Craftex CX701 Lathe

Kprice84, After reading threads like this and looking at the Chinese machines in the Busy Bee showroom in Edmonton I ordered a PM932PDF mill from Precision Matthews. Yes it is a Chinese made machine but Matt makes sure the machines are right before he ships them. I did have a few small issues after I started using it but Matt was quick to send any replacement parts I needed as well as supplying me with some extra swag to pay for my labor to install the parts. The shipping from Pittsburg was actually pretty reasonable and the Canadian dollar at the time I purchased was much better than it is now. I have bought a few small items from Busy Bee but would not deal with them on any large equipment. Keep an eye on Kijiji in Alberta, there are quite a few lathes sold from this area every year. I bought my CanTek 1440 lathe used on Kijiji a few years back for a reasonable price. Here is an example of one recent ad. I don't know this owner but the machine sounds good and he is clearly open to offers.

http://www.kijiji.ca/v-power-tool/e...he/1108393792?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true
 
I saw that Southbend, and talked to him about it, but it's spindle bore is only 3/4 inch or so. Much too small for what I'd like to do - I want to be able to put barrels through the spindle, and chamber them that way.

I know that I could, in theory, chuck a barrel up, use a steady rest, and chamber them that way, with the long bed on this lathe, but that's not ideal from what I understand? Maybe I'm misunderstanding it, not sure. But either way, the 9A is just a little small in the spindle, and a little long in the bed (I don't have much more than about 50-55" total width to put this thing in).

I'm considering Precision Matthews, but with our dollar, a 2700 dollar lathe becomes 4 grand or more after shipping and exchange... I can't pull that off, sadly.
 
AR1911 - I would, but sadly due to a youthful indiscretion years ago, I don't know if I'm even able to cross the border.

I will look into it, but I don't believe I can go there. So I'm stuck with finding something in Canada, or having something shipped up here at a huge cost. Not looking good
 
krprice84 -

One must think creatively. You should get onto kijiji and put up a want ad for someone that travels across the border from time to time and has a truck - I am sure if you look for border towns on both sides, you will be able to locate someone. In fact, there are shipto locations in the US all across the US/Canada border that will take delivery and hold things like this. We have one fellow close to NB where I am, in Maine, that has taken delivery of everything from books to boats!

Start asking around. I am sure you can find someone that can help - hell, maybe even a kind hearted member on this forum :)

I recently bought an old shaper that a fellow had listed in Toronto on kijii - with me being in NB - it's coming here in a guy's van next month who I found through a friend. He's traveling back and forth every 1-2 months, but before I came across him, I had actually located a guy on kijiji that was going up with a truck to move some furniture back east. There are "rideshare" sections on kijiji that you can post up wanted ads like this.

Good luck, and don't give up !
 
@krprice84: same dilemma as I have; to bring 1000lb+ lathe in from the US is too far from here...especially if you cant transport it yourself e.g. $1K+ shipping charges.

Only consistently-found lathes I've been finding on Kijiji are:
1) too big 16"+ or very heavy 14" e.g. 3200lb 1440 Nardini that you cant get parts for
2) too small 7-10"
3) overpriced (guys asking 10-20% off MSRP for used machine)
4) junk; either abused, overused or just bad out-of-the-gate

There have been a few decent lathes but those are sometimes gone in less than a hour!

Biggest variety of used machines are Eastern Canada but again, that distance drastically changes your landed cost (who want to pay 2k to ship a 3K lathe?!?)

We almost need a Group Buy in Calgary from Ontario; share a truck and split the cost ;)

There is a place in N0rth York, ON that typically has a variety of used lathes for sale CBTOOLS. However, I haven't been able to verify the quality of what they sell via anyone locally and not comfortable buying a lathe unseen. Also, they will NOT help arrange shipping and here's my biggest worry: they REPAINT EVERY MACHINE. Asked them about why they do that and the answer I got was 'we just do'. I dunno...would you buy a used car from a place that repaints EVERY car?!? If you ever find out more about their quality...I'd love to hear about it..or from anyone else here that has ever dealt with them.

AR1911 - I would, but sadly due to a youthful indiscretion years ago, I don't know if I'm even able to cross the border.

