Is an old domestic lathe worth the same as a new import lathe?

tyronejk said:
I see a lot of guys find old South Bends and the like for $600-800 up north, so I'm not sure if $2500 for an old South Bend (and most don't seem to come with much tooling) is worth it.
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A lot of the price difference depends on the condition of the lathe. Here in the mid-west, you can get them from $750 and up. However anything under about $2k in my area would probably make a better boat anchor than lathe.

Personally, I don't rate most of the small old domestic lathes any higher than I do the modern imports even if its in good shape. When you get to 13" the South Bends start becoming appealing.


When I'm looking for old lathes these are what I'm looking for.

Hardinge HLV
http://www.lathes.co.uk/hardinge/

Monarch 10EE
http://www.lathes.co.uk/monarch/page2.html

Colchester Mascot 1600 (40" or 60")
http://www.lathes.co.uk/colchester/page27.html

American Pacemaker (14" with the 18-speed high speed headstock)
http://www.lathes.co.uk/pacemaker/index.html
 
I would really like a new, top of the range long bed Myford Super7 on the industrial stand and with the complete range of factory accessories.
Unlikely to happen because they're not made anymore, it would cost 3 or 4 1340s, it would be too small anyway. Nice though!
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Dredb, I owned a Myford "M" series long bed with a ton of accessories. Granted it was my first machine and the ways were fairly worn out, but it was very nice machine that I learned to adjust to its' wear. I could still cut within .001"

To the OP, I'm not adding that much but I guess it really comes down to what you want out of the whole "experience". For me, I actually enjoy taking a machine that is seen as a trash heap and bringing back to life. Yes, it's extra work. On the other hand, I know the feeling of wanting to pay and play. I brought an Atlas milling machine back to life and a Jefferson milling machine back to life. If I were to do it over again, I would have just gone with a PM bench milling machine. Why? I really haven't been impressed with either of these small milling machines and I have done more tinkering on both and have just reached my limit with both. Size constraints are another thing to consider. I can't go with a Bridgeport so options are limited.

Best of luck.
 
The only other thing I would add is that some older machines have features that can seem fairly limiting today.
I have a South Bend 9C which has a 3/4" through bore in the spindle which was something I always seemed
to bump up against. Also, the spindle is threaded which can be a problem when running in reverse. As others
have mentioned, newer lathes generally are less rounded and have more flat areas which make placing magnetic
indicator holders easier. I now have a PM-1228 which I tend to use the most, but I still occasionally use the SB.
 
wrmiller said:
If you can afford it, go Taiwan made. Unlike the one person's experience here, things have changed a bit in the last ~40 years or so.

I bought a 1340GT lathe from PM (Precision Matthews), and have had zero issues with it. Good materials and quality of manufacture, and more accurate than I am. Tried to hit a .580" diameter yesterday and missed. It ended up being .58025" It wasn't the machine, it's the driver. ;)

Bought a 935S 'baby bridgeport' from the same vendor. Taiwan made. Quality of the castings, fit, and finish on this thing is very good. Table and knee movement is butter smooth. And again, more accurate than I am.

Didn't have to repair or rebuild anything. After setup and alignment, they both just start making parts. With proper care, these will outlast me by a long shot. Maybe my step-son will be interested in them by then. Right now he's too busy raising a family. :)
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I've been happy with my Taiwanese made Birmingham variable speed mill head. Taiwanese products rank higher than Chinese mainland products. In my opinion
 
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It's nice to think we may be fortunate enough to come across a new, unused South Bend, Brough Superior, Bugatti, Rembrandt etc, still in it's original crate and with a full range of extras. It doesn't happen very often though and most items found in original crates have suffered a lot of damage due to poor storage, even good storage doesn't always help, sometimes things just deteriorate with age. The situation is much worse when the item has been used for 50 or 100 years. If the price between new and old is similar, then I would now vote to buy the new item. I accept that it may not be as good as the old item was when it was new but neither is the old item now it is old.
The above knowledge was hard won but I have to admit that it doesn't stop me looking for a new unused (whatever) in original crate.
 
I wrestled with this same question any type of machine tool for sale in my area is rare unless I wanna drive 3 hours to Phoenix or San Diego I was very reluctant to buy an old machine that could possibly be worn out especially since I didn't know anything about lathes and restoring an old machine in the end I bought a grizzly 10 x 22 g0602 mainly because they have a huge following and lots of well documented mods on forums and youtube and grizzly has been around a long time so I could get parts if needed so far it's been a great machine for me and is better after I've done some of the mods
 
I feel for you guys that live in areas that have few if any old machines available. I won't argue about the quality of a 14" or larger Taiwanese machine, but those machines command a lot larger cash outlay than I'm willing to part with. I enjoy the challenge of bringing an old machine back to life so the old iron works for me. I can also appreciate that most people would rather have a machine that's ready to rock. I'm still not sold on the small Chinese machines. If I have to fix a machine right out of the crate to make it usable I might as well buy the older machine with some rigidity built into it. Just my .02.
 
This 13" Clausing went very quickly early in January. I posted in the CL section for the Gent who was selling it. Went for ~$2,000 with just the chucks.
It was in very good shape from what I could tell when I went to see it. Lasted less than a day after his son put it up on CL... :eek:
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Was in the same situation. Looked at numerous old iron. Many of the higher priced ones had a spray can rebuild with lots of backlash and promises of a lot of remedial work. I looked into buying a new Clausing but could not justify the price for my needs. Bought a 1440GT, had it up and making chips within 6 hours. Still needs some fine tuning but I’m satisfied with my decision.
 
I watched a video on scraping the other day and they mentioned how low quality and soft the cast iron is on Asian imports. I too am struggling with this question but I will be learning how to scrape from a retired machine re-builder so my hope is I feel comfortable buying an older US made machine.
 
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