steve acker's lathe

[jpazzz]

Hello,

I suspect that some of you will have seen some or all of Steve Acker's gunsmithing videos. I have an idle curiosity question.

What kind of lathe does Steve Acker use? I'm not knowledgeable enough to identify it and hope that somone out there may be able to.

Thanks,
John

[JCHannum]

I haven'rt seen the videos, but I seem to recall Steve writing an article about receiving a Grizzly gunsmithing lathe in machinist's Workshop a couple of years ago. I think it was the 13" version. That might be what is in the vids.

[3t-]

edit - Mistake, don't think that was Steve's lathe

[George Bulliss]

Jim is correct, Steve uses a Grizzly lathe. I'm pretty sure it is the G4003G gunsmith model. He also still uses his original lathe, which is an older US built model. I want to say it's a Logan, but I can't be sure. I'll try to follow this up on Monday when I get back to the office.

George

[jpazzz]

Hello again, and thank you to all who shared their thoughts and knowledge.
The lathe that Mr. Acker is using in the videos has a square head with (when looking at the headstock from the chuck end) a lever to the right of the chuck. I recently saw a belt driven Jet which had that lever in that position. I don't know how significant that lever is as an identifier, but it's a thought.

Interesting that he has apparently moved to the less expensive of the Grizzly Gunsmithing lathes. Quite an endorsement I should think.

Cheers,
John

[huntinguy]

It is a Grizzly, he did a nice write up about it in the "homeshopmachinist" magazine several month back. He also talks about his old lathe in the article as well.

[CLARKMAG]

Acker's lathe work is not knocking me out, what camera and lights is he using?



My machining pics look like they were taken with a Brownie at night.

[michigan doug]

I have had terrific luck with two different versions of the Nikon coolpix camera. It's primarily a still camera, but does have video capabilities.

The biggest improvement in my photography out in the shop is when I figured out how to turn the flash off. It doesn't take a huge amount of light to get a good exposure without the flash. Flash makes it look flat and artificial and washed out and weird color balance.

Both of mine are older, and by contemporary standards, pretty low megapixels, but for posting on a web forum, they are awesome.

Available pretty cheap on ebay since they are "obsolete".

HTH,

troy

[Rustystud]

I read all of Steve's articles and both of his books. I consider him a wealth of information and experience. I looked him up a few years ago and called him. We have conversed numerous times. Even though we have never met I consider Steve a good friend. We hope to meet at the Shot Show next year. He may chime in and tell us what lathes he has. I thought he had a Jet 13/40. I went back to book one and on page 23 Steve states he has a Jet 1336 PBD engine lathe. on page 28 there is a picture of the headstock of Steve's lathe. I know Steve has asked me about my Grizzly Tool Room lathe.
I don't know if he has a Grizzly lathe now or not.
Nat Lambeth

[George Bulliss]

I see in my post from May that I planned to look up Steve’s mention of his lathe when I got back to the office. Must have been a long weekend because I completely forgot about doing so.

The article I was thinking of was his review of his new Grizzly lathe that ran in the June/July issue of Machinist’s Workshop. In re-reading the article, I see that I was wrong about his second lathe. Steve mentions starting out with a South Bend, but later sold it and purchased a new Taiwanese lathe in the late 80s – the Jet 1336 that Nat mentioned.

In addition to the Jet, Steve runs the Grizzly G4003G that was the subject of his article.