like family that is your best option. They are few and far between, usually get passed on to relatives or club members and will cost you more than you budget. By the way expect to spend at least you lathe purchase on tooling unless you get lucky. By the way there is a Southbend on Ebay at the moment. The description says English made but I think these were an American machine.

Lathes are a precision machine and tolerances are thousanths of an inch. Used machines will probably show wear in the ways, particularly near the headstock so take a straight edge and set of mechanics feeler gauges to check this out. Check gears are meshing and not chipped. Check bearing play in headstock - Old Myfords and others had bushes and if not lubricated can cause a problem. Check backlash in cross slides - sideways movement can usually be adjusted by the gibs but longitudinal movement is more difficult to fix. Check half nuts as some of these are no longer available. If you are mechanically minded then you will know when something is not right. Keep in mind that parts for these old lathes are difficult if not impossible to get and they cost an arm and a leg. Buyer beware.

An option you could consider is a Hare and Forbes 9X12 (model AL50GA) which is a new lathe for your budget. Speed range is 100 to 1800 but the 50 RPM you talk about is only needed for very course threads and you could handle most of the threads with this unit. There is a 9 x 12 lathe group for this lathe that posts about 60 posts a day and caters for beginers. They have posted lots of modifications that you can do to this lathe including adding a hand crank so that you can cut threads at you own pace. If you want to persue this then send me a PM and I will give you all the links as well as heaps of Web pages (one is by a Queenslander) that have excellent descriptions on this lathe. I suggest you do a lot of reading before you decide on your lathe.

Good hunting

[sailingamerican]

Your are right mate. South bend is made in South Bend Indian USA One of the best lathes ever built. I have have one. You will never get a good used lathe for $1200 AU or US. China lathe maybe. Jet makes a good home lathe. I have one of those also. Expect to spend a thousand dollars on tooling. You will need good machinest hand tools, boring bars, chucks, drills, taps, dies and a whole lot more if you get into machining. Now I use one of my metal lathes for special wood turning. I have a full machine shop and cabinet shop. I made an ornimental lathe out of the metal lathe. Works great. I had to make parts on my miling machine. If you have a friend that is a machinest have him check it out. It can look good but ulsess you test it you never know. Good luck and have fun.