lathe purchase advice requested

[Stuart Hawkinson]

IThinkIHaveAProblem,

 

A great place to find a small lathe that comes with all kinds of fittings is Sherline.  The company is very responsive to satisfying users of all types.  Their lathes are quite good precision.  Not as robust as classic machine shop lathes, but they only cost a fraction of of the professional ones.  My shop also has a Myford English engine makers lathe suitable for building model engines.  But the Sherline is the lathe I use to make my custom mandrels for taking dents out of fountain pen metal caps.  I just rough out the mandrel  on the Myford then add the stepped curves using the Sherline.

 

Stuart Hawkinson

[tmenyc]

Sherlines are great smaller lathes, for sure, I've used them, like their precision a great deal. The OP wanted to keep the overall price in $000, which you can't do with the Sherline 17" bed length and the equipment you'd need to add, plus shipping to Canada. 

 

Also, FWIW , a machinist friend in Kentucky is seriously getting ready to sell his Logan 820, a true 10x24 machine lathe identical to mine (described much earlier in this topic), but restored ground-up and with a number of improvements he has made, including a very recently rebuilt headstock. He is selling because he mostly uses his South Bend and just doesn't have room any more for two lathes. He's not there yet, it will probably be in the $2500-$3000 range, but unlike my Logan, this won't need restoration in any way so you won't have to plan for that expenditure. You'll probably need to drive to Kentucky to get it, but frankly that is good news, because at 510 llbs on its base, call it 600 with everything else, you would not need to dismantle it and could haul it easily on/in the smallest Uhaul, as long as you can get it from the Uhaul to your shop. I have been considering buying it and selling mine, and still might, but frankly I've gotten so attached to mine and know it almost too well to move it out. This is the kind of machine that will be snapped up in hours when he lists it in the machinist community. 

 

Tim 

[Addertooth]

I thought the Sherline also requires extra optional gizmos to do threads.