I have read with great interest the thread on choosing a lathe. It pains me to see fine older machines being scrapped due to wear. I did a search on Google and found several outfits that do machine tool reconditioning. I looked at one in particular http://www.mscservice.com/msc_comphist.htm
and they have remanufactured LOTS of lathes. They have a list.

From what I gather it costs between 25 to 30% of the costs of a new machine. Since a new rig runs $15,000 and up, it would seem $5,000 plus shipping and you could have one remanufactured back to or exceeding original manufacturers specs.

Besides that, what are the accessories that you consider necessary for a lathe? I take it a tracer or tapering attachement is a known "must have", and 3 and 4 jaw chucks. What other attachments and accessories do you like to have on hand or would like to have?

1)An Aloris-style tool holder set.
2)A concetric brand small diameter live center.
3)Jacobs super chuck with morse taper attachment
4)Misc carbide tool bits in 3/8 or 5/16 size.
5)Plenty of dial indicators and attachments for running off the spindle and the carriage.
6)A Royal 5C collet closure
7)And a host of other accesories that you will probably make yourself to suit your particular needs and style of machining.

Roger,

Add to the list of "must haves", a Palmgren Milling vise attachment. There are milling operations better suited for the lathe than a regular milling machine. Brownells sells these. I have used one for 23+ years and for certain jobs, would not want to be without it.

Malm

add a good steady and follower rests. A bull nose center for large diameter pieces and a good knurling tool ( cut knurling toods are really expensive, but really add a finishing touch to dies etc). Lots and lots of indexable tooling including a really good parting tool with ceramic inserts. Internal and external indexable threading bars and an assortment of carbide boring bars from 1/4 to 1 inch with 4-5 inches of reach. A good coolant system is also very desirable.-Rob

Thanks for the replies. Just in case anyone wants to know; I do not just ask these things to be asking. After a thread dies down, I go back and do a "select all" and "copy" then "paste" into a Word document. It all comes back out just like here on the forum complete with tag lines, pics ect.

I keep these in a special file with various headings since these will be my reference for in the future. So...your posts aren't in vain or a waste of time.

Rob,

I took the steady rest that came with my JET lathe and converted it to a roller bearing design and it is sweet!