Now that I have heard it enough that a smith does not need a Southbend to produce quality firearms, I have another question for you and again thank you for your time and years of knowledge.

My goals for my shop will be to do general maintenance and repair work on firearms, the kind of stuff that pays the bills.

But I will also be wanting to produce extreme accuracy minded specialty handguns and rifles. I currently am involved in 1000 to 2000 yards target shooting with a variaty of calibers ranging from the tame 6mm-284 and 7mm Rem Mag up through the big 300's, 338's and ending up with the 50 BMG.

In my view, even though this will be a smaller part of my business, I still want a machine that will handle any barrel job that I think I may be faced with including a 36" 50 BMG match barrel.

So I want a machine that will handle a 36" long barrel of 1.5" diameter and everything less.

I am looking at two different machines right now. Again, I would prefer to buy new and will lean very heavy in that direction.

The first machine I am looking at is a Jet 1440-3PGH. This 14x40" machine has a 3 1/8" spindle bore which is quite frankly much larger then I need but I have not seen any machine from Jet that has a spindle bore larger then 1 3/8" and less then 3 1/8". Price of this +4000 pound monster is $10,092.00 with freight included.

Then other machine I am looking into is from Grizzly and is their Z series 14x40 High Precision Toolroom Lathe. Spindle bore on this machine is 1 5/8", just large enough for my needs and has all the features of the Jet as well as having an even lower RPM range down to 35 RPM.

This machine weights 2600 lbs, still huge but nothing like the Jet and it runs right at $8000 delievered, better yet, can set up with a finance plan for this machine at under $190/month.

Personally I am leaning toward the Grizzly machine as it seems to cover all the jobs I may do with a lathe in my shop and is not overkill. Still it should be a good heavy stable, accurate machine.

What are your opinions on these two machines and if you had to choose one for needs like mine, which one would you choose.

Again, thank you for your time and knowledge in helping a budding smith get tooled up correctly.

Good Shooting!!!

50

[ 03-06-2003, 03:48: Message edited by: Fiftydriver ]

You can do small work on a big machine but you can't do big work on a little one...... I'd go with the Griz unless it has an oddball spindle or other strange things.

Speaking of that--- there was a 18x100 Acuma toolroom lathe, brand new and half price, sitting and collecting dust for several years in Denver......it sat and sat. I ask about it and the salesman said go check it out...feel it.

All the screws were left handed!!!Counterclockwise to feed in to center.....They finally sold it to a shop that was going to replace the screws, nuts and dials.

I used to run a 40 inch Lang that had the handwheel and cross slide wheel in reversed positions.... I had some NOTABLE wrecks on that beast!!

One really important thing to keep in mind in the used equipment market is that big is cheap. There seems to be a break in prices at the "big amateur" size. Once a machine is too heavy to move with a lift and pickup or trailer, the market goes down quickly. I have been to a lot of equipment auctions where excellent 16 - 18" lathes went for $250 - 300. The cost of moving is much higher, as you need a wrecker or rigger, but the total cost is actually quite a bit lowere if you have a shop and electric service that can handle it.

If you can use a lathe that large, look for a used Monarch EE. These are likely the best lathes ever built and can be purchased for a few thousand dollars. I saw three on the internet at Oak Ridge laboratories that had been declared surplus and were being sold for $2500. They had only been used in a model making shop. These are, I believe, $100,000 lathes new.

Grizzly and Jet are both Chineese and the Jet always costs more, and I think worth it.
http://groups.google.com/groups?as_q=grizzly%20jet&safe=images&ie=ISO-8859-1&as_ugroup=rec.crafts.metalworking&lr=&hl=en

I have purchased one lathe from Griz, but many other things over 20 years from them. I have never been satisfied.

My brother has a Jet 14x40 GHL, and although he hates foreign machines, all the action truing tooling he makes on the Jet looks like jewelry.