Wehrlikon
Plastic
- Joined
- Jul 30, 2019
Hello and nice to meet you all. Long time lurker, first time poster here.
I'm looking at buying a good metal lathe for my gunsmithing shop, but money is somewhat tight. Two options have appeared within my reach: The first is a nice condition Central Machinery 44142 3-in-1 unit with a bunch of extras for a thousand bucks. My partner and I were about ready to shake hands on it when a fellow selling a South Bend popped up on our radar.
The problem is that I can't make heads or tales of this lathe. I know a bit about lathes, having learned to smith with one of the big Grizzly units about 8 years ago. On the end of the lathe it specified it as a 9" swing, 4' lathe, and the manual is dated 1946. But it has the included base that looks like the SB heavy 10, has 1-1/2hp motors, and the endplate lists its catalog number as "159A". The ways are fairly worn and dinged up pretty damned good near the headstock, but not to the point of the lathe being shot I don't think. They're bad but I've seen worse. Everything else has been lovingly cared for and she runs like butter, and the owner is a retired machinist himself who used it for precision work for many years. Or so he says. The thing is, he wants over a grand for it with some extras (three chucks, a couple milling modules, a rack of collets), and is pulling the old "high pressure" sales tricks on me. "Oh I had another guy here just yesterday thinking of buying it! Nope, I won't come down a penny on the price! Got three or four people looking at it now! Aww don't mind those dings in the ways, she'll do anything you want her to do!" To access the gearbox and see the gear condition requires taking off the left side end cap, which is bolted down and not a convenient door like some of them, so I haven't seen them directly. But I ran the lathe for a couple minutes and there was no unusual noise/heat/smoke or other indicators of trouble coming from the gearbox. Everything else is clean (minus a little garage dust from where its been stored) and well oiled.
I just don't know what to think. I can't find anything on a catalog number 159A lathe and the guy is pushy to sell it. Its very tempting, but then again a screw job isn't a good screw job if it isn't tempting. What do you folks think?
I'm looking at buying a good metal lathe for my gunsmithing shop, but money is somewhat tight. Two options have appeared within my reach: The first is a nice condition Central Machinery 44142 3-in-1 unit with a bunch of extras for a thousand bucks. My partner and I were about ready to shake hands on it when a fellow selling a South Bend popped up on our radar.
The problem is that I can't make heads or tales of this lathe. I know a bit about lathes, having learned to smith with one of the big Grizzly units about 8 years ago. On the end of the lathe it specified it as a 9" swing, 4' lathe, and the manual is dated 1946. But it has the included base that looks like the SB heavy 10, has 1-1/2hp motors, and the endplate lists its catalog number as "159A". The ways are fairly worn and dinged up pretty damned good near the headstock, but not to the point of the lathe being shot I don't think. They're bad but I've seen worse. Everything else has been lovingly cared for and she runs like butter, and the owner is a retired machinist himself who used it for precision work for many years. Or so he says. The thing is, he wants over a grand for it with some extras (three chucks, a couple milling modules, a rack of collets), and is pulling the old "high pressure" sales tricks on me. "Oh I had another guy here just yesterday thinking of buying it! Nope, I won't come down a penny on the price! Got three or four people looking at it now! Aww don't mind those dings in the ways, she'll do anything you want her to do!" To access the gearbox and see the gear condition requires taking off the left side end cap, which is bolted down and not a convenient door like some of them, so I haven't seen them directly. But I ran the lathe for a couple minutes and there was no unusual noise/heat/smoke or other indicators of trouble coming from the gearbox. Everything else is clean (minus a little garage dust from where its been stored) and well oiled.
I just don't know what to think. I can't find anything on a catalog number 159A lathe and the guy is pushy to sell it. Its very tempting, but then again a screw job isn't a good screw job if it isn't tempting. What do you folks think?