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Opinions on this Yuasa/Takisawa 14x40 model LX1440?

shaggy

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Sep 29, 2010
Location
Oakland CA
I'd like to get some reactions to this (apparently well-used) Takisawa. I believe it's an older Japanese-built one(not Taiwanese)?

Reason I'm looking at this particular lathe is it's moderate size, relatively low weight and power requirements, and that it will just fit in my remaining shop space. Unusually for a dealer machine, it comes with a travelling steady, faceplate, and what looks like a decent 4-jaw chuck. I think it might be worth making an offer on. If so, what would you estimate to be a fair price? (I can go look at it if comments are favorable.)

Would appreciate your opinions, even if brief.

-thanks!

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14" x 40" Yuasa Takisawa LX1440 Engine Lathe | eBay
 
I like that it is a D spindle and not A spindle and that follower rest is very rare. I was watching this one when it was at auction but didn't get a chance to run out and look at it. These are great little lathes. Be nice if it also had the change gears.

I sold mine for around 4300. It wad an A spindle and had some bed wear, but It was all cleaned and painted with a vfd and all the change gears.

Jeff

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Hi Jeff. Would you expect one to be able to withstand the wear and tear this machine shows, and not need new spindle bearings, or other major work done? Are they typically worked hard, and what would I look/listen for? And what are the extra change gears you mentioned for?

--thanks
 
These machines were on my short list for the same reasons. Solid well built machines. I thought they did metric and English threading without change gears but that could vary over the years. I’d have trouble giving up $5k for a machine of that age and condition unless I could see it run and take some measurements.
 
There's one gear set up that does 90% of the imperial threading and some metric. But not 13tpi.

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Here's the one i sold and you can see the stack of gears i had.

Mine had some pretty good wear on the bed but the headstock was good. Nuts, screws are pretty easy to replace. I'd be concerned with headstock noise and excessive bed wear.

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There were a few Takis on the local SF bay area CL awhile ago, ex-small manufacturer, can't remember what model but similar size. Were asking around 5k as well. It seems they keep their value.

Bit disappointing the threadcutting ratios aren't all in the box.
Bet this seller doesn't know about any extra gears.
 
There's one gear set up that does 90% of the imperial threading and some metric. But not 13tpi.

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Here's the one i sold and you can see the stack of gears i had.

Mine had some pretty good wear on the bed but the headstock was good. Nuts, screws are pretty easy to replace. I'd be concerned with headstock noise and excessive bed wear.

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Nice. I'd have bought yours in a heartbeat!
 
Those are nice lathes, but as with any used lathe, they need to be inspected and tested in person. One thing that always concerns me is when I see damage to the compound/cross slide as this lathe has. Crashes like that have the potential to break things internally, like gear teeth. If you go to look at it, I'd recommend running it through all gears, check operation of the carriage to see if there are any signs of missing teeth and open and inspect the headstock gears if possible.

Ted
 
Zamboni, what's the deal w/ needing so many extra gears? I'm really surprised as I thought the Japanesewould have this down. Apart from 13tpi (11, 11-1/2, etc) what can't you do w/ out the extra gears?
 
Price seems a tad high to me considering the sparse tooling and condition, but then I am cheap. Take a day off, go look at it, if nothing else just to give yourself some comparison experience. If its a dealer there could be lots of tooling squirreled away in the place, see if he is willing to toss some in.
 
Zamboni, what's the deal w/ needing so many extra gears? I'm really surprised as I thought the Japanesewould have this down. Apart from 13tpi (11, 11-1/2, etc) what can't you do w/ out the extra gears?
With the 30,95,80 set up you can do a lot. Here you see that in addition to those 3 you need2 other gears to speed it up for 2 to 7 tpi and 3 more to slow the power feed slower than .0047. Etc. Here's all the combos listed on the machine i had.
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What's the deal with the brake, looks like you'd have to kick it rather than step on it? Perhaps something as simple as a return spring needed though.

The older Taiwanese Victors are very similar to these and could be worth watching for too. Did the Japanese mob get back with a price on the crotch high clockmakers lathe - I see Peter had one of those a while back -

Eguro lathe, manual would be great
 
Price seems a tad high to me considering the sparse tooling and condition, but then I am cheap. Take a day off, go look at it, if nothing else just to give yourself some comparison experience. If its a dealer there could be lots of tooling squirreled away in the place, see if he is willing to toss some in.

It's def. way too high at that price, and I don't like the condition, except that this would be a project. But for that it should be super cheap, I'm thinking 3k tops - and I'd bet they'll never let it go for that.
I suspect most dealers aren't in a big hurry to do you any favors, but then maybe the favor they're doing is to keep the price high so you don't end up with it(!)
Damned machinery addiction :angry:
 
It's def. way too high at that price, and I don't like the condition, except that this would be a project. But for that it should be super cheap, I'm thinking 3k tops - and I'd bet they'll never let it go for that.
I suspect most dealers aren't in a big hurry to do you any favors, but then maybe the favor they're doing is to keep the price high so you don't end up with it(!)
Damned machinery addiction :angry:

I say quit looking at machinery dealers, go straight to their source, the auction market. At an auction, my guess is that machine would be $500 to $1500, if it goes higher walk, there will be another next week, and the week after, and the week after that, and....
 
I say quit looking at machinery dealers, go straight to their source, the auction market. At an auction, my guess is that machine would be $500 to $1500, if it goes higher walk, there will be another next week, and the week after, and the week after that, and....

I bet you're right. I used to go to liquidation auctions years ago. It was a crapshoot, but you could do ok.

A few weeks ago I tried to sign up for an online auction/liquidation sale, incl. some machine tools. The pre-bid requirements included giving full credit card details, and signing a legal agreement that 'ONLY a licenced rigging company is allowed to remove items weighing over 100 lbs'(!) To cap it off, any desirable items already had suspiciously high 'bids' on them days before the deadline. wtf?
But, point me to something trustworthy, and I'm in :)
 
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I bet you're right. I used to go to liquidation auctions years ago. It was a crapshoot, but you could do ok.

A few weeks ago I tried to sign up for an online auction/liquidation sale, incl. some machine tools. The pre-bid requirements included giving full credit card details, and a legal agreement that 'a licenced rigging company only is to remove any item any over 100 lbs'. To cap it off, the desireable items already had stupid high 'bids' days before the deadline. It had to be a scam. But point me to something trustworthy, and I'm in :)
Sent you a pm with auction link in case you wanted to look at another taki

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