Hello this will be my very first post on this website! I'm looking at getting a lathe and maybe a mill later on to support my hobby of working on old vehicles and machinery. A lot of parts for my projects are no longer in production and/or are hard to find. I recently got the idea maybe I should get a small hobby machine shop going so I could produce replicas of some of these parts and make modifications where I see fit. I've been reading up and watching some Youtube videos and came across this site along the way. I have a good bit of mechanical and electronic experience under my belt but have only watched machine tools be used. I was hoping you guys could point me in the right direction for a good starter lathe.
My main requirements will probably be determined by the material I'm likely to work with the most, cast iron, tool steel(not yet hardened) and medium carbon steel alloys. I'm a little worried the lathes I'm running into on craigslist will not be able to handle these materials, but I really have only a rough idea what I'm doing so maybe they can. Since I will be working with mostly metals on the harder end of the scale I would like to have a machine that can accept carbide tooling. The number one thing I'm looking for in a lathe is accuracy and repeatability, what I do not care as much about is work rate or capacity since most things I'll be making will be under 2" dia. and less then 6" in length and will be one offs not for profit. Grey cast iron is probably the single most common metal I will be turning, medium carbon alloy the second, M class tool steel the third, 6061 aluminum the fourth and manganese bronze the fifth, titanium will be on the menu as well if even possible but definitely not required.
The lathes I've seen again and again on craigslist are the Craftsman Atlas series and the Southbend 10L Heavy and 13" swing lathes. Both look appealing since they seem reasonably heavy and I could easily fit them into my garage. Others available now are the LeBlonde regal that looks very beat up, a Mysore Kirloskar, an ancient Logan in my home town with a ton of tooling included but no quick change gearbox and square ways. One I missed out on was a good condition Bradford but it was a little large for my garage, it had a 16" swing. On thing I have noticed is the larger lathes seem to be spindle speed rpm handicapped, for example it looks like the Leblonde can only turn up to 750rpm. Most of my projects will be fine work I have no ideas if that would be and issue or not.
If anybody can point me in the right direction it would be greatly appreciated, I feel a little in over my head right now. I have a good idea about how machine tools work but know nothing about all the standards and intricacies that come with each individual machine.
My main requirements will probably be determined by the material I'm likely to work with the most, cast iron, tool steel(not yet hardened) and medium carbon steel alloys. I'm a little worried the lathes I'm running into on craigslist will not be able to handle these materials, but I really have only a rough idea what I'm doing so maybe they can. Since I will be working with mostly metals on the harder end of the scale I would like to have a machine that can accept carbide tooling. The number one thing I'm looking for in a lathe is accuracy and repeatability, what I do not care as much about is work rate or capacity since most things I'll be making will be under 2" dia. and less then 6" in length and will be one offs not for profit. Grey cast iron is probably the single most common metal I will be turning, medium carbon alloy the second, M class tool steel the third, 6061 aluminum the fourth and manganese bronze the fifth, titanium will be on the menu as well if even possible but definitely not required.
The lathes I've seen again and again on craigslist are the Craftsman Atlas series and the Southbend 10L Heavy and 13" swing lathes. Both look appealing since they seem reasonably heavy and I could easily fit them into my garage. Others available now are the LeBlonde regal that looks very beat up, a Mysore Kirloskar, an ancient Logan in my home town with a ton of tooling included but no quick change gearbox and square ways. One I missed out on was a good condition Bradford but it was a little large for my garage, it had a 16" swing. On thing I have noticed is the larger lathes seem to be spindle speed rpm handicapped, for example it looks like the Leblonde can only turn up to 750rpm. Most of my projects will be fine work I have no ideas if that would be and issue or not.
If anybody can point me in the right direction it would be greatly appreciated, I feel a little in over my head right now. I have a good idea about how machine tools work but know nothing about all the standards and intricacies that come with each individual machine.