On Saturday, February 10, 2018 at 7:46:40 AM UTC-6, graham wrote:
On 2018-02-09 11:34 PM, wrote:
On Friday, February 9, 2018 at 4:47:16 PM UTC-6, Electric Comet wrote:
On Fri, 9 Feb 2018 09:24:46 -0700
graham wrote:

General was a great company making superb woodworking machinery at
their foundry in Drummondville, Quebec. The only N.American
competitor on quality in those days was Powermatic - Delta was almost
as good. Now General is no more and the Powermatic foundry has also
closed (AIUI).

i recall your previous comments about general here

did not look closely at this one but from what you are seeing this is
a real good buy

The General 160 lathe for $600 is probably a great buy. Value wise. BUT, its still a 12" swing lathe. Is 36" between centers. Pulley speed changes. Maybe Reeves drive to get variable speed. Not sure.

No, it's a 4-speed. If it had the Reeves drive, there would be a lever
on the front of the cabinet.
I'm faced with a similar problem regarding pricing. I have a 160 for
sale.


I hear you. Your problem is even though your 160 is undoubtedly a fine lathe, it really just isn't worth a whole lot today when compared to what you can buy brand new. For what you want for the 160, its possible to buy a brand new Chinese lathe with an extension bed and maybe variable speed and be able to do 120% of what the 160 can do. Think of cars. A fancy luxury car from the 1970s is the same or maybe worse than a medium Camry, Accord etc.. today. Camry and Accord are not luxury cars, but they probably have better, more powerful motors and nicer interiors today than what the 1970s luxury cars had. Would you buy a 1972 Coupe de Ville for the same price you can buy a new Camry? Most likely not. Unless you really want the pimp image..





It is just the cast iron top on a custom base. I bought it that
way and built the base as I'm too tall for the cabinet-type in this advert.