Hi all,

I'm getting started in gunsmithing, and I'm trying to decide what size lathe I need. Would a 14"x20" handle most jobs? I'm thinking the only job it wouldn't handle is tapering a long barrel. I found a Southbend at a good price.
Thanks for your advice.

If you are going to do all your work thru the headstock, It might be fine, although I vastly prefer doing all my work between centers if possible. As I've said before, Southbends are great lathes if in top condition and properly converted to single phase unless you have three phase handy. If not, repairs can be extremely expensive. I know because I've reconditioned two of them. Look at the Jet/Enco 13X40 size lathes. They usually pretty inexpensive but accurate till they break ( repairs are cheap and fast). They are no where near as neat a lathe as a classic Southbend, but they have given many gunsmiths excellent service. Most importantly, you won't have to do everything thru the headstock and mess around with spiders all the time.-Rob

[This message has been edited by Robgunbuilder (edited 02-15-2002).]

IF and WHEN I buy a lathe, it will be from www.smithy.com

Right here in Michgan. I can get it with the pickup truck and bring it right home. No big shipping hassels.

I have looked a lathes for years, and they are number one for me.

Get one that is long enough to put a barrel between centers, and not have too short a working space.

They have a nice one with long Bed and a mill that sits on top of that. Two machines in one like the Midas 1239 at $3495

Just the lathe is BZ 239 at $2695

I would tend to agree with Rob, old Southbends are cool but if they break it can be a hassle. I talked about this subject on another thread a while back, if I were going to buy a chinese lathe, right now, I would get a Grizzly. I have fiddled with a few of their machines, and they tend to be pretty solid and have decent bearings.

Terry B, there is nothing wrong with the smithy lathe, but don't expect too much out of the mill. They tend to be pretty cheezy. The company I work for has two of them, in our model shops, and they ARE worth their weight in gold for what they are intended for, just don't expect a lot of rigidity, you won't get it.

Grizzly is a direct importer of the little chinese machines and they pick out the good ones, and sell the rest to places like Enco. I have and old Clausing at home and Bridgeport that I bought at a local community college. They are industrial quality and if I need parts that I can't make, I can still get them. I still have less invested in those two machines than you will pay for a new Smithy Granite. By the way, I am not a gunsmith per se, although I play around at it on my own guns, but I have been a machinist/toolmaker for twenty five years. Good luck and good shooting!

The way I heard it Jet sells it's junk to grizzly and grizzly sells their Junk to ENCO. The price differential is directly related to the quality when dealing with Chinese machine tools.
As for Smithy,Remember good machining is next to godliness! You would be a heathen to even own one! Way Too cheezy for even me. I'd rather fix up another old southbend and sell it to you guys!-Rob

Rob,

you say look at the Jet/Enco 13x40 size, then you say Jet sells their junk to Grizzly and Grizzly sells their junk to Enco.

Are Jet and Enco one in the same or Enco and Smithy one in the same or neither? I'm keeping track of opinions for future referance when I can afford one and know alot more, but now I'm totally confused.

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Brent

Brent,

Before moving up here, I had the opportunity to spin the wheels on quite a few machines, Jet, Enco, and various private label, ie Rutland and J&L (same stuff, there label).

I've also ordered a drill press from Grizzly, and an X Y table since moving up here. I'm impressed both with Grizzlies stuff, as well as how they handle problems. The X Y table was dropped in shipment, and they mailed me a replacement, USPS shipping was over $70 on a $120 item.

Based on my experience with Grizzly, and also with their Washington wherehouse, I'd recomend Grizzly to other Alaskans. Just have them ship it to the Anchorage dock, and pick it up there. Shipping works out to ~$.30/# I'll be getting either 12X36 or 13X40 lathe, one of these days!

I'm looking to buy a 12x36 Grizzley Lathe. How do you get one of these 1000lb lathes into your house/shop? Should you hire a rigger? It seems I'd need 4-5 friends to even lift this machine onto the stand.

Hello Paul,

we get quite a bit of Grizzly freight at the dock in Anchorage at CF where I work and everyone I ask has nothing but good to say of them. Alot of it is wood working stuff though.

BTW my brother Derrick got a 7'8" black wolf up Friday Creek on this winter.

How much $$ for the 40" Grizzly lathe Paul?

Another thing Paul, I picked up an Oehler M43 from Mountain Rifles Inc's Dana Campbell estate after he past away. If you want to do some PSI testing on something let me know, the huge expensive bottle of glue I have expires in July.
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Brent

[This message has been edited by Big50 (edited 02-16-2002).]

Paul,
Jet has a big wharehouse south of Seattle in the Kent area. I bought a Jet 13X40 belt drive on the advice of Cliff LaBounty. He has 4 lathes I believe and some are real gems and he said they are well worth the money. He also recommended the belt drive. He said that often the chinese dont do a good job cutting gears and harmonics can arise but the belt can eliminate of soften that.

As far as getting it in the shop, I used pipe rollers under the crate and finally assembled the cabinet base and moved the lathe in with an engine hoist (the kind on wheels-rental). Worked like a champ.

Hey thanks for the advice everyone. I'll have to check out those Grizzly's. I always know I can get the "voice of experience" on this site!

[This message has been edited by savageshooter (edited 02-16-2002).]

Customstox,

I delivered a Jet Mill to a guy on the hillside he ordered from Amazon.com, he said they have great equipment and they paid the shipping and delivery charge all the way to his door, to Alaska. We get just as much Jet equipment on our dock but we mainly deliver the stuff, with the Grizzly equip. everone comes to the dock to pick it up thats why I get to talk to a few more of them people. Grizzly must not be paying for the liftgate delivery service. BTW they say Grizzly has a lifetime guarantee and they stand behind it too.
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Brent

[This message has been edited by Big50 (edited 02-17-2002).]

any of these places got web sites?

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Death Before Dishonor

I think Grizzly is www. grizzly.com/

I did recently buy a Wilton 14x40 and like it very much. It came wired as ordered and delivered as said. I bought it from Production tool supply.
At a shop I worked at we had two Biringham lathes that I believe we got from enco and they worked well, even after years of abuse (The lathes where there before me).

I just bought a Jet mill with DRO and power feed from Production tool. The mill came straight from Jet to me. It was two months late in getting to me, had a big cosmetic scratch in the paint and was missing the Z axis handle, and the spacer for the draw bar.
I was very unhappy with the delivery aspect. I am however happy with the mill.

I had a Grizzly lathe a few years back. I got it new.
After about 6 hours of use the headstock bearing went out.
They sent me a new bearing, I got it in 2 1/2 weeks, but would not send anyone to replace it nor would they pay the guy I had come it to do it. It seemed that there was no oil channel milled in it for the bearing. This cost me close to $200.00
The 13x36 Grizzly I had would not even hold a candle to my new Wilton. I felt the Grizzly was pretty rough in compairison.
A friend of mine bought the same model Griz and a year later told me he wished he never bought it and was trying to sell it to so he could get a good lathe.
I would never buy another thing from them again.

FWIW
Celt