What's new
What's new

How Much Would Your Lathe Cost Today?

ja762

Aluminum
Joined
Dec 12, 2017
I was just looking at the prices in some old South Bend catalogs at vintagemachinery.org, which made me wonder how much my lathe would cost in today's dollars. So, I went to usinflationcalculator.com and crunched the numbers...
(This is w/o electrical equipment)
My lathe is a 1960 13" model CL175C
Lathe - (1960) 1,835 (2017) 15,195
Taper Attachment - (1960) 245 (2017) 2,028
Milling Attachment - (1960) 86.50 (2017) 716
Hardened and Ground Ways - (1960) 227 (2017) 1,879
Steady Rest - (1960) 25.20 (2017) 208
Follower Rest - (1960) 12.60 (2017) 104
Handwheel Collet Attachment - (1960) 68.75 (2017) 569
Total - (1960) $2,500.05 (2017) $20,701.00


So, how much would your lathe cost today?
 
Last edited:
Some of these older, high quality lathes are simply no longer available new in that level of quality today. An example of this is my late model L&S Power Turn 18x54. It is a tool room model with all the bells and whistles. It was a $100K machine in 1969. The equivalent is not made today anywhere. Several other examples by Monarch and a few others can also made. The demand for a manual high quality lathe is simply not there for the cost they would have to be sold for. There are some of these still available reconditioned by the factory, but the cost is very, very high.
 
It's my understanding that they're made in Taiwan, that's why I put SB in parenthesis.
Standard Modern 13" is $15,500
Standard Modern Lathe Model 1334, 13" Swing - SM-1334 - Penn Tool Co., Inc
That doesn't come with taper or collet attachments, steady/follower rest, or micrometer stop.

Very interesting I would have thought the price difference would have been greater. I wonder who is buying one over the other and why?
Your calculation seems to be spot on for the price adjusted for inflation.

Andy
 
I made a pedestal for a pedestal grinder this past year using old NOS radial engine gears and timing gear from stationary generator, used that inflation calculator and it came in a tad under half a million;)
 
I made a pedestal for a pedestal grinder this past year using old NOS radial engine gears and timing gear from stationary generator, used that inflation calculator and it came in a tad under half a million;)

Il bet that's a stable grinder-stand.

I wouldn't be able to own my old machines at retail prices today. The tooling costs almost break the budget today. It is an interesting subject to look at.
 
I have one of these old rotary head mills. I worked it off in trade in a machine shop.I Paid 1,500 in labor.

This is a post from another forum on PM
In doing some research on the K & T 2D rotary head milling machine I turned up this thread which I am resurrecting as I found some additional information that might be of interest. In my own files I found a letter from 1996 from a gentleman who worked at Kearney & Trecker for a number of years, starting as an apprentice in the early 1940's. He told me that this model was built as late as the mid-1970's; at that time at the rate of about 10 a year. Price was $81,000 and accessories could total $22,640. FWIW an on-line inflation calculator shows that in today's dollars the machine would be nearly $359,000 and the accessories a bit over $100,000. He ended with the comment: "EDM and CNC obsoleted this machine."
David
 
I made a pedestal for a pedestal grinder this past year using old NOS radial engine gears and timing gear from stationary generator, used that inflation calculator and it came in a tad under half a million;)

That sounds pretty cool, and an interesting provenance to boot. I'm getting ready to make a pedestal for my grinder and have been kicking around what to use for the base, and that's a great idea. I think I'll try to keep mine a little under six-figures, though. Coming from an industrial area that unfortunately has a lot of closed-down factories, it shouldn't be too hard to find something.
 
Some of these older, high quality lathes are simply no longer available new in that level of quality today. An example of this is my late model L&S Power Turn 18x54. It is a tool room model with all the bells and whistles. It was a $100K machine in 1969. The equivalent is not made today anywhere. Several other examples by Monarch and a few others can also made. The demand for a manual high quality lathe is simply not there for the cost they would have to be sold for. There are some of these still available reconditioned by the factory, but the cost is very, very high.

They are not ALL as vanished as first appears.

Monarch Lathes LP being able to furnish a 10EE built of mostly-recyled-as-to-major-castings, but still with some 100% newly-fabbed parts and - most importantly - to FACTORY NEW all-round specs, is perhaps an anachronism hard to compare, anywhere, US or overseas. I haven't seen much "press" about it, but the same folks seem to be equipped to do L&S in much the same manner.

That one could strip the electronics off a brand-new Cazeneuve "Optica" and find near-as-dammit the classical HBX mechanicals still alive UNDER them might make for a more relevant comparison. Not that one would necessarily WANT to give-up the Optica's electronics, mind.

Point being that they've not forgotten how to source castings and gears nor put it all together accurately on classical prismatic inverted vee ways rather than slant-bed, linear bearings, and CNC-only, no "aided" manual operation.

Korea's Hwacheon// Wacheon, Mori-Seiki descendent // clone still lives in all-manual as well.

And what of ToS? Weiler? The Basque makers? "Generic Taiwanese", rather than mainland Chinese?

Whatever else, these machines can be bought new and make chips as well as ever they had done.

How easy does that make it to sell present-production SB badged goods?

One might guess "not very" - so long as a Standard-Modern still lives, too.
 
So what could you make on a $100k manual lathe that would justify its purchase?

Of course, you are correct. That is the primary reason these high quality manual lathes are no longer made. There is no demand at the price they would cost. That being said, the value of those machines at the reduced cost over new on the used market is both very high and desirable. This is especially true because Monarch still supports both the L&S and the older Monarch machines to some degree. I'm sure there are some very fine quality CNC lathes being made today, but CNC offers no value to what I do. My point is simple, no new manual lathe at the same approximate price point, is anywhere near as good as a used well maintained high quality lathe and they are becoming more scarce everyday.
 
Cazaneuve, Pinacho, Schaublin, Weiler, Meuser, and a host of Bulgarian, Polish, Czech, and Romanian companies still make "manual" lathes, although, as Monarchist mentioned, many now included built in DROs, and often digital threading. All are in the $100,000 and up range. Even a lowly Schaublin 102, fully tooled, would probably hit a hundred K by the time it was cleared customs and delivered to a residential US address.
And they all sell them- to industry. There is no way that a modern, high quality machine tool can compete with chinese built kits, and the europeans, koreans, brazilians, and japanese dont even try. They add the electronics because the customers want it- digital threading, in a toolroom lathe, is just a no-brainer these days, when a new Haas toolroom lathe is cheaper than a rebuilt 10EE from Monarch.
There is virtually no hobby market outside the USA, and it is served by Grizzly, here- Americans are notorious cheapskates.
 
Cazaneuve...
Said to mean "new beginning(s)" but my memory trick to keep the spelling right is of throwing any old egg within reach:

Caz ene uve

Americans are notorious cheapskates.

Cheapskates? F**k no!

Who'd spend that kinda dough on a machine-tool? Americans aren't status conscious enough to step up to such a label!

"Wastrels" OTOH... sumbuddy oughta register that as a pickemup truck brand...

:(
 
Gears had been sitting a few decades in my storage, too nice to scrap, but nobody wanted them, so...

That's pretty damn cool. I had to look twice before I realized that was like twenty gears stacked on top of one another. You know there is probably someone out there who restores old airplanes who would have an aneurysm if they saw it :ack2:
 








 
Back
Top