Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing New Lathe

I'm in the market and am interested to hear what you fellas have or would get today if you were buying.
So far my criteria are: minimum 40" center - Minimum 1.375 through hole - Prefer camlock type spindle .
Your thoughts and suggestions would be appreciated, Lay 'em on me...

If I were to buy a new lathe specifically for gunsmith work I'd get this one.

http://grizzly.com/products/G0509G

I recently got to play with one of those. It is an adequate machine but the unit was not that user friendly. Coolant tended to travel to places it should not. Speed and feed changes were kinda hard to do. Metric threading didn't work so well. Maybe it just wasn't a good representation of that model but it was sitting in a room full of 14" South Bends (which are real user friendly) and very few folks wanted to run it. Kind of a red headed step child thing.
I've had the good fortune to get to use more than several types of lathes over the years, belt drive and gearheads and it was one of the un-friendliest machines out there. Not the worst but close...

Check out the HAAS TL-1. Very pricey but amazing. I got one of the TM-1 mills for my class and am looking at the TL-1.

Pretty cool and state of the art. American made too I believe. I could go for a DRO and variable frequency but that has a few more 1's and 0's than I need. Very cool though.

I'm still learning on my mill. Tough trip for a compooter illiterate old man. I have used the Grizzly stuff before and it is good.

I think the grizzly would be ok but feels kinda clunky. I would like to see a Kent TRL 1340...

Mike Bryant uses a Kent TRL1340.
Butch

Is he the benchrest guy out of Wheeler?

Yes, he has done three rifles for me this year already and does top-notch work.

The Taiwanese Grizzlies are the way to go if you want a Grizzly. I think Mickey Coleman uses one.

You haven't given us any idea of what your budget is. I looked at Grizzly but could bring myself to buy a brand new Chinese lathe and the Taiwanese one was out of my budget range. I ended buying a Nardini.

I had to move last August and have just barely gotten my new shop done- well 98% done so I have had to farm out all my stuff this year.

Depending on your budget, there are some nice mid-sized lathes out there made in Taiwan, ie; Sharp, Kent, Eisen et al.

I had a Frejoth lathe made in Taiwan that wasn't so great and I couldn't get parts for it. I had no problem selling it when I made my first move though! I would not buy a new lathe unless I knew I was going to get factory support down the line.

Just putting a shop together now. If I go with a new machine I will probably lease so one of the better Taiwanese models you've mentioned would be on the suspect list. New or used accuracy, parts replacement and ease of use will dictate my choice. I only want to do this once if possible. Using the Kent as a yard stick I think I can do new Taiwanese tooled up for 10 to 12. I am shopping hard in the used market hoping to run across a good machine while the other shop details are falling in place. Might get lucky. How is your Nardini working for you?

One more consideration:

http://www.jettools.com/us/manufacturing/en/product.html?node=4642&product=89037

Nardini is a great machine, it is bigger than some like to use but quite rigid. If I had 10K to spend, I would probably look at an Acer. I like their feature which, like a CNC machine, increases the RPM as you feed the cross slide in to keep your SFPM constant for much better finishes.

ACER 1440 Dynamic

Lee, that looks like a pretty nice machine for under $8K as well.

I hadn't seriously looked at Jet and haven't run one but some of the tooling packages offered look real good and their distributorship must be pretty vast as shipping charges are low to non existent. Hmmmm Thanks Lee

The Acer looks good. Thanks guys and please keep the suggestions coming!

I've been using a BDB1340 for 13 years now with zero issues.. Just needs a good cleaning once in a while..

I wish, at the time, that I had had the bux for the GH1340... I see now that the prices are very close to the same..

Okie, give Steve Alley a call at Alley Supply in Gardnerville, NV.. Great guy to talk to/deal with.. Maybe he can help answer whatever questions you may have.. I know he also deals in other name brands in case JET doesn't work out for ya..

Every lathe has somewhat different controls, means of changing speeds or changing feeds. For rifle work, there are specific things to look for, in my view. Spindle hole size and width of headstock are at the top of the list. Controls and whether they are "user friendly" or not is probably more a matter of what you're used to.

I'm sure the Kent is a fine machine, but Mike has said it's wide in the headstock, making barrel work a little more getting used to.

I think there is a Sharp model that looks good, and I know the Acer is "barrel friendly".

I just took delivery of a new Eisen 1440EV.

Link: http://www.eisenm.com/engine_lathe/1440ev.html

With a spider in place of the chuck for barrel work, I will be able to roll a 19" barrel.

I dealt with Jason at Eisen and he was pleasure to deal with.

I had reservations about having a lathe delivered across country to Michigan, but everything went as smooth as pie, and the lathe had all the features I wanted within my budget.

Eddie, that looks like a nice machine!

It is nice. What is the spindle length? The variable speed is it an inverter with two reference speeds?