LeBlond price check?

I know these are a can of worms, but I can't find any similar examples for sale to do a price check. In generally okay condition what would this lathe fetch in your neck of the woods?

1960 LeBlond Regal. Not a Roundhead. Not a servo-shift. 13x30 or 36, I didn't have a tape measure. L-00 spindle. Single phase motor.

The lathe comes with:
-8" Cushman 3-jaw
-10" Cushman 4-jaw
-10" Buck 6-jaw
-12" plate
- L-00 collet Chuck
- mt3 Jacobs Chuck
-spindle wrench
-import QCTP with holders
- lots of cutting tools
-shop made steady rest

I want to offer a fair price for both of us.

Thank you.

How about some photos and running condition.

47nomad said:

How about some photos and running condition.

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I wish I had both but I have neither. I will get a chance to inspect and run it later this week and do test cuts and inspect thoroughly but I have to say yes or no on the spot and strike a deal. The building it is in is being sold either Thursday or Friday. I saw it briefly the other day. Ways look good, no groove or wear I could see or feel. All the speeds I checked ran very quietly in forward and reverse. A little backlash on handles but nothing out of the ordinary. The paint isn't perfect but it's otherwise in good looking condition.

Sorry I cannot offer more.

ETA- it looks like this one

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Just the chucks if in decent shape could sell for what the lathe might go for without them. Rarely it seems will the package deal price equal the sum of the parts.

Hard to put a number on it but you can guess at sold listings on eBay for other lathes/brands of similar age, size, and heft. Lots will be listed high so only go by the sold ones. I recently sold a lathe I thought was quite reasonably priced and it still took some time. Might be considerable value to the seller if you're there with a truck and even small cash so they don't have to move it and sit on it for months or years Attempting to get top dollar. Location also plays a part on such a heavy item, might not be anyone else around who wants it. Where in VA?

Greater Lynchburg area.

Identical to the one I run almost daily at work, I think they call that a 12" lathe. The carriage is HUGE for the size of the machine. It's so long that the bed really doesn't wear like a typical similar sized lathe. Dials are in diameter both on cross slide and compound. With the compound at 60degrees, it is easy to hit .0005 with a little care. Bed is wide and has that prismatic front way that adds lots of support and area. I havwe two lathes out of five at work that I like to run, this one and the Pacemaker. This little Leblond is as good, albeit on a smaller scale, as the Pacemaker and a lot easier to run small work on.

Fantastic little lathe with one MAJOR flaw. The gears in the headstock are undersized for the capability of the rest of the lathe. With the left hand shifter (4spd) placed in lowest speed (rightmost position) it is VERY easy to knock teeth off the gear, as they are tiny. Run it in all three speed ranges in that position and the next highest. If it clicks at all, the teeth are broken and you can't use those speeds without fear of snapping another tooth and subsequently jamming the gears up. The one at work has the lowest speed broken, so I drove a roll pin in the detent hole so it can't be put in that range. The broken tooth was even in the bottom of the gearbox.

With it being fairly well tooled and single phase, I'd say $1000-1200 would be a fair price. If those teeth are broken, adjust down a little.

If you had to buy the tooling, assuming it's in good shape, you'd be looking at $1200 easily. So maybe $1500 to $2000 if the machine itself is in excellent running order.

PDW

I'd vote for $1000-1200 considering the fact that a decision needs to be taken quickly, without any proper inspection (e.g. broken gears, worn-out or damaged chucks, etc.) and, likely, the machine needs to be moved very quickly.

Paolo

The "square head" Regal was a good lathe if not overworked. I believe these may have had hardened bedway "strips" which could be removed for replacement or regrinding.

The lathe in the photos looks to be in OK shape with no obvious signs of abuse. From appearances, I'd guess it was built in the 1960's. I've seen this series Regal lathe go for $2500-$3000 if they had the taper attachment and possibly a collet chuck, collets, and DRO. For this particular Regal lathe with the tooling it has, I'd say $1000-$1200 would be a little on the low end, and $1500-$2000 would be in the right range. Again, as noted by other people who've posted, this is dependent on condition of the lathe, and the region of the US where it is located. In some regions of the US, used machine tools are more easy to come by, and in other regions, it is a desert.

