I've wanted to have a lathe for years, and am now in a position to possibly purchase one. I've been watching area auctions and looking on-line for an opportunity to pick one up. The other day I was talking to an older fellow I know who has a small local machine shop about where to find a used lathe. He told me to check out a local manufacturing facility that is rumored to be on it's way to closing. He worked there forty plus years ago and remembered they had a couple of lathes back then.
I contacted one of the managers there that I know and he told me, yeah, there's a couple of old lathes stuck in the back of one of the warehouses and come by and take a look. The aforementioned machinist agreed to go with me. They took us to a warehouse and sitting in the far back corner is a South Bend lathe and a huge Ajax lathe (the bed is about twelve feet long). Neither has been touched in around 25 years. The Ajax seems to be totally worn out; lots of slack in the saddle and cross-feed. The South Bend, however seems to be in reasonable shape. It's dirty as hell, but everything seems fairly tight. Nothing is frozen up, what should move does.
My problem is, they told me to make an offer if I was interested and I'm not knowledgeable enough on these machines to know what would be fair. The South Bend has two three jaw chucks, a four jaw, tool post, tail stock, and taper attachment. There is no other tooling with it as far as I know. The head stock measures about 7 inches from center to the ways and the bed is 6 feet. My machinist friend told me to offer $350. Does this seem reasonable? I know it's going to have to be disassembled and cleaned before I can even think about using it, not to mention needing a steady rest and some tooling.
I contacted one of the managers there that I know and he told me, yeah, there's a couple of old lathes stuck in the back of one of the warehouses and come by and take a look. The aforementioned machinist agreed to go with me. They took us to a warehouse and sitting in the far back corner is a South Bend lathe and a huge Ajax lathe (the bed is about twelve feet long). Neither has been touched in around 25 years. The Ajax seems to be totally worn out; lots of slack in the saddle and cross-feed. The South Bend, however seems to be in reasonable shape. It's dirty as hell, but everything seems fairly tight. Nothing is frozen up, what should move does.
My problem is, they told me to make an offer if I was interested and I'm not knowledgeable enough on these machines to know what would be fair. The South Bend has two three jaw chucks, a four jaw, tool post, tail stock, and taper attachment. There is no other tooling with it as far as I know. The head stock measures about 7 inches from center to the ways and the bed is 6 feet. My machinist friend told me to offer $350. Does this seem reasonable? I know it's going to have to be disassembled and cleaned before I can even think about using it, not to mention needing a steady rest and some tooling.
