jholder
Active member
So I recently got the notion that I *needed* (in the sense that we *need* most of our tools) a metal lathe for the garage. I've been doing my due diligence, hitting up a lot of the forums, trawling craigslist, etc etc trying to get a feel for what I'm looking for, need, and can afford. I set up a search a few months ago, and in all that time, I've only seen 1 or two candidates come across the wire. Of those two, one was more than I was willing to pay for what it was, and the other was gone in about 4 hours (Atlas 618), though i'm sort of happy I held out, after doing more reading, I think i'm going to hold out for a sb/logan/clausing/sheldon/etc, though I still want to keep it in the 9-12" range (still dammit those thing are near 1k pounds and take up some serious floor space). To be honest, I'm a complete lathe newbie, so I was hoping to find something I could learn on, but I'd still be happy with once I know what I'm doing. I can't imagine ever turning anything larger than 4-5" in diameter, but from reading, it seems the prevailing opinion is that bigger/heavier is better.
Anyway, I live in the SE US (near the border of Al and TN) and it really seems like a heavy machine wasteland. I always see northern cities that seem to be overflowing with the mid size machines, but not a lot comes up down here. So my question/thought is, besides CL and ebay.... is there a better way to locate these types of machines? I've seen practical machinist (website), but didn't really notice much (in my area) in the classifieds. Maybe it really is just a waiting game, at least i'm not in a hurry.
Anyway, I live in the SE US (near the border of Al and TN) and it really seems like a heavy machine wasteland. I always see northern cities that seem to be overflowing with the mid size machines, but not a lot comes up down here. So my question/thought is, besides CL and ebay.... is there a better way to locate these types of machines? I've seen practical machinist (website), but didn't really notice much (in my area) in the classifieds. Maybe it really is just a waiting game, at least i'm not in a hurry.