Machine tool dealers.

Hi all,
I am a student at a University in Pittsburgh PA. I'm involved a club that builds some things. We have teamed up with a couple other organization to buy machine tools, and I have been put in charge of acquiring said tools. We are interested in a small lathe, and a bridgeport or clone.

The catch is that we have a budget of about $4-5k. Right now I'm interested in the lathemaster's 9x20 machine. I have been unable to get a response from lathemaster with a couple of emails; does anyone know what is up with them? Are they out of business? Also does anyone have a source for a similar machine? We're really looking for something that 's somewhere between minilathe and full size.

For the mill one site I've looked at is machinery values. does anyone have words to say about them, or recommendations of another dealer, especially someone closer to Pittsburgh?

Thanks in advance

Call Dave, he should be able to help and he's close by.

http://www.mermac.com/

With a budget of 4-5k, for a mill and lathe, you should be able to get some pretty nice used machines, if you look hard enough.
As to Machinery Values, I have seen alot of their items on ebay, and it seems expensive in relation to today's market.
A good dealer to check out is the following: McKean Machinery We have bought several machines off of them.
You may also want to check out www.locatoronline.com for some other dealers near you.

J

Stay away from those crappy chinese machines. 4-5k will buy you a nice lathe and mill. If it were me, I'd first try finding out if there are any available machines with in the school. Right now I go to Rutgers in New Jersey, and we have about 6 different shops. I know that there're currently considering dismanteling the Physics Student machine shop, and just putting the worn machines into the regular physics shop, as the physics kids don't know what they're doing and don't clean up after themselves. It's also pretty common for a shop to hand down machinery when they're done with it. I just joined our racing team, and our shop has a handme down Bridgeport and Clausing lathe.

If you're not confident acessing used machines take along some one who is, as you can get real screwed. But try going to a dealer telling him what you want and see if he can work out a package deal. Here's a list of dealers http://www.machinetools.com/mt/resources/search/index.tmpl?action=list&method=ByLoc&what=machinedealer&LOC=PA. Be careful try to understate the amount of $$ you have in your pockets at all costs. Your school should have a machine shop of some sort in one department so try talking to the instructor for advise, and see if he can tag along when you go to inspect.

Once again, I don't think too highly of those forign machines. You get what you pay for. There's a reason why one chineese lathe costs $2400 new and another one of the same size costs $8500. The other funny thing I've realized that no matter what you buy, engineering students will always say it's crap! I was just at the shop tonight and I heard enough whining about the condition of the machinery. It is funny as it is in better shape then most any other machines I've ever worked on, the lathe is beautiful and has more tooling then most of those kids could understand how to use, however every kid I talk to says the machine is Junk! Meanwhile the B-port still has all of the flaking and .015" backlash, and the lathe looks beautiful. Remember a poor machinist always blames his tools! So next week when we actually start making stuff I'll get a chance to really try it out I have a funny feeling it will all work just fine.

Adam

Do some research on live auctions in the area. You can get some really nice stuff for cheaper than cheap dirt, plus all the tooling too. I'm around Pittsburgh and shops are closing around here all the time.

Does the 4 or 5 K include the tooling for the
machines as well? You should be aware that
the standard rule, borne out by many here, is
that the cost of the tooling for any given
machine will roughly equal the cost of the
machine itself, when you are done.

So if you buy a lathe for $1K, expect to wind
up, eventually, paying about a thousand for
tooling for it.

I'm suprised that a university does not have
a surplus machinery listing that you could avail
yourselves of. (split infitive...)

Otherwise, Dave Ficken, and Dave Sobel.

Jim

Thanks for the responses all. I only have a little time at the moment, so this response will be short.

Anchor--do you have any tips on how to find these auctions. I have done some googling, but I haven't found much.

Jim--does that estimate mean tooling it out with everything, ie steadyrest, milling attachment--all the extras, or is that just to get it running? We currently have a mill that we are seeking to replace, so we have endmills, a vice, a clamping set, and R8 tooling, etc. so on that front we'll be ok, but what's the bare minimum to get the lathe running is what I'm wondering.

Thanks again,

Justin

what kind of mill do you currently have?

Call some local machine sales. More than likely they will have a Bridgeport lined up somewhere for about 1500. Most would be happy to unload a used BP.

Do a search for the company 2SQ, they have a place in Export, PA.

Justin,

Don't worry too much about tooling, if you alread have a mill that you're trying to replace you should be able to use it all. As for the lathe, you really want a 3+4jaw chuck, toolpost, and holders, as well as a live/dead center, and morse taper drill chuck. Not knowing what you're doing, %95 of your turing jobs can be acomplished with these. If you have a milling machine you definately don't need to bother with a milling attachment, and unless you're doing threading don't worry about a follower rest, and if not doing real long turnings the steady isn't real necessiary either.

The machine we have in our racing shop is fully tooled collets, two toolposts, face plates, tailstock, turret tail stock, rubber flex collets, 3/4jaw, faceplate, steady/follower rests, and tons more. I guess virtually none of that stuff other then the 3+4 jaw are used on a regular basis.

Adam

ah, I guess because I posted that quickly I didn't really get across my meaning. I was asking if all the above extras (the milling attachment) are what make up that tooling cost, because I can't imagine the basics costing that much.

Anchor: the mill we currently have is, I have been told, A Frankenstein. The head is a Jet mill-drill head, on a round column. The table was found in a hallway somewhere. Seems kinda odd to find a semi-decent X-Y table lying in a hallway, but that's what I was told.