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Hello from Vancouver
- Thread starter gjestico
- Start date
Welcome from Victoria. Wealth of information on this forum and really great members.
Welcome from Ontario!
I think you will need to refine what you want a bit. I think you mean bed length because a typical 30 inch lathe isnt gunna fit in the typical machine shed. Lathes are commonly sized by their swing not their length. In fact, it's normal to size them by swing and length eg 12x36. What size are you looking for from that perspective? Do you have any makes and models in mind?
Watch the "Member Spotted Deals" subforum. @JustaDB will probably find something for you tomorrow.
I think you will need to refine what you want a bit. I think you mean bed length because a typical 30 inch lathe isnt gunna fit in the typical machine shed. Lathes are commonly sized by their swing not their length. In fact, it's normal to size them by swing and length eg 12x36. What size are you looking for from that perspective? Do you have any makes and models in mind?
Watch the "Member Spotted Deals" subforum. @JustaDB will probably find something for you tomorrow.
EJ’s Shop
Member
Hello & good morning! From the North Thompson Valley!
Downwindtracker2
Super User
A welcome from the Fraser Valley. The current 12x36 are an outgrowth of the Austrian Maximat 8". When they were 10"copies they were a better lathes than the original Austrian. I kept a daily check on Craig's list when I was searching for machines. Now you have to add Facebook. Good luck in your search.
Well, I had my eye on a Precision matthews 1228. It would fit in my shed with the right side close to the wall and still allow the door to open with a few inches of clearance. Unfortunately, The dollar really sucks right now and with tarriffs flying back and forth I am wary of trying to order anything across the border.
My other choice now is a busy bee 13x24 . Alas they are out of stock across Canada !.
I bought my last lathe new. It's a gorgeous lathe and I have no complaints with it. However, I regret buying it. I could have bought twice the lathe for half the price if I had focussed on find a good used one. Then I'd have had money left over for tooling!
I went for good used with my mill later on and I'm ever so glad I did.
Exchange and tarriffs go away under that scenario.
If you have the money, then go ahead and buy new. Much lower risk that way.
philipFROM-PNW
Member
I sort of understood his "ISH" labeling, 12ish by 30ish means 12"×30" Give or take a MILIMETER!
(I love some of the projects I read, with BOTH Imperial & Metric in them) !!!!
philip, from the Great Pacific NorthWET, Oregon Division, USA
Downwindtracker2
Super User
We live in a iron poor area. Maybe not as bad the prairies but still you don't see used lathes too often . When saw a mill/drill and lathe for sale ,I hit the bank on the way there. It had only been posted for minutes when I saw it. I was aware I was looking at two projects, but the Taiwanese bones were good.
Lathes shouldn't be assembled, rather the parts should be carefully fitted. Even Chinese labour costs.
You might think about importing the lathe yourself. I was where you are at years ago. KMS brought in some 250mm x 550mm (10x22) lathes. They bought them from XIMA, but to get a competitive price, they were fairly bare. They didn't sell well. My son and I went together and bought one at a clearance price . When my son left home, he took the lathe, so that was why I was on the look out for another.chuckle.
What I learned after, while finding the missing options was that there were two companies making the 10x22, SIEG and XIMA. SIEG was the one BusyBee and Grizzly sold . The better made , and more costly, was the XIMA. A guy was bringing the larger models and selling them at the same prices as Grizzly's Taiwanese made South Bends.
Lathes shouldn't be assembled, rather the parts should be carefully fitted. Even Chinese labour costs.
You might think about importing the lathe yourself. I was where you are at years ago. KMS brought in some 250mm x 550mm (10x22) lathes. They bought them from XIMA, but to get a competitive price, they were fairly bare. They didn't sell well. My son and I went together and bought one at a clearance price . When my son left home, he took the lathe, so that was why I was on the look out for another.chuckle.
What I learned after, while finding the missing options was that there were two companies making the 10x22, SIEG and XIMA. SIEG was the one BusyBee and Grizzly sold . The better made , and more costly, was the XIMA. A guy was bringing the larger models and selling them at the same prices as Grizzly's Taiwanese made South Bends.
philipFROM-PNW
Member
WELCOME from philip, who lives South of the Border the Canadian Border!
I once made a Jewerly "Shop", that once was a Three by Five foot back area for Closets! Both bedrooms divided by a Bath Room in between, All rooms were 12×12 the house was a WW II "Bungalo" sold by SEARS, delivered by Truck, and YOU build it! Circa 1974, and we bought it for $3,000 USD, the orignal owner built Right next door, and was going to have a little "Side Money" by renting it. Three tenents later, the house nearly destroyed, it was "FOR SALE", and I kept telling him I could not AFFORD to "Buy", never heaing his PRICE, he finally sealed that deal by asking me "WELL how much Can you Afford, RIGHT NOW to Rent?" I told him our rent for a single wide mobile home, $187.00 and he, a Math Wizard said that will only take XYZ months to OWN it"
I said "HOW much do you WANT for it?" ($3,000)
I was still not "with it" "But I can not afford a Down Payment!
He said that the WORK, and materials to FIX The house could be considered **Down Payment**
I said >>>>SOLD<<<<,
Enjoy your *small shop* listen to the folks here about *good deals* in your AREA.
And Good on You
philip, from the Great Pacific NorthWET, Oregon Division, USA
philipFROM-PNW
Member
GREAT ADVICE!
My first Lathe, a TAIG model 2, came dis-assembled, and the Re-Seller, had written out a Very comprehensive, Step by Step process to Build it BEST.
The Lathe is in Storage, and I am slowly unpacking that, to get to that lathe and its cousin a TAIG CNC mill, the longer bed, back then there were Two models.
I never was able go learn the G-Code to put into my '386 Dinasaur Computer, so it was used via hand made MANUAL handles... thankfull for dual axis steppers.
philip, from the Great Pacific NorthWET, Oregon Division, USA
That makes sense. Adding the ish led me to read it as one or the other not combined to be 12 x 30. I agree with your take on it.
Ya, Canadians are notoriously metrologically bilingual. I'm prolly as bad as the worst of them. I was born and educated in imperial. So that's my native tongue. I still can't think in metric. I think in imperial. But I freely translate back N forth from one dialect to the other.