Help finding a decent lathe....

G

gift3t

Guest
I wanted to say hello fellow gun nuts and ask for some help finding a lathe. I recently moved too far from my brothers shop to make the trips there worth while, so I am in the market for a couple of pieces of equipment. The largest being a lathe and a mill. My brother had all grizzly equipment, due to the fact he lives close to Muncy, Pa. I liked it, i've used it for 10+ years, never had any issues. My intention was to buy all new stuff from grizzly but my experience with them has left me sour for giving them my money. I placed a $8600 order with them, pick up in muncy, cash. They offered me a $175 discount on the order. This was after 2 emails,4 chats to the CSR, and 3 phone calls. Without going into detail, my last communication with a grizzly CSR was, "please shop around to find a better price". SO, I have, and have come up with a couple brands that I would like input on.(precision matthews,shop fox,jet) I'm not interested in going into the american made vs. over seas debate. I want a new mill and a new lathe, on my trailer, or to my door foor under $10k. I was looking at buying a g4003g lathe and a g0722 mill. So, any suggestions would have to be comparable to those machines. 12x36 lathe minimum. I did speak to Precision Matthews today and he beat grizzly by $1k on the deal. What other brands are there that some of you guys have experience with that I may want to look into.?? I also was going to order over $2k in tooling and tools from grizzly. In this economy, I would of thought they would be wanting my money !!

Thanks in advance for your help.
 
When you talked to Precision Matthews, did you look at the PM1340GT (their new Made-In-Taiwan model)? Looks pretty nice from what I can see. You could get that and the Grizzly G0722 for under 10K, but you'd have to make two separate orders I guess.

http://www.machinetoolonline.com/PM1340T.html
 
When I was machine shopping 10 or so years ago, every machinery dealer I spoke with tried to steer me to the Acra line of machines. They all carried other brands, and would sell me whatever I chose, but they were all fans of Acra. IIRC, one of the things they cited was Acra having been around a long time. And they all said get a Taiwanese machine...avoid Chinese machines.

My lathe is an Acra, made in Taiwan, and I'm very happy with it.

Hope it helps,
Justin
 
jaychris said:
When you talked to Precision Matthews, did you look at the PM1340GT (their new Made-In-Taiwan model)? Looks pretty nice from what I can see. You could get that and the Grizzly G0722 for under 10K, but you'd have to make two separate orders I guess.

http://www.machinetoolonline.com/PM1340T.html
Click to expand...

I did check that one out after your reply. I like it but I am kinda thinking I want a foot brake. This whole ordeal has me shopping and finding more info that i never took into account. I may have to raise my budget a little. I hear everyone saying.."buy the biggest machine you can afford and house". So, I am now considering a 14x40 lathe and a knee mill.
 
Looks like decent stuff, Thanks.


Zebra13 said:
When I was machine shopping 10 or so years ago, every machinery dealer I spoke with tried to steer me to the Acra line of machines. They all carried other brands, and would sell me whatever I chose, but they were all fans of Acra. IIRC, one of the things they cited was Acra having been around a long time. And they all said get a Taiwanese machine...avoid Chinese machines.

My lathe is an Acra, made in Taiwan, and I'm very happy with it.

Hope it helps,
Justin
Click to expand...
 
can anyone shed any info or reviews for the industrial hobby mill??
 
Bill Ohio said:
can you use the search feature? Lathes have been discussed hundreds of times.
Click to expand...

let me rephrase....anybody on this forum, that has bought a industrial hobbies mill,not lathe,within the last 3 months, that may have something to offer on the service,quality or otherwise, please feel free to share. thanks bill....you spelled mill wrong buddy.
 
http://www.machinetools4sale.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=333 This is the lathe I've been using for the past several years. Didn't buy it from this supplier however and thankfully the price was considerably less expensive when I bought mine in 2004. It's a copy of a Clausing Colchester with the optional VFD control. It has a high and low range with 500 to 3000 rpm on high and 80 to 500 rpm on low. Will cut inch and metric by changing the position of the levers. Can hit any even thread on any line of the thread dial and the cross feed is direct reading off the diameter. That means if you set in .100" on the cross feed dial, you take .100" off the diameter. The non VFD version is quite a bit less expensive. The only drawback to it that I've found is it's fairly long through the headstock which makes it a little more difficult to do short barrels through the headstock.
 
without a profile filled out.... it`s hard to refer a machinery dealer.....however...if you`re near a large industrial city.... i.e. chicago,cleveland,check with dealers within..... i would recomend a heavy 10" south bend....
bill larson
 
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