Your message encountered a parsing error: you used the term "locally" without
defining it first.

In other words, like about 99% of posters looking for things, you didn't post
where you are!

Little Atlas lathes can do real work, but they are very unrigid. Also, they have
gears between the spindle and lead screw like most lathes, but unlike most
lathes, these were made of something called "Zamac" i.e. pot metal and sadly a
lot of these gears just seem to fall apart after about 40 years.

Really good first lathes are 9" or 10" South Bends, Logans, or Sheldons.

If you haven't discovered craigslist yet, you are missing out your main local
source. Go to http://seattle.craigslist.org/about/cities.html and pick the city
closest to you and from there on it should be completely intuitive. Their search
engine is primitive but workable.

Grant Erwin
Kirkland, Washington

Andrew H. Wakefield wrote:
I've just begun learning metal turning with the help of a friend, and now
I'm in the market for a small to medium sized lathe. Though my preference is
to find something locally, I've been watching the auctions on ebay to get a
sense of the types and prices of lathes that are being traded. I've seen
quite a few of the Sears/Atlas 6 x 18 lathes, in a couple of variations. It
looks like the low-end model is the 109.XXXX, such as is shown in the
following auction:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=4427679846

What's the collective wisdom on these lathes? Are they worth having, or ???
As best as I can tell they do have the ability to autofeed in both
directions--is that correct?

Any information the group can provide will be most welcome! But be warned:
if you answer this question, I'll likely have some more as I continue to
assess what is available.

Andy