Nominations for Perfect Home Shop Manual Lathe

[MickeyD]

Well, we have been beating ourselves up a lot lately over politics, healthcare, and other things that we really have little control over. I figure that now is a good time to start a good barroom brawl over which lathe is the best manual home shop machine. I doubt that a consensus can be reached, but at least it will be fun and nobody will lose an eye.

I am going to start by nominating the Clausing Colchester Triumph 2000 15x50 for the following reasons:

- Threads inch, metric, module, and diametral threads without fishing around for change gears.
- 7.5 HP so you have enough power to get aggressive if you want.
- A brake that works.
- 25 to 2000 rpm spindle speeds with a common camlock spindle.
- Heavy enough to make parting simple.
- 2.125 inch spindle bore.

[lazlo]

Mike, that's a big freakin lathe: 2900 lbs in bare stockings -- way bigger than most people would call a home shop lathe. It's also a gearhead

I'd vote for the Clausing 5914:

12x36 (1250 lbs)
2 HP
Belt driven (smooth!)
Infinitely variable speed
25 - 2200 RPM
Spindle clutch/brake
L00 spindle
5C through spindle
Hardened ways

[kf2qd]

Get a real lathe-

Since it sounds like this is a a fantasy thread -

My favorite lathe would have to be a Leblond Regal. A 13 incher would be just about perfect for a home shop. Controls are always right where your hands are and they are just a joy to run. Old cast bed & ways or newer with hardened ways. Clausings are just clunky in comparison. (Ran several of them also...)

Second on my list would be the 10" South Bend lathes that I used when I was in college. They were made sometime in the early 1980's, High & Low range with a belt type variable speed. Almost as sweet to run as a LeBlond.

[lazlo]

Second on my list would be the 10" South Bend lathes that I used when I was in college. They were made sometime in the early 1980's, High & Low range with a belt type variable speed.

Was that the South Bend Turnado? Wasn't that actually made by Nardini and rebranded by South Bend?

[drof34]

My vote is for a Monarch 10 EE (10X20 nominal) at 3200lbs.

[BobWarfield]

Mori Seiki MS-850. Amazing accuracy coupled with large capacity of a 17" swing and 2" spindle hole, yet fairly compact for that with 30" between centers.

Parts are still readily available and there are clones still being made in South Korea that are quite good.

Built like a battleship and weighing in at 4100lbs.

Here is a typical example:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120222897162

Cheers,

BW

[MickeyD]

A friend of mine has the same Mori and loves it, other than he has used my Colchester when he needed more room between centers. Other than the complicated drive systems in both the Monarch and the Clausing, those are great lathes, but with a little work you can get around those issues.

[Evan]

The perfect lathe is the one you have since it beats no lathe.

[dp]

I think one of the Grizzly gunsmith lathes would be find for my purposes. But the question should probably be expanded to include if the user intends to feed the family with earnings from the lathe or to support a hobby.

To be honest, I think the "manual" requirement pretty much says hobby but you never know.

[miker]

This one...



Because it's mine

Rgds

[J Tiers]

Who wants a 17" machine.... hardly general, and it sure won't do smaller work.....

Here's a biggish piece, but large as it is, I'd not want to do it on your 17" machine

[torker]

It really depends on what you do in your home shop...some of the bling bling lathes mentioned would be a waste in a lot of homeshops....therefore.. I vote for the best beginneer and most fun for the buck lathe...the ol' SB9..I've owned 4 and would buy one again anyday.
Russ

[macona]

10EE! 10" Lathe, really swings 12.5". High speed spindle 2500 to 4000 RPM depending on vintage so it good for little stuff to big. Fully variable speed with a 5:1 back gear mounted on the motor so very little noise is transmitted to the spindle. Wide range of threads, power carriage and cross feeds, hardened leads screws, almost always come with a taper attach. Hardened Bed with auto lube in the apron. Built in tach.

And you can usually pick one up for what a lot of people pay for a SB 9A.

Jerry, is that a spool out of a valve?

[rdfeil]

J Tiers,

I hate to disagree but you are so wrong.... I have a 17 inch LeBlond Regal (Yea thats my vote to keep on topic ) sliding gap that allows 36 inch swing and I routinely turn things much smaller than your example. I regularly single point thread #4 and #6. I will agree a smaller machine might make this easier but small parts can be made with a large lathe but large parts cannot be made on a small lathe.

Robin

[dan s]

I second

10EE! 10" Lathe, really swings 12.5". High speed spindle 2500 to 4000 RPM depending on vintage so it good for little stuff to big.