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TheShockHowse

Plastic
Joined
May 19, 2020
Hi. I'm new to machines and while I've used them, I've never owned one. I'm a suspension shop owner and looking to get my first lathe. Manual is great, and while I need a accuracy, I don't need fancy. I'll be working primarily with aluminum, but also medical stainless, brass, and some plastics. Largest diameters will be tube stock up to 40mm in diameter and up to 2 feet of travel would be great. I need enough power to bore a 15mm hole through brass and stainless.

I'm looking for recommendations on how to approach purchasing a lathe, likely used. Things like where, what to look for, tool recommendations, how much I should expect to spend. Any advice is welcome. Thanks in advance.
 
Shock Howse, That's a really broad question. A 12x36 would fit your envelope, but I'd try to find a 13" or 14" x 40", just a gives a little extra room without getting too big.

Where to buy- all over the place. Craigslist, eBay, Marketplace, military surplus auctions, state surplus auctions, any other auctions, used machinery dealer.

Running a machine in person is the gold standard, but at a lot of these places the lathe might go cheap enough to take a risk. We bought a Harrison M300 on an online auction for a technical college that was listed as having a bad spindle bearing, got it for a song. The spindle wasn't torqued right, we tightened it up and have been using it for years.
 
I have a older Hendy 14" gearhead lathe I have been looking at clearing out , its about 32" between centers , 19 to 1000 RPM and threading 1 1/2 TPI to 80 TPI..

I am about a hour west of seattle area.
 
Thanks Lott. Yeah, very broad. I have a mechanical aptitude, but not much experience with machines, so I'm trying to collect as much information as possible. Thank you.
 
I would look for a machine bigger then what you need as once you buy one, a bigger job would come in. I am not a fan of Chinese built lathes. Taiwanese Japanese built machines would be a better choice, You will want a modern machine and not some 50 year old machine where repair parts are obsolete. You should look for a lathe that cuts metric and inch too. What's your price range? New machines come with a year warranty and used are AS IS. Some good machines are Kent USA, Acer, Mori-Seiki, Hardinge and Leblond. If your looking at a used lathe, a simple way to see how much use it has is to look at the feed rack located under the ways in front. Take a flashlight and compare the rack teeth from front to middle. Lathes with little use, the teeth are the same and on a old worn out machine the teeth in the middle are pointed more compared to the teeth close to the headstock. If you want some more info, PM me and we can exchange phone numbers.

You should take a class at a local Tech school or hire a retired machinist to show you how for a few lessons . He would be a great asset you could bounce questions when needed.
 
If drilling, boring 40mm tube or bar stock you really need a lathe that has a large enough hole through the headstock. At least 1 5/8" preferably 2". This allows you to chuck your work piece through the chuck rather than in front of it requiring more setup, tooling and a considerably longer lathe depending on work piece length. Older lathes typically have smaller holes through the headstock spindle.
 








 
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