I'm 90% sure I want to get a lathe. From previous excellent lathe posts I gleaned the following: Buy American, buy used but in good shape, forget about the 3in1 machines.

I'm strongly considering South Bend- it's what I learned on and I'm most comfortable with- also one of the more compact machines widthwise... I have to get it through a 27" door and fit it into a 5-6' space, I'm limited to 1 phase 110v currently...

Am I stuck with the 9" Benchtop Lathe or should I shoot for the Heavy 10? I recently lost a bid on a Heavy 10 cabinet model at $700 and left me wanting. I don't want to feel "under lathed"... Budget is $1000 ballpark.

Also what tooling should I be looking for?

Any insight, comments or experiences appreciated...

I think in the long run you'll be much happier if you save up and get an import 12X36-27 for $2k or a 13X40 machine in the $3k range, they are much more machine then the little southbends ever will be. They aren't the best machines, but are a known quantity, and you may wait a lifetime and never come accross a used American machine in decent shape, for a decent price.

You also need to factor in tooling. I figure a good ballpark is to figure you'll spend at least as much on tooling as the bare machine, possibly more. If the used machine is missing a steadyrest, chucks, the chucks included are trashed, etc, you are looking at alot of money to get going.

I'm planning to get a grizzly 4003, 12X36 in the next few weeks. It isn't an ideal machine, but for $2k, it is alot of machine, and will do 95+% of what I'll want to do on a lathe.

Seems like all the folks here that have used John Ricks are real happy with his work, and he uses, gasp, enco lathes. John and I have conversed at length over the years about gunsmith lathes, and the conclusion is, despite all the bashing, the asian import lathes in the 12X35 to 13X40 size are very good machines for the money, and will do all that is asked of a gunsmith.

It depends on what you want to do. If you want to rebarrel rifles, a heavy 10 is really too small a lathe IMHO unless you build some sort of spider off the back of the headstock to support the barrel.I've thought about doing this but it will require a huge amount of work and the spindle's typically are only 1 inch to 1.25 inches I.D. on the heavy 10's I've seen (although I've heard of some with 1.5 and 2 inch spindle I.D.s) which will make holding some barrels impossible even with a spider. The bed length will also limit you in what you can hold between centers given the room that the faceplate or 3 jaw and tailstock takes up on the bed. It's probably OK for pistol barrels and for making small parts. I use mine almost exclusively for that purpose. I have a Southbend Heavy10 with a 3 ft bed, taper attachment, 3 & 4 Jaw chucks and Center Rest. I've had it for 20 years and love using the old girl for making all my small parts and for threading stuff!
Be carefull of used southBend lathes. Most are 3 phase and thus you will need a step down transformer from 240 to 208 and a motor driven or electronic 1-3Phase converter and most importantly, most of them I've seen are beat to hell and won't hold tolerance. Be very very carefull of Southbend Headstock bearings. If you have bad ones kiss the lathe goodbye! Converting them to 1 phase isn't as simple as it sounds although some have done it successfully. Meridian Machinery typically has them, but expect to spend 1.5-3K for a good one with matching tooling. By the way meridian Machinery has an article on buying used lathes you should read. Don't buy a Klunker and get fooled into trying to restore it. You will be very disapointed unless you have unlimited skills or money!
I have a Jet gear head Floor Model lathe that has a 42" bed that I do all my rebarreling work on. It's single phase 1HP and although cheaply made and sporaticaly breaks down will hold excellent tolerences and can swing 13". I've built 36" .50 BMG rifles on this lathe.These can be had from Jet, Grizzly etc. and are good buys for someone who doesn't use them continuously. Buy a copy of the" Machinist" magazine and find a dealer who will deliver it to you.They weigh about 1000lbs and the flat bed rates can be exorbinant. In my opinion buy the biggest lathe you can get in your shop, in the best shape possible (new is best) or used from a reputable dealer. You will need lots of tooling which you will wreck very quickly as you learn, so buy good imported stuff first, then american made when you have more experience. Like most things in life you get what you pay for. However, when it comes to used machinery,caveat emptor! good luck-Rob

I actually have three lathes, a Enco, a Jet and a South Bend. I use a 13x40 gear head for most barreling and chamber work, a 13x36 belt drive for barrel contour turning and misc. work, and the smaller South Bend for about everything. Sometimes the 13x40 is too small. It is nice to have more than one lathe, as I can have a barrel set up in one and true a receiver in another, then true the bolt in the third. I keep one set up with a 4-jaw, one with a 3-jaw, and one with centers. If you can find a heavy 10 South Bend with a quick chage, don't let it get away, it is one of the best small lathes made. If buying new, don't go with anything less than a 13x40, but be shy, a lot of 13x40's sold today are cheap 12x36's with a bit of creative raising. My 13x40 is very heavy and stout, I bought in new in 1991 and have over 10,000 hours on it. Buy good stuff first, and you will not have to replace it later. You can make a lot of the special tooling on the lathe, including truing arbors, barrel vise and action wrenches, roller bearing steady, lug lapping tools, etc. Buy carefully, you will have it a long time!

I've bought a Jet 12x36 new in 1984 & I am very satisfied with it. Buy heavy, mount it solid & absolutely level.

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NRA Life member