I am trying to justify my decision and want some more experienced opinions on which lathe's to keep.
I have recently purchased an Atlas 618, Shop Fox M1099, and Grizzley G0791 lathes at an estate auction and need to decide which to keep. I'm leaning heavily to keeping the Atlas.
Here's the back story. I bought my first lathe/mill at harbor freight about 20 years ago. It was meager but got me very interested. Then I bought another lathe at harbor freight (12x36?) shortly later. I'm a farmer who does alot of maintenance work on my own and other peoples equipment. I'm not a machinist but have been taught enough by a friend to operate it and make it useful. I was an Engineer in my former life so I know enough about what should be done to be dangerous even if I don't have the skills to do it right.
That lathe ended up at a friends shop when I bought an 18-10 (18" by 10ft bed) South Bend with lots of tooling at an estate auction a few years ago. The quality of this 100 year old lathe made me want a smaller nice American made lathe. A friend who taught me to first appreciate the value of a lathe (30 years ago) had a very small old craftsman lathe he was able to do so many things with.
I end up at this estate auction and my wife didn't go with me to stop me (mistake on her part). There is tons (literally) of RC airplane stuff but he also has a large assortment of Grizzly lathes, mills (most in various states of disrepair) and an old Atlas lathe that looked like my late friends Craftsman. I was smitten with the Atlas. Things went cheap and I ended up with the Atlas 618 lathe and Grizzly 7059 mill he was using. I also bought several machines in disrepair including the lathes listed above and some small mills similar to the G7059. I also bought boxes of tooling and parts. It turns out he was purchasing scratch and dent specials from Grizzly and repairing them. He used some and sold some. There are a few pieces missing from the G0791 and M1099 but I think I have enough parts to get them working.
So I have the big South Bend lathe for larger projects (I repaired a 6' long baler roller this summer). However it is inconvenient when working on small stuff and I want a smaller lathe.
I want to keep the Atlas for smaller jobs and sell/trade off the Chinese lathes.
Is there any reason I should keep one of the Chinese lathes instead of the Atlas?
Other advice or opinions?
Thank You
Martin 'Ace' Mershon
I have recently purchased an Atlas 618, Shop Fox M1099, and Grizzley G0791 lathes at an estate auction and need to decide which to keep. I'm leaning heavily to keeping the Atlas.
Here's the back story. I bought my first lathe/mill at harbor freight about 20 years ago. It was meager but got me very interested. Then I bought another lathe at harbor freight (12x36?) shortly later. I'm a farmer who does alot of maintenance work on my own and other peoples equipment. I'm not a machinist but have been taught enough by a friend to operate it and make it useful. I was an Engineer in my former life so I know enough about what should be done to be dangerous even if I don't have the skills to do it right.
That lathe ended up at a friends shop when I bought an 18-10 (18" by 10ft bed) South Bend with lots of tooling at an estate auction a few years ago. The quality of this 100 year old lathe made me want a smaller nice American made lathe. A friend who taught me to first appreciate the value of a lathe (30 years ago) had a very small old craftsman lathe he was able to do so many things with.
I end up at this estate auction and my wife didn't go with me to stop me (mistake on her part). There is tons (literally) of RC airplane stuff but he also has a large assortment of Grizzly lathes, mills (most in various states of disrepair) and an old Atlas lathe that looked like my late friends Craftsman. I was smitten with the Atlas. Things went cheap and I ended up with the Atlas 618 lathe and Grizzly 7059 mill he was using. I also bought several machines in disrepair including the lathes listed above and some small mills similar to the G7059. I also bought boxes of tooling and parts. It turns out he was purchasing scratch and dent specials from Grizzly and repairing them. He used some and sold some. There are a few pieces missing from the G0791 and M1099 but I think I have enough parts to get them working.
So I have the big South Bend lathe for larger projects (I repaired a 6' long baler roller this summer). However it is inconvenient when working on small stuff and I want a smaller lathe.
I want to keep the Atlas for smaller jobs and sell/trade off the Chinese lathes.
Is there any reason I should keep one of the Chinese lathes instead of the Atlas?
Other advice or opinions?
Thank You
Martin 'Ace' Mershon