Hi Everyone. I've been searching through threads for the last week or so looking for advice on buying my first lathe.
I have a vintage lathe budget and have been searching Craigslist for a while and found these three... The Logan 2557VH and the SB L10 are roughly the same price, the Sheldon TS56-P is quite a bit cheaper, but needs some love to get working.
I found a lot of helpful information about each of the lathes listed but I didn't see any direct comparisons and I could use a little push in a direction bases on what I've seen of them in person.
The South Bend is a cream-puff. It's used obviously but looks like it wasn't used much and was well cared for. It's complete with a 5"chuck and a quick change setup, but no real tooling.
The Logan is a little more lived in but still seems tight, clean and well taken care of. It has a bit more tooling and a Variable speed controller.
The Sheldon is more warn, but the bed seems unharmed and true. It had a problem with the belt tensioner so I couldn't run it much, but everything worked. Although it had a heaving coating of grease on all of it. Honestly, all things equal, the Sheldon wouldn't be on the list but it was $600 cheaper than the next cheapest option and I'm pretty sure I could fix what was ailing it.
So what would you do? I gather each brand has their fans, but I wasn't sure if that was more up to personal preference or something more. I came into this thinking the South Bend was what I wanted, but the more I've read, the waters have muddied a bit.
Oh, I also found a Monarch 10EE, but at $10G, I shed a tear and moved on.
Thanks!
Phil
I have a vintage lathe budget and have been searching Craigslist for a while and found these three... The Logan 2557VH and the SB L10 are roughly the same price, the Sheldon TS56-P is quite a bit cheaper, but needs some love to get working.
I found a lot of helpful information about each of the lathes listed but I didn't see any direct comparisons and I could use a little push in a direction bases on what I've seen of them in person.
The South Bend is a cream-puff. It's used obviously but looks like it wasn't used much and was well cared for. It's complete with a 5"chuck and a quick change setup, but no real tooling.
The Logan is a little more lived in but still seems tight, clean and well taken care of. It has a bit more tooling and a Variable speed controller.
The Sheldon is more warn, but the bed seems unharmed and true. It had a problem with the belt tensioner so I couldn't run it much, but everything worked. Although it had a heaving coating of grease on all of it. Honestly, all things equal, the Sheldon wouldn't be on the list but it was $600 cheaper than the next cheapest option and I'm pretty sure I could fix what was ailing it.
So what would you do? I gather each brand has their fans, but I wasn't sure if that was more up to personal preference or something more. I came into this thinking the South Bend was what I wanted, but the more I've read, the waters have muddied a bit.
Oh, I also found a Monarch 10EE, but at $10G, I shed a tear and moved on.
Thanks!
Phil