Le Blonde Model 15 Gearhead Lathe

[dave enrico]

once again i come here for your experience
as alot of you know ive been looking for a lathe,it seems the good ones are gone before i get there,i just found a leblonde model 15 gearhead 13 x 48 lathe 1, 3 jaw chuck no tooling,is this a fairly good lathe for a home shop,price is 850.00 thanks dave

 

[stupoty]

I like the leblond lathes a lot i have an older one and it's realy nice, other may know more about the newer ones.

Stuart

 

[TommyD]

I've worked a few LeBlond lathes and really liked them, great accurracy and repeatability. Price sounds decent. Take it for a test drive, make sure it shifts gears smoothly, no funny sounds from the head and take a few chips on it.

Keep an eye on Craigs List, around here a lot of people are selling quick change tool holders, drill chucks and tons of stuff I already have. One thing I am looking for is a micro stop for the carriage, I've seen some really fancy ones guys have made on other sites. I just made a quick and dirty one for now.

 

[Silverbullet]

Sounds like a great price, ck it over run it thru all it's range and reverse listen to the machine , take some cuts light and heavy . Feel the bearings in the headstock after running . If hot not good warm ok cool great. Look at the ways , ck the backlash , even feel the motor and smell it. Remember your kicking the tires to get a deal and not get stock. It's Probally a great deal and it's ok . They are great lathes. Take pictures we need to see too.

 

[dave enrico]

thanks everyone for your imput
am going to look at it saturday will let everyone know dave