I will look into it, but I don't believe I can go there. So I'm stuck with finding something in Canada, or having something shipped up here at a huge cost. Not looking good
 
@krprice84: same dilemma as I have; to bring 1000lb+ lathe in from the US is too far from here...especially if you cant transport it yourself e.g. $1K+ shipping charges.

Only consistently-found lathes I've been finding on Kijiji are:
1) too big 16"+ or very heavy 14" e.g. 3200lb 1440 Nardini that you cant get parts for
2) too small 7-10"
3) overpriced (guys asking 10-20% off MSRP for used machine)
4) junk; either abused, overused or just bad out-of-the-gate

There have been a few decent lathes but those are sometimes gone in less than a hour!

Biggest variety of used machines are Eastern Canada but again, that distance drastically changes your landed cost (who want to pay 2k to ship a 3K lathe?!?)

We almost need a Group Buy in Calgary from Ontario; share a truck and split the cost ;)

There is a place in N0rth York, ON that typically has a variety of used lathes for sale CBTOOLS. However, I haven't been able to verify the quality of what they sell via anyone locally and not comfortable buying a lathe unseen. Also, they will NOT help arrange shipping and here's my biggest worry: they REPAINT EVERY MACHINE. Asked them about why they do that and the answer I got was 'we just do'. I dunno...would you buy a used car from a place that repaints EVERY car?!? If you ever find out more about their quality...I'd love to hear about it..or from anyone else here that has ever dealt with them.

Jimbo,

that's just it, I've seen some perfect lathes for what I want out of ontario. There is a craftex gear head lathe that's been used by a guy in a machine shop, so my hope is that it's at least been gone through to the point that it works right, but I just don't know the guy, and I'm not comfortable sending this much money to someone for a private sale. If I could run it through a business, I'm more comfortable with it, but as you implied, you can't always be safe that way either (though at least you know you're less likely to have them take your money and run, you never know what you're really going to get unless they have a strong reputation).

And yea, I have been watching Kijiji for a few weeks now and I've seen two options come up, both of which were 10x22 with 1" bores, and that's just one size too small for me.

The Precision Matthews 11x27VF-LB (large bore) is EXACTLY what I want, but it's 2800 USD plus about 250-300 USD shipping. After exchange and duty, I might as well have just bought a 14x40 King lathe or something similar!

Then to add to all of it, I don't really know what to ask about when looking at used ones (I've seen a couple of southbend lathes) to ensure that they're likely to be decent.

I also have BIG CONCERNS about what parts are needed with a lathe. For example, I saw a Southbend 10L, but I don't know if they are supposed to come with extra gears to do metric threads, and if so, how many gears they should come with? I fear that many older lathes are going to be missing parts like this - parts that aren't required to run the lathe day-to-day. I wish there was a resource that was able to point me towards what exactly I should make sure comes with a lathe such as a Southbend 10L or Heavy 10, or other similar ones - any pointers? And any pointers when I'm looking at a lathe, regarding what to look out for, how to tell if the ways are worn, bearings/bushings are worn, etc?

THANKS!!
 
krprice84 -

One must think creatively. You should get onto kijiji and put up a want ad for someone that travels across the border from time to time and has a truck - I am sure if you look for border towns on both sides, you will be able to locate someone. In fact, there are shipto locations in the US all across the US/Canada border that will take delivery and hold things like this. We have one fellow close to NB where I am, in Maine, that has taken delivery of everything from books to boats!

Start asking around. I am sure you can find someone that can help - hell, maybe even a kind hearted member on this forum :)

I recently bought an old shaper that a fellow had listed in Toronto on kijii - with me being in NB - it's coming here in a guy's van next month who I found through a friend. He's traveling back and forth every 1-2 months, but before I came across him, I had actually located a guy on kijiji that was going up with a truck to move some furniture back east. There are "rideshare" sections on kijiji that you can post up wanted ads like this.

Good luck, and don't give up !

I've thought of this - what scares me is that I know very little about lathes, and I know even less about what to look for in a used lathe. Someone could send me a video of it running, and I'd have no idea what to ask them to show me in the video, to confirm all is well.

