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I've been thinking/wishing for a lathe for a long time. So as I get close to retirement I'm thinking its now or never. I had 2 years of machinist training after high school, but then went on to college and have been a paper designer & pusher ever since . I've worked with machinist doing work on my jobs for years. But haven't actually run a lathe in 40 years. I realize lathe size is dictated by what I want to do with it. So I'm going to say stick with garden tractor size work, or maybe a few small things for my larger tractor equipment. I know lathe size is measured by distance (radius) over the cross slide and the length of the bed. so a 6 x 3o would turn a 12" diameter part over the cross slide, and a bigger piece in front of the cross slide I use the 12" as it seems it might be nice to cut some wheel weights out of scrap (as they sure have gotten expensive) But looking at used lathe cost, there sure seems to be a price jump from 4" radius to 6" radius. A bed length over 30 inches also seems to be a price jump. I would prefer to stay away from lathes that require using "change gears" to cut threads or change speeds. Accuracy/Precision is important $$, but I don't see myself doing anything like gun barrel machining. I also know a good experienced machinist can compensate for a little wear in a lathe bed or a little slack in a cross slide. Does anyone have any experience with the combo lathe/mills. I've hear a few comments that there usually are a good lathe but suffer in the mill category due to having a longer spindle hanging down, and its not ridged enough, so you have to take "lighter" cuts. Are there any brand/type of lathes you recommend staying away from? I've read some of the new smaller import lathes, like: Jet, Grizzly, etc can have some plastic gears. This sounds like a bad idea to me. what else do I need to look out for? Thanks in advance for your comments. @Sarge @Machineguy @Machinist J @buckrancher @WVHillbilly520H @buckrancher @McGrew @Howie
