Gunner Asch on Fri, 01 Jan 2016 10:01:51 -0800
typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:
On Fri, 01 Jan 2016 10:26:40 -0600, Ignoramus18273
wrote:

I bought this lathe from a company who is a friend of my company. It
is a Birmingham DLC-16120 lathe.

http://www.machinerymoverschicago.co...C-16120-Lathe/

It seems to be really nice and loaded. It is 16x120. It has a 4 1/8"
bore (HUGE), power everything, DRO, and even a taper attachment. It
came with traveling and steady rests. It can also do imperial and
metric threads and goes up to 1600 RPM. It also seems, in every way,
to have seen very little use.

I have a business, but I am not a machine shop, I am a machine mover
and buy and sell industrial items on ebay. Nevertheless, we have a
machine shop with Monarch AA lathe and we use it at least twice a
week.

The Monarch AA, against all expectations, is in like new condition
(believe it or not). However, it is slow, and does not do metric
threads and has a much smaller bore.

My question is should I keep the Monarch, or upgrade to this one.

I think YES but my guy, who also uses the lathe, says no. I need some
arguments here.

I told my guy that this Birmingham is the "lottery" lathe, like "what
lathe should I buy if I win the lottery".

He says, forget it, it is too big, worth too much money, and such.

I reminded him that he himself needed metric threading a few months
ago.

Overall, my question, is THIS Birmingham a quality machine. I believe
that it is better made than the smaller 13x40s and so on, this is an
industrial grade lathe with a big bore, power oil lubrication,
etc. But, perhaps, I am mistaken?

Your guy is right. The lathe in question is very nice! However..its
primary purpose is to turn long stuff, pipe etc etc and frankly is way
too long for efficient use in the average small shop. Now if it was a
16x48...it would be handy as hell to have around, particularly with
that marvelous spindle bore. Very..very few shops need a lathe with a
work envelope larger than 36"..let alone 48...and yours is 3x as
long. Everything to the right of the normal tailstock position is
ultimately going to become a storage shelf.

OTOH, there will come the day "Ya, I gots a machine which can do
dat!"
--
pyotr
Job creation and destruction are both relentless.
The small difference between the two is what we call prosperity.