which lathe

been looking for lathe for gunsmithing found two in area one is a clausing 13 40 colchester 1983 with a little tooling for 3500.00 the other lathe is a southbend heavy 10 1973 with 36 bed. both lathes are suppose to be in good shape will look at both this weekend. in the pictures ive seen of the heavy 10 it looks the the headstock is to long to chamber thru. would i have to work on centers to chamber with this or could i work off headstock.the price for the heavy 10 is 2200.00. it seems to me that the shear weight of the clausing would be a much better thing,but iam new at this and looking for some sound advice. thanks

berger said:

been looking for lathe for gunsmithing found two in area one is a clausing 13 40 colchester 1983 with a little tooling for 3500.00 the other lathe is a southbend heavy 10 1973 with 36 bed. both lathes are suppose to be in good shape will look at both this weekend. in the pictures ive seen of the heavy 10 it looks the the headstock is to long to chamber thru.

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The biggest question is this.....Will the largest barrel you plan to chamber go through the headstock spindle? I think I would lean towards the Cholchester on this one, although the Heavy Ten may do the job as well with a 1-1/16 inch bore. The SB will be easier to get parts and accessories for I believe........pg

I have a 13" Colchester And have had 10" & 13" South Bends buy the Colchester you will like it much better then the SBs there are so many things about the Colchester that are better than the South Bend . The biggest thing is the clutched head stock no more shutting the motor off to revers the spindle, inch/ metric threading, 5hp,2000 lbs,1 9/16 spindle bore vs 1 3/8. the only thing you will not like is the cost of parts Ken

maybe you should compare notes with Michigander, unless of course you are the same poster. Otherwise, condition being remotely equal, it's the Colchester. Southbend is out of business because they let a bunch of Southbend fanatics convince them that they should build a half a$$ preWII lathe forever. I would be wary of any lathe that uses the lead screw for feeding.

no am not michigander but do live in mich. anyway i feel that i just got some very good advice from all. its my harded earned money and now i feel that i will be spending it wisely. thanks berger.

I am a competition shooter, hunter, and plinker. I have a lathe and do ALL of my own gunsmithing.

I have noticed on this, and other threads about gunsmithing lathes, that a lot of emphasis is placed on headstock requirements because of barrel work like chambering and threading. I won't say that these things aren't important but I think too often we place too much importance on them. The average guy isn't going to make that many barrels in any one year, or over his lifetime for that matter. It's possible to do very accurate barrel work between centers and on a steady rest, most old-time gunsmiths did it that way and some of today's best still do.

So, my opinion is - put more emphasis on condition and accuracy of a used lathe, and especially on tooling, tooling, tooling. You cannot have too much tooling.

JMHO

Ray

piniongear said:

the Heavy Ten may do the job as well with a 1-1/16 inch bore. The SB will be easier to get parts and accessories for I believe........pg

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The Heavy Ten has a 1-3/8" bore.

Precision, I think some of the early heavy tens had the smaller bore. I looked at one with a friend that measured just a little over an inch with a tape measure. I think the serial number put it at about 1943.
James

Hi There,

The small spindle "Heavy Ten" (10R) were made up to the 1960's right along side the
the large spindle (10L) version. They were made in very small numbers (compared to
the more popular 10L). Most seem to be sold to schools and vocational training centers.
They are distinguished by the spindle thread (1-7/8" x 8 tpi). The larger spindle Heavy
Ten's came with three possible spindles. Most were 2-1/4" x 8 tpi but L00 and D1-4
were also available. The 10L has the 1-3/8" through hole and can accept 5C collets.
The 10L is the preferred lathe and the 10R can be converted by swapping the spindle
with a 10L.

Good Luck!
-Blue Chips-
Webb