[Lathe] Liberty 1340, American Turret Co

Rsc

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I just bought a Liberty 1340 lathe. It's a Taiwan copy of the Clausing and appears in excellent condition. In my searches, I haven't found much information on the lathe, company, etc.... Does anyone know the history of these imports, if parts, manuals, ect...are available? Any info is appreciated.
 
I am currently looking at and considering one of these and experienced the same issue. How are you liking your "new" 1340 & do you have any idea about how much it weighs? Wondering about trailer needs for transport. Thanks.
 
This is my first lathe and am somewhat a novice. So far I am very pleased with the lathe. Mine holds very good tolerances,runs smooth, all controls operate smooth. I have tried a few of the cheaper imports and the controls on this are smoother. It has a fairly stout bed and base which made leveling and setting up quick and easy. 1st cut had 0.001 taper on an 7 inch long cut. I still have not located any information or manuals but haven't needed to do any repairs. I believe it weighs 2500 to 2700 lbs. I loaded the lathe and a Bridgeport on a bobcat trailer and pulled behind a 1/2 ton truck with no issues. A standard 5000 lb car trailer would be adequate. Seems somewhat comparable to the Lagun American Turnmaster. I downloaded a Grizzly manual and with regards to operating and adjusting, it pretty much the same.
 
RSC Thanks for your quick reply, very helpful. ...and to dlane, here is a pic of the one I am considering.Liberty1340.jpg
 
How are you finding your Liberty 1340 lathe after using it for a couple of years? I'm considering a Liberty 1300 which is supposed to be a copy of a Colchester 1800 Student lathe, the 1340 is a copy of the Colchester 2000 apparently.

Is your lathe still running smoothly? Do you know if the shafts are on bronze bushes into the castings or directly into the casting? Small things like these bushes are some of the ways the clones differ and how they reduced price, fine for hobby use but wear out quickly in production shop I've read. I don't know if the Liberty 1340 or 1300 are like this, would like to find out.
 
RSC Thanks for your quick reply, very helpful. ...and to dlane, here is a pic of the one I am considering.View attachment 133546

I had one of those about 20 years ago, it had been used quite hard and had had a incident before I got it that had damaged some gears either in the apron or the feedbox, not sure which, but the damaged gears were with the lathe when I bought it.
There were also some other replacement gears with it, the gears weren't hardened they were just soft and had bronze bushes on the inside.

They are a quality lathe that is still made today by Turret in Taiwan and they aren't cheap.
and the bigger brother

They are copies of Colchester lathes and have a fantastic threading box as you can do imperial and metric without changing any change gears, but you do have to change gears if you want to thread module.

Currently I have another asian copy of a Colchester
 
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