[Johnsnd]

I am looking for a little guidance from all you experts out there. With all the knowledge here at cnczone I was able to build a CNC router machine and now that I have had a taste, I am looking for more. I am looking to spend around 2K for either a Mill or Lathe. The router I built is great but the rigidity isn’t there for doing precise metal work. You can see the router here: Engineering Geek.com | Get Inspired and Dream Big | Engineering Geek.com
The mental struggle I am having is what to buy? I could go with a used Bridgeport and convert it to CNC, maybe even add a fourth axis (Lathe Substitute?). Although there has been many occasions where a lathe would have come in handy. Grizzly has a nice lathe for 3K (G0728) but that is 1K more that I planned on spending. I think I could get more bang for my buck if I buy used or would I be buying more problems than a novice can handle.
As for the lathe, I am a complete newb. I have never operated a lathe before, but before I built my router, I had never operated a CNC machine either.
Any advice you could offer would be greatly appreciated, maybe someday I will graduate from novice status.
Thanks,
~Nick

[keebler303]

Depending on your skills, you could possibly get both for $2k.

I bought an old bridgeport CNC mill and converted it to Mach for less than $1k total. Sometimes you can find good deals on craigslist, auctions, local paper, etc. It's a good idea to make sure you know what condition the machine is in before you make an offer. If you can find somebody knowledgeable about lathes it would help a lot in checking it out to make sure everything worked.

Good Luck
Matt

[Johnsnd]

Wow really?!? I need to raise my expectations then. I really dont have the room in my tiny garage for both ... probably should have mentioned that. I am not in too much of a hurry to purchase it, guess I will have to keep my eyes peeled.
Thanks keebler

[wizard]

Wow really?!? I need to raise my expectations then. I really dont have the room in my tiny garage for both ... probably should have mentioned that. I am not in too much of a hurry to purchase it, guess I will have to keep my eyes peeled.
Thanks keebler

If you aren't in a hurry good deals on used machinery can be had but there are caveats. First cash talks in such cases, not many of us have the cash on hand to broker the really good deals. Second, you may be required to act quickly with machine removal. Third, this is very much a no warranty, buyer be aware type situation. In this regard it really pays to know machinery. Fourth, you will run into the need to repair things that may not show themselves upon machine inspection.

As to the low cost CNC conversions, well like looking for the machine itself that can happen. However I might suggest that more modern controls would be less troublesome. In the end expect that a quality CNC conversion will cost a bit of money.

[Johnsnd]

I think the decision has been made … I am going with a lathe. I already have the CNC router, so I will just work to make that better. As for the lathe I am looking for a used logan, SBL, sheldon or Atlas.
I think I will get a better used lathe then one of the new tiny ones. Thanks for all your insight wizard, I will bring cash and know that some restoration is necessary.
One candidate I found near me is this Logan lathe, not sure if his price point is high or low? He doesn’t really list any details.

Logan metal lathe

[Johnsnd]

After inquiring about the logan lathe this is what he said:

Thanks for asking. The logan is in great shape. It comes with a quick change tool post, back gears, 25/32" hole through spindle, 3 jaw large chuck, extra gears, original motor with reverse and forward, drive belt recently replaced, and I believe it is 24" between centers. Let me know if you are interested in seeing it.

From the pictures I dont see any way to adjust the back gears for thread cutting. Am I missing how that works? Seems like a good starter lathe but I feel like the price should be closer to $600-800.

What do you think?

[keebler303]

A "back gear" is a low range for the spindle so you can have a low speed high torque drive, I use it for knurling and chasing threads primarily. There is no quick change gearbox for threading. I think the seller means he has the change gears for it. Basically there is a box of gears and you have to manually take the gears off the shafts and replace them with different ones to get different speeds. I have a small benchtop lathe like this and it is a royal pain to have to keep pulling it apart. Maybe you can find a youtube video to see how you do it.

The machine does look to be in pretty good shape but I'd not pay 1100 for it.

Matt

[Johnsnd]

Thanks for the info matt, I sure appreciate it. Yeah I dont think that is the one for me. I dont see any others in my area on CL so I started looking at new lathes. The grizzly G0602 looks pretty nice but it is about 500 bucks more than I wanted to spend.

I see that there are alot of knock offs out there, but I keep reminding myself "you get what you pay for". I have to resist the urge to be cheap.

[RICHARD ZASTROW]

"you get what you pay for" or less!!

Dick Z

[wizard]

There is always room for price negotiations. Realize though that that is a complete setup for a rather long lathe. The other thing to realize is that you can still buy some parts from Logan Actuator for these lathes, which is an important consideration. It might pay to get the model number and to check on pricing and availability of parts. Don't expect the parts to be cheap though.

I believe the other poster was correct when he talked about the spare gears being change gears. This may or may not be a royal pain in the a$$ for you. It really comes down to how you use the lathe and your patients. The fact is the use of change gears was a costs savings and maybe a way to make a more reliable lathe cheaply. In the end some people aren't bothered at all by the process.

Thanks for the info matt, I sure appreciate it. Yeah I dont think that is the one for me. I dont see any others in my area on CL so I started looking at new lathes. The grizzly G0602 looks pretty nice but it is about 500 bucks more than I wanted to spend.

You need to consider carefully what is important to you especially with respect to swing and distance between centers. People often see me stressing buying enough machine for your interests and frankly that doesn't change in this case.

I see that there are alot of knock offs out there, but I keep reminding myself "you get what you pay for". I have to resist the urge to be cheap.

Well possibly. The problem here is that you can buy all sorts of Chinese built equipment and like it or not some of it is pretty damn good considering the price. The low end machines had through the likes of Grizzly and others are built for specific markets where price and believe it or not weight is a factor. Considering those conditions the machines in question from China are actually pretty good deals.

A few years ago I ran into one of the principles at Logan Actuator and had a short conversation with him. One thing I asked about was the possibility of Logan making new machines possibly even CNC only machines. Apparently they had considered it because he was able to throw out some interesting numbers. I'm not going to quote because it was a long time ago but frankly they wouldn't be able to compete price wise at all with an all US made lathe as there would have been almost an order of magnitude difference in price.

That was a long time ago and frankly my 9x20 has already doubled in price and it is still not possible to compete. Frankly I'm expecting to see rather rapid increases in machine costs, in the near future, with respect to Chinese imports. So the value of used machines will only go up. Right now I'm fairly confident that I could sell my 9x20 for more than I paid for it new. Most likely you will be able to do the same with the Logan ten years from now. It is all about supply and demand, the situation is very different different for larger industrial lathes right now which can often be had used in the $2000 to $5000 range, much cheaper than a new lathe. The problem of course is where would most hobbiest put a used 12 x 48, 5000 pound lathe.

So in the end see how firm he is on price, just don't expect a lot of flexibility as some body will be waiting in the wings.

[uli12us]

Actually I'm in search of a similiar lathe.
Ok, I'm in Germany, so i searched only german and english sellers for buying.

I found some of the chinese lathes in britain for a much lower price, than in Germany.
There are two main types. 1 has a 11" height and 22" DBC, the other I prefer has 12"H and 28"DBC.
These machines are in the Price range of 1100 Pounds, I'm sure, these machines will sold in America for a similiar price as well.

Here I have some links from english companies.
Bl1128V
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