Aloha, I am a tinkerer and metal worker with a little experience using lathes. I am getting older but still find that I like to spend time in the garage being useful, or maybe out of the way, with metal working. I have had a small table top lathe for many years but always wanted a real tool that I could also use for steel or bigger jobs! My Micro Mark was useful for small teflon/delrin bushings and soft metals but over the years I used it less and less because of it's limitations.
Fast forward to today and I find that I have a chance to pick up a South Bend lathe for a super good price and I am very tempted. Its a big old beast I am still trying to learn exactly what it is but I think it is a 1940's era maybe a 16". I measured quickly with my hands from chuck center to ways and I think it was about 8". It has a very long bed and hence my trepidation at going for it without thinking this through a bit. I think the bed is at least 6 feet long! The foot print of the base to far end on the the floor is 8 feet. I have the room but I am having trouble figuring if I would ever use all that bed!
Have any of you guys that got a longer lathe regretted it later? I sort of have an idea in my mind that I could utilize the far end of it for other uses but I am still looking for other guys that have gone before me. I was thinking to fashion maybe a mag drill portable drill press to it so that I have a home made drill press way over there at the far end or a home made drill press that I design to create some multi functionality. Has anyone built a hybrid bridgeport type mill at one end of a long lathe?
Re the mag drill, I am not sure if magnetic connection to the lathe is a smart idea either but just thinking and looking for some guidance from this place. I have been poking around for a few days on here and I am sure with the quality of the info and the amount of traffic there has got to be some wisdom for me to make a smart choice.
If this is the wrong place for this post please let me know where I should start. I thought about posting in the South Bend Forum but I wanted to address the issues of longer bed that I may never use and how I could turn that into a WIN for me first. Where I am there are not a ton of choices for machine tools and so often there are trade offs given our remote location.
Thanks for any useful feedback and what a nice place you guys have here. Cheers and Aloha, Kevin
Fast forward to today and I find that I have a chance to pick up a South Bend lathe for a super good price and I am very tempted. Its a big old beast I am still trying to learn exactly what it is but I think it is a 1940's era maybe a 16". I measured quickly with my hands from chuck center to ways and I think it was about 8". It has a very long bed and hence my trepidation at going for it without thinking this through a bit. I think the bed is at least 6 feet long! The foot print of the base to far end on the the floor is 8 feet. I have the room but I am having trouble figuring if I would ever use all that bed!
Have any of you guys that got a longer lathe regretted it later? I sort of have an idea in my mind that I could utilize the far end of it for other uses but I am still looking for other guys that have gone before me. I was thinking to fashion maybe a mag drill portable drill press to it so that I have a home made drill press way over there at the far end or a home made drill press that I design to create some multi functionality. Has anyone built a hybrid bridgeport type mill at one end of a long lathe?
Re the mag drill, I am not sure if magnetic connection to the lathe is a smart idea either but just thinking and looking for some guidance from this place. I have been poking around for a few days on here and I am sure with the quality of the info and the amount of traffic there has got to be some wisdom for me to make a smart choice.
If this is the wrong place for this post please let me know where I should start. I thought about posting in the South Bend Forum but I wanted to address the issues of longer bed that I may never use and how I could turn that into a WIN for me first. Where I am there are not a ton of choices for machine tools and so often there are trade offs given our remote location.
Thanks for any useful feedback and what a nice place you guys have here. Cheers and Aloha, Kevin