Not to mention, I'd still have to pay them before it's picked up, and then I'd have to trust the driver to actually pick it up and bring it to me - I've heard horror stories from people who've got things picked up by people from Kijiji, only to have the item not arrive at all! If I knew someone out east, that's totally different. And if I knew a member on here who was out there, and who wouldn't mind going to look at it for me, that would be great, but that's asking a lot from someone I don't know!
 
KRPRICE84: The best way to find out if you're getting what should come with a used lathe...is a copy of the original manual and/or product information from the supplier. They should break-down the list of accessories that originally came with the machine and you can use it as a check list.

BTW - in Calgary, about 1/4 of the lathes I've looked at, the guy tried to claim that the accessories were add-0ns and therefore makes his higher-asking price valid. Of course, I pull up the parts list and show him that they were standard equipment..ahem!

I know others on here are trying to be helpful re: advice on perseverance, getting equipment from US, etc....but I've been looking for a lathe around here for 3 YEARS and exhausted these options... and still dont have exactly what I want. Finally got my CX701 running as it should have run originally and its still better than 90% of the lathes that pop up here. Trust us fellow Forum-folks...Calgary is a TERRIBLE market to find a good, used lathe for a reasonable price. No amount of hope/strategy is going to change that. If you want US or East Can lathe, do it like a mission: get yourself ready (knowledge,/budget), travel there to see it for yourself and stay there until you have the lathe you want then drag it back. Make sure you understand that including shipping, your going to either pay a lot more for it or get a lot less lathe for your money than you'd expect.

BTW - Craftex gear head....would advise staying away. Worse than the CX-series....is it super cheap?!? if so...why???
CX701 is nearly identical to Precision Matthews 11x27VF-LB ; in fact, PM manual is written by Weiss and if you look closely, there are references to CX701 in it...and there are even Craftex emblems on some pages!!! To be clear...SUPPORT from PM is TONS better than Busy Bee; I actually got some parts from PM for my CX701 and Matt there was very easy to talk/understand. With our current exchange rate, however, the overall value isn't there at the moment.

As for figuring out what to look for, I found it helpful to look at some lathes you DONT want to buy and find out what to look for on those. e.g. 16" @ auction that you could never move/provide sufficient power for. Lots of little things to look for and after you check some out, you start realizing that you can see/feel differences...even between same models with different amounts of wear.

FWIW - I'm in Calgary; PM me if you find a lathe you want to check out or even just look at mine and compare it to Busy Bee floor model. HINT: I rebuilt the apron assembly and mine now even feels different...like the way it should operate.






Jimbo,

that's just it, I've seen some perfect lathes for what I want out of ontario. There is a craftex gear head lathe that's been used by a guy in a machine shop, so my hope is that it's at least been gone through to the point that it works right, but I just don't know the guy, and I'm not comfortable sending this much money to someone for a private sale. If I could run it through a business, I'm more comfortable with it, but as you implied, you can't always be safe that way either (though at least you know you're less likely to have them take your money and run, you never know what you're really going to get unless they have a strong reputation).

And yea, I have been watching Kijiji for a few weeks now and I've seen two options come up, both of which were 10x22 with 1" bores, and that's just one size too small for me.

The Precision Matthews 11x27VF-LB (large bore) is EXACTLY what I want, but it's 2800 USD plus about 250-300 USD shipping. After exchange and duty, I might as well have just bought a 14x40 King lathe or something similar!

Then to add to all of it, I don't really know what to ask about when looking at used ones (I've seen a couple of southbend lathes) to ensure that they're likely to be decent.

I also have BIG CONCERNS about what parts are needed with a lathe. For example, I saw a Southbend 10L, but I don't know if they are supposed to come with extra gears to do metric threads, and if so, how many gears they should come with? I fear that many older lathes are going to be missing parts like this - parts that aren't required to run the lathe day-to-day. I wish there was a resource that was able to point me towards what exactly I should make sure comes with a lathe such as a Southbend 10L or Heavy 10, or other similar ones - any pointers? And any pointers when I'm looking at a lathe, regarding what to look out for, how to tell if the ways are worn, bearings/bushings are worn, etc?

THANKS!!
 
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