Kiwi 'smith Dean
Cast Iron
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2011
- Location
- Tauranga, New Zealand.
A few of you guys will recall a post a did back in about January this year, as I was looking at getting a new machine with a 2" spindle bore, but with a headstock short enough to do chambering through the headstock without having to fit a barrel-extender, etc.
I looked pretty hard at one of the Chinese models, but like alot of other guys out there I couldn't bring myself to do it. I had been doing a ton of searching and ended up ordering a new Taiwanese machine to be customised to my specs, AND with the excess spindle shortened back at the factory to reduce the length from 25" to about 20.5". The expected lead time was 2-3 months, but this ended up blowing out to about 5 months or so. The fit and finish of the machine though is impeccable. Got high quality Taiwanese chucks and accessories with it as well. Sure glad I spent the extra $$ now. As they say buy the best you can afford and cry once.......
The company is the same one who make the Southbend and higher end Grizzly and Precison Matthews models. It is apparently the first one that they have ever shortened the spindle on to meet an customers exact request. Took a bit of arm-twisting to get them to do it though. Cost me a couple of hundred bucks extra, but hey, sure save me alot of hassles and without the liability either. If it catches on in the US, I suspect that the likes of Grizzly may end up offering it on special-order for other gunsmiths who don't want to go with the mainland-Chinese options....
Thanks to the guys who responded to my requests for advice on the earlier posts. Here are a few pics for now, i will add a few more once I get the 'spiders' (or 'cat-heads' if you prefer) made up for both ends, as well as all the flushing system works installed again.
(if the pics don't attach for some reason I will create a link or re-post them after this.)
Cheers,
Dean.
I looked pretty hard at one of the Chinese models, but like alot of other guys out there I couldn't bring myself to do it. I had been doing a ton of searching and ended up ordering a new Taiwanese machine to be customised to my specs, AND with the excess spindle shortened back at the factory to reduce the length from 25" to about 20.5". The expected lead time was 2-3 months, but this ended up blowing out to about 5 months or so. The fit and finish of the machine though is impeccable. Got high quality Taiwanese chucks and accessories with it as well. Sure glad I spent the extra $$ now. As they say buy the best you can afford and cry once.......
The company is the same one who make the Southbend and higher end Grizzly and Precison Matthews models. It is apparently the first one that they have ever shortened the spindle on to meet an customers exact request. Took a bit of arm-twisting to get them to do it though. Cost me a couple of hundred bucks extra, but hey, sure save me alot of hassles and without the liability either. If it catches on in the US, I suspect that the likes of Grizzly may end up offering it on special-order for other gunsmiths who don't want to go with the mainland-Chinese options....
Thanks to the guys who responded to my requests for advice on the earlier posts. Here are a few pics for now, i will add a few more once I get the 'spiders' (or 'cat-heads' if you prefer) made up for both ends, as well as all the flushing system works installed again.
(if the pics don't attach for some reason I will create a link or re-post them after this.)
Cheers,
Dean.