Help me decide on my first lathe: South Bend light 10, or Sheldon 10, or Logan 2557VH

IMHO A 10" South Bend is plenty of lathe for most hobby work, but it depends on what you want to do with it? I went 25 years with a 9" change gear, SB before getting heavy 10 SB, then another Southie and more recently a 13 Clausing Colchester. I only got the bigger lathe because I have a couple of projects I want to do that require it. Otherwise, the 10's can accomplish 98% of my needs. One of my SB is from 1943 the other 1936, Both can easily turn to half a thou if need be. The only drawbacks to the SB's are the threaded chuck mounting and the lack of metric threading Also the flat belt is a little quirky if your not used to it. Definitely get a QC gearbox though.
 
In the interest of not waiting around, I bought the South Bend 10k. I pick it up today.
It's all the Lathe I need right now and more. It's right-sized for my shop and easy to move around as I reconfigure my shop. And it's only going to go up in value. Whatever money I put into tooling it up, will be offset to some degree by resale value. I'm pretty sure this lathe, prettied up a little bit with all the tooling would sell for twice what I paid for it.

That will give you something to start with. If it meets all your needs great, if not you will have it's shortcomings as a guide to what you really want / need. I agree that you are unlikely to lose money if you replace and sell it in the future.
 
I probably would have picked the 2557 just cuz I've always liked 'em, but you'll have great fun with the SB too
M
 
I probably would have picked the 2557 just cuz I've always liked 'em, but you'll have great fun with the SB too
M

The guy with the 2775 was hinky as hell, otherwise that was my top choice too...
It was on CL for over 2 months. I called him at 11:15, he said come right down before 12 because he was going out to eat with someone and wouldn't be back until 1. I couldn't make it before 12, so I told him I'd be there between 1:15 and 2pm. I got to his door at 1:45. His place was in this enclosed industrial complex and the guys from all the other shops (6 or so) were outside and stopped what they were doing to watch me come in and walk to his door. They seemed to be just watching me. It was bizarre. All work stopped while I was there.
I knocked on the door, could tell someone was inside but they weren't answering. I texted, called and waited about 15min. Nothing...

As I was driving out of the place, my phone rang and the guy with the 2775 told me "someone just gave him a deposit." I think he was outside watching me... I think the Lathe may have been stolen and I didn't look like the right buyer to sell it to. My wife thinks they were going to rob me but I'm a pretty big guy and probably didn't look like I had the money on me because I didn't have a way to take the lathe away right then.

Needless to say... No on the 2775.

It was seriously the weirdest experience I've had buying stuff on CL and the Recycler before that, in CA and Texas. And I've bought things in way tougher neighborhoods than that.

This is all sort of off topic, but I wanted to share to remind everyone to be safe out there and protect yourself not just from harm but from potential legal hassles down the road.
 
Well, it took longer than I thought but I got it home.
Haven't really had the time to dig into it too much because I've got to wrap up a couple projects first, but clearly it needs a new motor. It's powered by a 110v single phase 1/3hp motor right now, and it just won't do some of the gears. So a VFD is in it's future. It came with the original 1/2hp motor, and I'll probably use that to get the VFD wired up and dialed in and look to upgrade to a 1hp motor later.

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