Advice On Buying A New Lathe

[BGHansen]

I have a Rockwell 10 x 36 (variable speed) and a Clausing 5418 (step pulley), but got the clearance from "the boss" to pick up a gear head lathe. I have a few makes/models in mind and would appreciate some advice from others. My wish list is a foot brake so I don't run my hand on the chuck to stop the spindle and a gear head so I don't have to drop to my knees to change speeds (Clausing step pulley is in the lower cabinet). By the way, I'll sell the Rockwell once I upgrade, look for it on the for sale forum. Here's my list of prospects and a few key points on each one:

Bolton Tools BT1440 - $4375 including shipping with power lift-gate. 70-2000 RPM spindle speed, 0.002" - 0.054" longitudinal feed rates. Power controls on the front of the lathe. Longitudinal crank and half-nut levers are reversed in position from conventional.

Precision Matthews 13 x 40. Don't know the price/shipping. Comes with a taper attachment (plus for me as the only reason I've kept the Rockwell is it has a taper attachment) and QCTP. Power on the front.

PM 14x40: Don't know the price/shipping. Comes with 5C closer, taper attach., 70-2000 RPM, 0.0013" - 0.0173" feeds. Power on the front.

Grizzly G0782 13 x 40, $4555 with shipping. 70-2000 RPM spindle speeds. Power controls are on top/back of the headstock.

I'm leaning toward the Bolton lathe, but have read nothing but great things about Matt and PM. I can probably get a taper attachment on the Bolton for under $500 to do apples to apples comparisons. I'm good with a $150 D1-4 collet chuck instead of a lever-style collet closer too. Grizzly has a good rep, but I'd prefer the power controls on the front of the headstock instead of on the top/back side. Any obvious things I'm missing? Any other manufacturers?

One other question, most of these lathes I believe come with metric cross-feed nuts so you get 0.127" per turn. Is that hard to get used to? I'm used to chucking up a piece of 1" stock that needs to turn down to 0.5"; do 2 1/2 turns from 0.000 to take 0.250" off the radius. Do guys turn to 0.100" on the cross feed then reset to zero or just do the math?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[rick9345]

IMHO shop for the conveniences one desires, the mind/hand quickly adapts to the controls. As to which machine ,bias opinions will show up.

 

[Silverbullet]

Why not try to find an older gear head lathe, monarchs, Leblond . There are lots that aren't made in china stiil around. Just asking ?

 

[george wilson]

Customer support is valuable. I advise you to get a PM lathe from Matthew. And,pay extra for a TAIWAN made lathe.

All these new made lathes are just Chinese or Taiwan made lathes with different names stuck on them. Things can be wrong with a new lathe,or things can break down. Get customer support.

 

[BGHansen]

Thanks for the advice! I'm leaning toward the PM at this point. Might as well get all of the accessories up front, plus an imported lathe that's been looked over first. I've looked for LeBlond/Nardini/South Bend/ etc. older American lathes but am still leaning toward a new import. I don't have 3-phase (yet) and know a VFD or rotary convertor is in my future. Especially with a Bridgeport on my list also (replace my Jet JVM-830).

 

[rick9345]

Customer support is valuable. I advise you to get a PM lathe from Matthew. And,pay extra for a TAIWAN made lathe.

All these new made lathes are just Chinese or Taiwan made lathes with different names stuck on them. Things can be wrong with a new lathe,or things can break down. Get customer support.

+1 George
features desired
customer support
Brand
cost/manufacture <> manufacture/cost

 

[gr8legs]

You said "I'm good with a $150 D1-4 collet chuck instead of a lever-style collet closer too." - I was the same way until I got one of those cam lock collet chucks. They're fine if you rarely use a collet and also rarely change collet sizes - but it takes forever to change a collet since you have to screw/unscrew the collet into the chuck using about a 20:1 ratio on the scroll. After I did that a few times I switched it out for a lever closer (the lathe came with most of a Royal collet closer but no nosepiece so I made one out of a MT5-MT4 sleeve adapter) and haven't looked back.

Naturally, YMMV and all that stuff

Stu