Lathe [Archive] - Pirate4x4.Com

D60

07-04-2007, 01:17 PM

Would that be decent for the home fab shop?

I dunno. Truth be told you can do A LOT with that lathe, albeit lighter cuts at times. Try to figure up what you want to do now and guess at everything you might want to do in the future. Swing and spindle bore are probably the biggest issues.

Are you ever gonna want to chuck up a 16 or 16.5" wheel? (Coincidentally I keep meaning to measure what a wheel like this truly measures in dia. including the lip the bead seats against). Are you ever gonna want to run a long piece thru the spindle that's greater than 1.375? I'd say you probably will, at least to the second question.

Personally I'm holding out for 3 1/8" spindle bore, which often puts you in the 20" swing ballpark but Jet and Enco do offer 16 and 18" swings with the larger spindle hole too, sometimes with beds as short as 40". I simply don't want to be limited by my equipment anymore than necessary.

I'm less concerned with length of bed as I don't foresee myself turning a lot of long pieces, plus once you get over a 60" bed the machines get heavy and relatively huge for a "home fab shop."

I believe the Jet you linked to is single phase; step up any bigger and you'll need to tackle the 3ph issue, which is really not at all hard to overcome.

Finally, you're in a larger population area, so check Craigslist. For about what Northern wants for that lathe you could get a nice used Leblond or something me thinks, and it'll be 5x the machine, and should land you at least a 1 9/16" spindle bore.


Pirate4x4.Com > General Tech > Shop and Tools > Lathe PDA : Lathe bignissan 07-04-2007, 11:21 AM http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_40810_40810 Would that be decent for the home fab shop? 300sniper 07-04-2007, 11:32 AM personally, i think the 1-3/8" spindle bore is a bit small for a 13x40. i would look for one with 1-1/2" or 1-5/8" spindle bore. D60 07-04-2007, 01:17 PM Would that be decent for the home fab shop? I dunno. Truth be told you can do A LOT with that lathe, albeit lighter cuts at times. Try to figure up what you want to do now and guess at everything you might want to do in the future. Swing and spindle bore are probably the biggest issues. Are you ever gonna want to chuck up a 16 or 16.5" wheel? (Coincidentally I keep meaning to measure what a wheel like this truly measures in dia. including the lip the bead seats against). Are you ever gonna want to run a long piece thru the spindle that's greater than 1.375? I'd say you probably will, at least to the second question. Personally I'm holding out for 3 1/8" spindle bore, which often puts you in the 20" swing ballpark but Jet and Enco do offer 16 and 18" swings with the larger spindle hole too, sometimes with beds as short as 40". I simply don't want to be limited by my equipment anymore than necessary. I'm less concerned with length of bed as I don't foresee myself turning a lot of long pieces, plus once you get over a 60" bed the machines get heavy and relatively huge for a "home fab shop." I believe the Jet you linked to is single phase; step up any bigger and you'll need to tackle the 3ph issue, which is really not at all hard to overcome. Finally, you're in a larger population area, so check Craigslist. For about what Northern wants for that lathe you could get a nice used Leblond or something me thinks, and it'll be 5x the machine, and should land you at least a 1 9/16" spindle bore.