HoloBarre©® wrote:

I'm still looking at lathes w/ snap handle collet closers, and am getting
mixed reports.

Any comments on these or other good economical engine lathes? I like
variable speed, but since I got a couple of Rockwell variable speed drill
press heads, I think I've been cured of that romance, and gears are quite
OK. Not crazy about belt changing on a lathe, tho.


A few years ago I bought a Sheldon R15-6. I got it fairly cheap, and
wouldn't
have paid a high price for it sight unseen. As expected, it had heavy
wear, and I
had to repair the bed. After that, however, the lathe has been totally
fantastic!
It is not vari-speed, but I didn't care. I fitted it with a VFD, and it
is very easy
to dial the speed up and down as needed. The VFD added a feature the lathe
normally lacks, which is a brake. Very nice!

This is a 3500 Lb machine, so may not be in the class you are looking for.
It has a D1-6 spindle, so any collet chuck you want can be set up on it.
It has a 2.25" spindle through hole, which was a significant factor in my
decision.

I bought it from Machinery Values in Harrison NJ. But, due to a litany of
problems, I would never buy anything from them again without personal
inspection.
They said this machine was in "excellent condition"! I don't consider .013"
of wear on the front way ONLY, to be excellent. I figured that would
give about a .032" barrel (by diameter) in a 1" workpiece!
But, you are apparently close enough to inspect a machine there.
If you do look at a Sheldon R-series, don't assume that wear will be
evidenced by a
"ridge" in the bed. The way the Sheldon carriage is made, it sweeps the
ENTIRE
width of the ways, and leaves no obvious ridge.

I have not done a lot of actual precision work on it, but have cut a few
parts to
high precision just to see what it could do, and I'm plenty happy with it.
It is the most solid lathe I've ever used, and I have used some good lathes
on occasion. One place it really showed its capabilities was making some
1" ball joint sockets. I made a form tool out of a 1/2" square tool
bit, in the
shape of one side of a 1" radius. I drilled the hole with a 7/8" Morse
drill,
adjusted the form tool to the right radius and just plowed it into the hole.
I had no idea what to expect. What I got was a soft crinkling sound of the
chips coming off the tool. Absolutely no sign of vibration, no matter how
hard I pushed it. Oh, this was in 1018 steel, too!

The tailstock is hard for me to pick up, even if I separate the upper
half from
the bottom half, I can barely lift either part! A REAL lathe!

Jon