Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Suggestions on hobby gunsmith lathe and milling machine!

I have some lathe and mill experience, but, plan on taking some classes on barrel work and clambering etc. Wondering what you guys might suggest for decent lathe and mill for hobby gunsmithing. Looked at some Grizzy models, just wondering if there are other units to look at. Thanks in advance!

Your budget will determine a lot. That said, I had a Clausing 12x48 (high school surplus) and 'upgraded' to the Grizzly Gunsmith lathe. For a mill, I have a Bridgeport that I 'stole' a few years ago.

You sure you didn't downgrade?

We old farts born in the 40's think alike.

Considering the Clausing was a high school surplus purchase, and had been beat to 'chit' and wouldn't hold a tolerance, the Grizzly was an upgrade. Just playing with the Clasuing one day after I'd purchased it, I turned a length of cold rolled. By the time I'd run the cutter a foot or so, the piece looked more like a screw than a smooth turning. Nothing was tight on that lathe, nor could it be tightened up. That said, the Grizzly was an upgrade.

Guys, I figure $7000.00-10,000.00 for both items, does that help any? mainly want to do barrel and chambering work, would use the mill for stock work and maybe simple extractor cuts and maybe some fluting etc. I have heard good and bad about the grizzly lathe.......mostly good with good customer service, just wondering what else to consider.......thanks again...goodshot.

Follow this thread. The Tiawanese lathes are very good.
http://www.practicalmachinist.com/v...e-gunsmithing-lathe-finally-here-229480/
If you do a search on the Practical Machinest classified portion they have a guy with a good reputation that sells renovated Bridgeports for around $2500.
The fellow in NZ that bought the lathe,Dean, is a friend. I can get comments from him if you like.

Save about $2,000 of that for jigs, fixtures, mandrels, indicators and tooling to get started. I see you are in wa, look up cal hopper in spray, or.....he has a lot of machine tools for sale. Last time I was down there, he had a heavy 10, a maxturn and a few le blonds.....and a bunch of tree mills.

Unless you have alot of mill work planned, you'd be better off putting that $7-10k in a lathe, tooling and metrology. Reamers and headspace gauges have a way of eating up funds pretty quickly. Plus with a mill the tooling costs add up really fast.

It would be pert near impossible to get a decent 13X40 lathe, mill and tool them up for $7-10k, and if you take shortcuts on the tools, you'll be fighting them to do good work. And whatever you do, don't get a combo lathe/mill, they it's a jack of all trades master of none that you'll spend more time converting back and forth vs. making chips.

Actually, if you shop carefully and are patient, you can buy good used machines complete w/ tooling for a fraction of new cost. Particularly in this economy, w/ so many businesses failing.

Guess I'm a little different. I do a lot more mill work than lathe work.

I have equipped several employer's shops with Supermax lathes and mills. Another good lathe is an Emco Maier, made in Austria and top quality. I can recommend both of these brands without reservation having used them with complete satisfaction for the past 20 yrs.. I buy most of my tooling on the secondary market, lots of good values out there as most in industry have gone to CNC. MSC is a good source of cutting tools, lots of choices from "world sourced" inexpensive stuff to top quality made in the USA. In many instances for light intermittant use that home shop tools see the inexpensive suits the purpose just fine. Grizzly and Harbor Freight are a couple of others to consider.

Funny. I put in about 15 hours the past five days on the vertical mill.

Machining parts for motorcycles!!!

No wonder the gun projects are not getting done.

A good Heavy 10 or a 10" Logan is a great start for a lathe. I just picked up a nice Millrite MV vertical knee mill for under $1K. I use a Logan 1820 with a 6' extended bed for my lathe. Both are single phase 230V. Both can be outfitted with DROs and will be, down the road.

A heavy 10 Southbend or the afore mentioned Emco Maier are great. I have used a Rockwell and know several smiths that have them. I would not want a single phase machine. I have DROs on both of my Bridgeports as well as VFD. I see no need for a DRO on a lathe. I have a Trav A Dial on the lathe.

Sargon DRO on my mill. Like Butch says, a DRO on a gun builders lathe just gets in the way. With a DRO you gotta check everything with a micrometer anyway, so why have the DRO. If you are machining to a shoulder or boring or internal threading, just clamp on a indicator. Now if I was doing a lot of big shafting work, with multiple shoulders, bearing fits, threads, etc, a DRO would be handy, wish I had a DRO way back in the dark ages when I ran a 30"x240" Monarch in a job shop.

I have owned two Rockwell vertical mills, they are scaled down copies of a Bridgeport. O.K. for smaller work but lack the power and rigidity for larger work. As regards a DRO on the lathe, I have used a Trav A Dial for many years once you install a DRO on your lathe you will wonder how you got along without it. Far less mental math along with the chance for errors, vastly improved speed getting things done. As valuable on the lathe as the mill in my opinion. No need for a DRO with a lot of fancy functions, a simple unit that is just a counter is all you need. BTW I have more than 40 yrs. in the Tool & Die and gunsmithing trades, so I speak from experience.

Although the DRO is really nice on a mill, it is pretty dang handy on a lathe as well. I never felt like it got in the way. I don't have one on mine but my uncle's shop is a mile away and I use his stuff a lot. He has a DRO on his lathe and it sure does speed some stuff up. On his, it is a need as his lathe has way too much lash in it. We are trying to upgrade his lathe right now. You can wear a 12x36" 1400# lathe out in a hurry if you work it. They are just very light duty.

No flies on the Supermax mills, I have 6 of them in my shop. Square ways, great rigidity, decent spindles and 3hp motors...They would be worth a look on the used market. The earliest of mine are 24 yrs old and still working every day.

Personally, I wouldn't be without a DRO on a lathe...even a hobby machine....but ya know what they say about opinions...lol.

Do you blink your eyes in tune with the digital display when you are threading? I have used a DRO or 2 on a lathe. They are nice for somethings but I can't thread with them.