Yea - while not a total novice I’ve never had to setup and maintain my own equip so 1k to learn seems like a better bet than 2-3k (let alone 5+) to learn.
The suggestion on the 8x16 grizzly is interesting but without being x32 that would keep me out of “easily” doing barrel work, so it seems like that is a bit of no man’s land between the mini 7x16’s and a big boy large?
is the rigidity going to be that much better moving to a 2kish machine? if it’s still something i’d have to trash/resell in the long run, bigger and heavier isn’t a selling point ?
It is certainly more rigid than a mini lathe.
Your original post was concerning mini-lathes, then morphed into doing slightly larger work like facing actions and truing bolts, now has moved to possibly doing barrel work.
That sounds EXACTLY like what I went through.
I wanted a small lathe to learn on, then figured that a somewhat bigger lathe to do some heavier work like truing actions. What really turned me off on the mini lathes was that most of them come equipped with plastic gears. Those CAN be upgraded via the mini lathe website to metal gears.
But, to kind of answer your question, the 8x16 could likely do sporter weight barrels, it wouldn't be ideal.
The main problem that I see with most of the smaller bench top lathes is that they do not have a separate feed rod.
Larger lathes have a separate power rods for threading and your other turning operations, this prevents too much wear on the threading rod.
To get something with that capability and sufficient spindle bore diameter to do larger barrels, you'll need to look north of 3000 dollars.
Like the WBL290F (note the other machines do not have the separate feed rod)
That is the same machine sold by precision matthews here:
The advantages are a smaller footprint, lighter weight. Cost is nearly the same as for a gunsmithing lathe.
Grizzly, Precision Matthews and Smithy all make very nice entry level gunsmithing lathes. Just be aware, you are talking something that weighs 1000 pounds. Cost for the lathe is around 3500.
Each manufacturer includes different things in the package.
Tooling will far exceed the cost of the machine.
You want to learn and make parts and such and have limited space? then the 8x16 to 9x20 lathes will suit you just fine.
