I have nothing BUT a lantern for my 18" L&S. I don't want anything else. As 99panhard says, if you are doing production, the QC is nice, but for typical one-off repair and custom work, the lantern is great. I have every type of holder imaginable, including boring bar holders that mount in the lantern, knurling tools, a radius cutter, threading tools, as well as left, right hand and center turning and cutoff holders. I'd spend thousands of dollars setting up this lathe with a QC and similar range of holders. Can't justify it and don't even want to.
Now, I'm not using tiny little #00 holders that should be on a 9" South Bend, these are #2 that have a shank that is 1 1/4"x5/8". They don't slip, or creep, or chatter. The toolpost itself is actually the original one that came with the lathe in 1918. It'll hog off material like nobody's business. When the cut I can take is limited by the width of the cutting edge, horsepower available, and the rigidity of the material, I don't see where the QC is going to gain me anything in that department, either. The lantern actually lets you get the cutter in closer to the compound and isn't as radially offset as the QC, as well. I have seen many machines turn the QC on the toolpost under heavy cuts because of the left or right hand overhang.
I do have a QC on my 10" SB and have offered several times to trade it straight up for an appropriate sized lantern with full tooling. No takers yet.
