Gunsmithing Need some help evaluating if this lathe may be worth it........

[gunn317]

I found this lathe here locally ( South Bend metal lathe) and the guy wants 700 dollars. I want to start recreational tinkering with building a long range rifle, reaming chambers, threading barrels and those type of things. The thing looks beat up but at 800 to 2000 less than others does this have potential with some elbow grease and some parts to do what I am thinking I want to do? Thanks for the help in advance, I found this on a whim and have researched a little and it seems like some lathes won't do what I want to do.


Brent

 

[slayer_21420]

In your list of intentions with this machine nowhere did you say "restoring an old worn out lathe"

I would steer clear of that one, it looks to have been rode hard and put away wet many times. If you feel up to te task go for it, but that looks like a nightmare to me.

 

[gunn317]

In your list of intentions with this machine nowhere did you say "restoring an old worn out lathe"

I would steer clear of that one, it looks to have been rode hard and put away wet many times. If you feel up to te task go for it, but that looks like a nightmare to me.

Thanks,

I don't know crap about lathes other than it looked rough and the sale said it ran.... I was going to offer a 400 dollar AR as trade. Thanks for the advice!

 

[JBRC]

It's worth whatever scrap is. Rough is an understatement.

 

[Red_SC]

Keep looking. I didn't pay much more than that for this lathe with a Buck 3 jaw, Bison 4 jaw, and some tooling:

The kicker is that you may have to travel, availability is horrible in our area.

 

[NXS338]

Wow! I would have thought he would have paid YOU to haul that away...lol.

 

[matthias]

bad paint is not an issue. RUST on the bed is

 

[bohem]

I gave away one of the OP's machines a couple years ago. Literally... GAVE IT AWAY because it needed so much work just to be marginally useful. The other advice on here is good, keep looking. Ebay is another place to look, you might have to drive but for the size of machine you need a 6' bed pickup can handle the hauling.

 

[Delta4-3]

I found a South Bend Heavy 10 with all the tooling you could imagine for $500. If you are getting a lathe to do gun work, check to see what the spindle bore size is. It makes life easier to be able to stick a long barrel through the head.

 

[honesthop]

my 1st lathe was $500, but I had to wait til 'children of the corn' movie was finished to get it. it had wide flatbelt pulley tranny mntd on the wall with belt dressing always at hand. it had no incremental dials on compound, boards to keep belt tight, GREASE ZIRK spindle [2]. at least it had a 4 jaw. old Armstrong 'rocker' tool post holder I learned a great deal from that boat anchor. did a lot with it, weren't no hi-speed rig. buy that southbend. elbow grease the shit outta it. use it. accurize it the best ya can. get some loot put up, then upgrade when you are sure what you want vs pocket. then I took a nite class at a comm trade school. go fot it. good luck-Hoppy