IMO, the Servo Shift headstock is more of a liability than a plus. Too much complex electro-mechanical/fluidic mechanism, and a separate motor driven hydraulic pump to shift the gears. The guts of a Servo Shift headstock are complex, and on a machine that may be over 40 years old, can be problematic. What you are looking at is a good, basic Regal lathe. For 1000-1200, I'd grab it if it were near me. I paid $700 for my 13" x 42" round Head Regal lathe, and while it was fully tooled, it is nowhere near the machine the later "square head" series lathes are. I've seen the lighter "Round Head" Regal lathes go for 1200-1500, so if you can get this particular lathe for under $2000.00, in my opinion, grab it, and consider yourself as having gotten a smoking hot deal if the lathe is in your neck of the woods.

Another perspective is the fact that LeBlond is not making any more Regal lathes, and the ones that are out there are a finite and possibly dwindling number. If you wait for the "right" deal to come along, or squeeze a deal too hard to save a few bucks, you may well be waiting a long time or settling for something less than what you wanted in the first place. A few bucks one way or the other on a deal like this are soon forgotten over the time you own and use the lathe. Better to think you may have overpaid than to miss out on buying the lathe and winding up regretting not buying it.

That would sell in less than a week for $3000 in central Florida.

Your area may be different.

CarlBoyd

Is it safe to assume that I can not easily adapt an outboard spider to this lathe?

hsracer201 said:

Is it safe to assume that I can not easily adapt an outboard spider to this lathe?

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Is that a way to center a long bar (or riffle barrel) at the left end of the spindle?
I expect you can do just that after removing the left end cover from the head stock.

My guess is 2,000 is high for the area and it'd probably sell pretty quick at 1K or just over. Likely worth 2,000 or more if you need and want the machine.

hsracer201 said:

Is it safe to assume that I can not easily adapt an outboard spider to this lathe?

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I'm not sure what do you mean. Are you thinking about a spider on the left side of the spindle to precisely center anything inserted through the spindle hole (e.g. a gun barrel)? If that, I don't understand why not: it's a relatively trivial project to make one.

Paolo

Nice solid lathe that should be worth $2k with tooling. I have a similar vintage 19" servo-shift which is ok but I would prefer the manual gear change. We run the crap out of our LeBlond since the 80s and it is still strong as ever. LeBlond parts are easily obtained and the machine lends itself to a job shop very well.

If you get it and need a spanner for chuck removal let me know.

Walter

Paolo_MD said:

I'm not sure what do you mean. Are you thinking about a spider on the left side of the spindle to precisely center anything inserted through the spindle hole (e.g. a gun barrel)? If that, I don't understand why not: it's a relatively trivial project to make one.

Paolo

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I made one for my Clausing, but that spindle isn't so close to other gears and such like the 2 LeBlonds I've owned in the past. But they were Roundhead's and I haven't seen under the cover of this one, so I guess it may be possible.

Walter A said:

Nice solid lathe that should be worth $2k with tooling. I have a similar vintage 19" servo-shift which is ok but I would prefer the manual gear change. We run the crap out of our LeBlond since the 80s and it is still strong as ever. LeBlond parts are easily obtained and the machine lends itself to a job shop very well.

If you get it and need a spanner for chuck removal let me know.

Walter

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I purchased one from you last year that works great! Thanks!

I've looked in the past at a ton of lathes, and a lot of Leblond's, and with the tooling I'd say around $2K +/- few hundred is about right. And that's coming from an area where one can't walk out the back door without tripping on used machine tools.

As mentioned, check the gearbox by running it at different speeds and listen for the notorious gear "clack".

zipfactor said:

I've looked in the past at a ton of lathes, and a lot of Leblond's, and with the tooling I'd say around $2K +/- few hundred is about right. And that's coming from an area where one can't walk out the back door without tripping on used machine tools.

As mentioned, check the gearbox by running it at different speeds and listen for the notorious gear "clack".

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I've seen those lathes with bad gears. Myself I would offer no more than part out value for it if even one gear is bad. Need to play it safe.

" I believe these may have had hardened bedway "strips" which could be removed for replacement or regrinding. "

Nope, those are cast in ways. This is indeed identical to the little lathe at work, just with a longer bed.