ANY American made lathes still in production???

[kyfho]

I'd be willing to bet that this topic has been beaten to a pulp, but I have tried searching the web to see if there are any "American Made" manual engine lathes in the 13x40/14x40 size being made today.

This is for the company I work for. I need a mid-size lathe for maintenance and light fabrication.

I had put together a nice little order for a 14x40 Grizzly lathe with lots of accessories, tooling, and bells & whistles.

Supervisor approved, Manager approved, & Purchasing approved.

Then... Purchasing halts it, comes back and asks "Why are we buying Chinese equipment? Let's try to buy an American made lathe".

Any info would be GREATLY appreciated because they thought I was an idiot when I told them that I didn't think we built them any more.

P.S. And I don't think they have any interest in trying to find used equipment.

[CalM]

Standard Modern

[Willy]

Standard Modern is Canadian.
I don't believe there are actually any manual lathes made in the US in the size range you're looking for but I could be wrong.
I'm kind of curious myself. Hopefully someone will prove me wrong.

[Ries]

Standard Modern is pretty much it.
An american company bought them, and moved them to Horsham PA. a couple of years ago. But I dont know if they are still making lathes for retail, or just for the U.S. Government.

Monarch will rebuild 10EE's for you, but it takes months and costs somewhere around $70,000 plus. It will, essentially, be a new lathe, though, even though the donor castings will be old.

Hardinge has pretty much stopped making HLVH's, for a few years they would make a batch or two a year, again, well over fifty grand.

There are no small american made lathes, aside from tiny cnc tabletop lathes.

There are lathes from Taiwan, Korea, Bulgaria (Lion), Poland, the Czech Republic, and Brazil- but all of em start at about 3 times the price of a grizzly, and go up rapidly from there.

There are these Clausings- they were being made in Taiwan, but I have heard they may be made now by TOS in eastern europe.
The name is american, but they are definitely imports.
http://www.clausing-industrial.com/o...sp?p=L&l=CCVSL

[tlfamm]

Standard Modern is pretty much it.
An american company bought them, and moved them to Horsham PA. a couple of years ago. But I dont know if they are still making lathes for retail, or just for the U.S. Government.

Their website looks to be in the orphan category; is SM really a functioning enterprise?

http://www.standard-modern.com/

[John Buffum]

Try to find out the motivation, and the ceiling price. Often, when a manager puts a bizarro requirement on something she/he/it relents when presented with reality, e.g. the Hardinge price. You'll find many managers are bottom line oriented. When presernted with a $70,000 price tag vs a $5,000 price tag, they'll make funny noises, posture, stomp around a bit, and go with the lower price. The only exceptions to that are Government, Government contractors, and managers obsessed with this. Search out the motivation.

In addition, a great sales pitch doesn't hurt. Contact Grizzly for talking points. Play to the motivation, or try to move the motivation.

[Duffy]

I understand that Standard Modern DOES exist, and it sells at least one manual lathe about 13 X 60 category, and about $16,000.00. The company moved to the US since its biggest client was US military. It simpifies paperwork if the address is in the US, in spite of NAFTA. I was told that they still manufacture the lathes in North America, possibly still in Canada. Aftermarket suppport is Leblonde, as they bought that part of the company.
Mine is an old 10" Utilathe, and it sure is a nice machine. Tony in the UK seems to think highly of them.

[kyfho]

Does anyone have info on Republic Lagun AMERICAN TURNMASTER MANUAL LATHE AT-1340-G-TW?

I have found a reference that said they are made from Spanish castings with > 60% finished in the U.S. to be able to get the "Made in America" that the U.S. Gubmint likes to see.

[tlfamm]

I understand that Standard Modern DOES exist, and it sells at least one manual lathe about 13 X 60 category, and about $16,000.00. The company moved to the US since its biggest client was US military. It simpifies paperwork if the address is in the US, in spite of NAFTA. I was told that they still manufacture the lathes in North America, possibly still in Canada. Aftermarket suppport is Leblonde, as they bought that part of the company.
Mine is an old 10" Utilathe, and it sure is a nice machine. Tony in the UK seems to think highly of them.

I see that the history of SM (minus the move to Pa.) is available on the LeBlond site (and not available on the SM site):

http://leblondusa.com/standard-modern-s-m/

404:
http://www.standard-modern.com/aboutus.html

[jlevie]

As far as I know the only new lathes you will find in that size range will be of eastern European or Pacific Rim origin with the exception of very high end stuff that is almost certainly well outside of your budget. That said, there better choices than a Grizzly. They cost more, but you get what you pay for.

[PStechPaul]

I was curious, and the S-M website home page boasts lathes designed and built in the US (or North America, anyway), but the links are not valid (404 error). I have come to terms with the "buy American" directive by realizing that I can use Chinese-made components (or tools) to produce products that I can sell at lower prices, as well as retain a higher profit margin and/or higher wages for my own company. Businesses are based on competition and bottom line economics, so if foreign companies can manufacture tools and components for way less than "we" can, and quality and reliability are adequate, my choices are limited and clear.

The underlying reason for this situation is the long-time expectation of US (and Canadian) workers to get increasingly higher wages and more benefits in order to support "better" lifestyles based on materialistic standards, while most of the rest of the world has been subsisting on poverty level income and difficult lifestyles. As these countries have been entering into global trade, they have been able to use their generally high levels of education, intelligence, and work ethic, to be highly productive and overwhelmingly competitive.

The end result of this imbalance will inevitably be a leveling of income, material consumption, and lifestyle expectations, where "we" will experience a decrease in what we traditionally use to assess "wealth", and others will come up to par. But ultimately I think we will learn to treasure free time, happiness, and healthy communities, instead of material "things" and money.

[dp]

The big problem with the "Buy American" is that so few business choose to "Sell American". There is no shortage of people who would like to buy American but at closing time sticker shock drives them to other resources. It is a dead issue. People who continue to beat that drum are not paying attention.

[dian]

a tos sn32/1000 is $20 000 ex works.

[Ries]

a tos sn32/1000 is $20 000 ex works.

For whatever reason, there is no TOS dealer in the USA, nor has there been for quite some time.
Importing a single lathe from the factory would add quite a bit to that $20,000. My guess would be a minimum of another third, or $7000 plus or minus, in brokerage, customs, and freight. I have ordered machines from Europe before, and, even with a US distributor handling everything, it still costs a lot of money. Its a long boat ride.
Not a simple one click order.
If you did want to try, though- here is the contact info for the outside sales rep who handles North America-
http://www.trens.sk/en/contacts/sales
(TOS is actually made by TRENS, a Czech company)
http://www.trens.sk/sites/default/fi...ad/sn32_en.pdf

There has always been TOS distributors in Canada- they had a more open attitude towards dealing with eastern european countries- and you can buy a new TOS from this place in BC- but not the smaller ones, and no prices are listed, but my guess is a 20" will run you quite a bit more than twenty grand.
http://www.bellmachineryltd.com/new_tossn500n.htm

[dalee100]

Hi,

If you are looking for 'turn the handle cranks yourself' made in the US, ain't gonna happen for new. The few machine tool builders left in the US ain't got time for obsolete and now third world technology. If US made it must be, you need to look at used tools and then refurbish to as new condition. Or learn to use something like a small Haas or Milltronics. Though even both of those companies use off-shore castings and other sundry parts.

Good Luck!
Dalee