LeBlond Lathe Opinion Wanted
Hi. Looking at some lathes to supplement my home brew CNC Bridgeport conversion, 7x12 mini lathe, and Mill / Drill.
Top candidate is a LeBlond Regal 15 x 30 lathe. Servo shift. This will be my first lathe in this size. Looked at it yesterday. Sounds good. Runs well. Ways are clean and not awfully worn, still some flaking visible. So probably .02 - .003 wear. Seem pretty even worn too. I was expecting more wear near the head stock.
One concern. I noticed the back end of the through hole is visibly wobbly. Probabaly .10 - .15 worth of runout. The end of the spindle with the chuck looks fine. I'm going back Monday to measure the spindle runout on the chuck and ask about this wobble.
I don't know if this is an issue. I know on my 7 x 12 the back side of the through hole is not true. So, I'm wondering if this is just a manufacturing convention and I shouldn't worry about it or what?
I plan on asking them to put the collet change assembly in so I can see it work with that installed. If that's OK, I'm good to go I guess.
My worry is that somehow it got bent and that there could be other hidden damage. But there are no signs of any physical damage. Anything to bend a shaft that diameter would seem to have left other damage.
It's a nice size machine for what I want and has enough features so I can put it to work whilst I CNC it.
Any opinions would be useful.
Future plans are to add CNC functionality to it, but to keep the existing features in tact. Probably with an add on scew for the carriage, possibly a replacement of the existing. Getting to CNC threading is a whole 'nother deal, yes.
Thanks,
John
John Delaney
www.rwicooking.com