opinions on these lathes (and prices)

I'm looking at getting my first lathe and found this company

http://www.hhrobertsmachinery.com/used-lathes.html#stdmod

they have about 15 standard modern lathes priced from 1800 to 3500 $cdn what are your opinions on these lathes and price ? what to look for when buying one. would be used mostly for gunsmithing.
thanks

Standard Modern Lathes | Manual Engine Lathe Manufacturer
Standard Modern used to be Canadian, now American. Very well built machines, but as usual anything can be used and abused.
Cant judge price by the pictures because its impossible to tell condition. HHRoberts has been around for a long time and is a reputable dealer.
Since there are so many, they probably came from an institution.

Standard Modern made excellent lathes. Machines in foreground top and middle photo are approximately 1950's vintage, bottom photo early 1970's, out of a school. Assume they're worn out for the most part. New tailstock quill, cross slide nut etc, but you won't know until you actually test one. Prices are not bad.

Cabinets are sturdy as hell.

Holly smokes machine peoples, Utilathe heaven! The green ones in the middle picture are 1950's ' Utilathe' models. Probably 12" x48". Maybe 13" for this vintage machine. I doubt if they are 11" swing. Standard Modern lathes were a mainstay in Canadian and US ARMED forces for generations. When the company sold out and moved to the US, the US conglomerate basically killed the product line with bad customer service and gold plated prices.

Having said that, I have one just like in the middle photo and love it. Unfortunately mine was used to keep the Canadian Navy afloat and operational for 30 years and is seriously worn out. Yet I can still easily take a .100" cut in mild steel stock with a 1/2" HSS tool bit and the machine just scarfs it down without a thought at all.

If these were truly school lathes, and never used for production work, it might seriously be worth calling the Roberts company, or flying in to look at them. Surely with a dozen available, you could find a decent one to take home. $1800 to $2500 isn't a bad price here in the pacific North West - if the ways aren't worn Badly and the headstock doesn't growll so much you can't hear yourself think.

Only drawback is the spindle takes a D1-5 camlock chuck. Hard, hard, hard to find. Not impossible, but not much selection of chucks available these days for d1-5. Don't know why.

Parts are still available from a Canadian distributor - I just had them make a new specialty gear in the apron to drive my lead screw. One week turn around.

So overall, Definitely worth looking at. Actually I think I will call these guys myself and see what they say. Love to upgrade mine with a better machine.

Glenn in Seattle.

I don't think school lathes get the hammer that industry lathes get. They may get the saddle/tool post run into the chuck from time to time but other than that they're usually OK.
Given the amount of H&S legislation involved in schools these days school lathes are pretty well maintained.
That's been my experience any way.

Regards Tyrone

I'm with Tyrone - they just don't get the use and wear of industrial machines.

Personally I'd be round there like a shot, ...........if you can, take someone who knows a bit about lathes with you.

Got a reply back to last nights email to HH Roberts company. They say the lathes include some newer than 1950's 10 x 32 Utilathes and a few 12" models.

They say the ways are in good shape. $1200 USD to package and ship to the US.

These might be 1960's -early 1970's models?? Iam. Softly famaliar with the 1958 version. Still,look real nice.

Gpb

Those are going to be mostly bare lathes, with no tooling, which I would avoid. Look for a private party selling with tooling.

Pretty much every high school in Ontario had Standard Modern lathes in their Tech. departments. They would not be worn out by any means but superficial damage was the norm.
I currently own a 1340 and a 1120 and was the previous owner of 3 other 1120's and I can tell you that they were ALL D 1-3 camlock systems, which by the way is a very popular size and readily available.
Dave

Nice looking lathes. The price is great. I did notice that some tooling and accessories are available.
Definitely worth looking into.

D KIRBY said:

Pretty much every high school in Ontario had Standard Modern lathes in their Tech. departments. They would not be worn out by any means but superficial damage was the norm.
I currently own a 1340 and a 1120 and was the previous owner of 3 other 1120's and I can tell you that they were ALL D 1-3 camlock systems, which by the way is a very popular size and readily available.
Dave

Click to expand...

Well, mine is a 13" series 2000 (late 1960s, if I recall correctly), and it has a D1-4 spindle. So I guess they came in many variants.

Ways are hardened.

Have done business with HHRoberts in past. They're not dummies. They get top dollar for everything they sell. If the price seems reasonable look closely for the reason.

Lucky7

JohnMartin said:

Well, mine is a 13" series 2000 (late 1960s, if I recall correctly), and it has a D1-4 spindle. So I guess they came in many variants.

Ways are hardened.

Click to expand...

John, after reading your post, I got to thinking and you are so right!!!
All my Standard Modern's are in fact D1-4
It has been a few years since I spent almost $700.00 on a new Bison 3 jaw. Did not think I would forget that so soon.

I hope that I have not created too much confusion in regard to these lathes.
They really are good lathes for their value.
Dave

The ones in the middle pic are the 14" Ulitilathe...not seen very often but real sweeties.

A Technical College here in Alberta sold about 25 of the 13x34 and 13x40(much heavier model) online about 2 years ago. Prices were $1500-2500 Canuck bucks.

JohnMartin said:

Well, mine is a 13" series 2000 (late 1960s, if I recall correctly), and it has a D1-4 spindle. So I guess they came in many variants.

Ways are hardened.

Click to expand...

My 12x48 Utilathe, (circa 1958) has the d1-5 spindle, also,it was/is the military spec machine. I wonder if the D1-5 spindle is or was a mil spec requirement?

Regardless, sure like the machine. Which I could find another locally in the US... but unfortunately, not likely to happen.

-G.

I realize this is an older post, but I have searched all over for topics and info regarding the Standard Modern lathes.
And I appreciate this thread as I too have finally purchased a Standard Modern Series 2000 13" (like stated above a couple times) with a D1-4 spindle.

I do want to thank everyone who has posted on this thread as it helped me verify a question i had regarding my spindle.

Thank you all,
Jared

I do want to start a new thread regarding my Standard Modern lathe, parts, tooling, and installing VFD or Phase converter.
Where would be the appropriate thread location?

Tyrone Shoelaces said:

I don't think school lathes get the hammer that industry lathes get. They may get the saddle/tool post run into the chuck from time to time but other than that they're usually OK.
Given the amount of H&S legislation involved in schools these days school lathes are pretty well maintained.
That's been my experience any way.

Regards Tyrone

Click to expand...

I agree. School lathes don't get many hours of operation but are likely to me abused by students.

My Dad has a 11" Standard Modern Series 2000 lathe. I would guess it is over 40 years old. He is elderly now and I am trying to help him sell it. Looking for some help on pricing. It is in very good shape. What other information besides some pictures would someone need? He is in the Space Coast area in Florida. Any advice woudl be appreciated.

See if you can get him to identify any and all tooling that goes with it, tooling can easily double the value of a machine. Not sure where the FL market is, but in general from what I'm seeing, the market on manual machines is down. Get some good pics of the machine and its tooling and you will get some opinions.