"sawdustmaker" wrote in message
...

I've been wanting a lathe for some time. the price "seems" right. Opinions
( on the lathe )?
http://wichita.craigslist.org/tls/5105117643.html
Thanks,

The lathe itself would make a reasonably good starter lathe. It's pretty
well equipped with tooling, and seems to have been kept in good shape. From
the tooling picture it looks like the headstock and tailstock have a #1
Morse taper, so you have good possibilities for other tooling. The headstock
looks like it probably has a 3/4" x 16 thread and if so you can easily find
adapters and faceplates and chucks that can hook up to that thread.

What makes it a good deal, though, is all the other stuff that comes with
it. A pretty good table, looks like - there's probably a couple hundred
dollars in labor just in the table - the grinder, and the chisels and other
stuff. That Wolverine Vari-Grind is a fairly expensive and well-liked
sharpening rig. You could actually throw the lathe away, and still feel like
you'd spent your money well.

Grab the headstock shaft by the pulleys or the spur drive and wiggle it hard
back and forth, to see if you can detect any slop in the headstock bearings.
If so it's not too tough to replace them. And you'd probably want to work
out some kind of guard for the belt.

My lathe is an even older Craftsman, the tube-type. I stripped it down and
restored it and it's working OK for me but I'll make the step up to a more
modern lathe one of these days. But right now I'm still having fun with it.

Tom