Single phase is going to limit your options severely, consider a phase
doohickey.

"Ignoramus9874" wrote in message
...
Would it be possible to buy a nice, single phase lathe or mill for
under $1,000.00? I am willing to look hard at military sales (unlikely to
find anything small enough for my garage), garage sales, etc. I am not
looking to buy a brand new item at an upscale store. I want to look
for a bargain, but, as all bargains go, there is a lower limit on
price that I can expect to find.

I am not looking for crap that would fall apart after a few hours of
use.

i

Yes you can but...................

I picked up a very nice 10"x24" mid '40s Logan Lathe with manual change
gears for $300, spent another $200 on bearings, belt, wire, chucks, and
tooling. I'd probably had it on my "buy it if you find a nice one" list
for 5 years. It came from an estate, I put in an offer and didn't hear
back from them for weeks. Got a phone call, rounded up a helper, drove
there, dismantled, struggled to get it out of the basement and loaded up
all in the same afternoon. It was under power but no way to check for
accuracy or wear. I lucked out nicely. I had a similar unit (not Logan)
about 10 years ago that had completely trashed babbit bearings and no
tooling. It went back out CHEAP to the first available buyer. YMMV

Haven't found a decent Bridgeport yet.

Beware on any of these, lack of tooling will eat your savings quickly.



Ignoramus9874 wrote:
Would it be possible to buy a nice, single phase lathe or mill for
under $1,000.00? I am willing to look hard at military sales (unlikely to
find anything small enough for my garage), garage sales, etc. I am not
looking to buy a brand new item at an upscale store. I want to look
for a bargain, but, as all bargains go, there is a lower limit on
price that I can expect to find.

I am not looking for crap that would fall apart after a few hours of
use.

i

In article , Ignoramus9874 says...

Would it be possible to buy a nice, single phase lathe or mill for
under $1,000.00? I am willing to look hard at military sales (unlikely to
find anything small enough for my garage), garage sales, etc. I am not
looking to buy a brand new item at an upscale store. I want to look
for a bargain, but, as all bargains go, there is a lower limit on
price that I can expect to find.

I am not looking for crap that would fall apart after a few hours of
use.

You may have to do some work on it, but I think the answer is "yes."
It will depend to a large degree on where you live, and it also will
depend on how long you want to be on the search.

As an example, a close friend of mine recently sold a 10 inch
seneca falls machine, *plus* a small bench shear, for 500 bucks.
The lathe was actually pretty well tooled, with some decent chucks
and a steady rest.

The general rule that I tend to ascribe to is that a decent condition
9" model A typically runs around 800 bucks or so. For that you might
get some pretty clapped out tooling and a lathe with considerable
wear on the bed. Be prepared to re-wire it and maybe put a new
motor on. But you can pretty much do that for under 1K and have a
machine that will do some halfway decent work.

A lot of this depends on targets of opportunity, you need to
be plugged in to the local classifeds and be willing to show
up at sales with cash-in-hand. If you find something you like,
fork over the money and remove the most vital parts of the machine
immediately, even if you plan on comming back for the rest later.
That way somebody else can't show up and skunk your sale by overpaying.
But being able to buy locally, where you can a) eliminate shipping
charges, and b) inspect the machine before closing the deal, is
key to getting a good deal.

What are you planning on making with the lathe?

Jim


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==================================================
please reply to:
JRR(zero) at pkmfgvm4 (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com
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"Ignoramus9874" wrote in message
...
Would it be possible to buy a nice, single phase lathe or mill for
under $1,000.00? I am willing to look hard at military sales (unlikely to
find anything small enough for my garage), garage sales, etc. I am not
looking to buy a brand new item at an upscale store. I want to look
for a bargain, but, as all bargains go, there is a lower limit on
price that I can expect to find.

I am not looking for crap that would fall apart after a few hours of
use.

i

Make friends with a machine shop owner. A shop will often sell a good,
older machine because they need the space to replace it with a newer one
(often bought from another shop/auction, etc., so there is no dealer
involved to take away the old one). And most shop owners know other shop
owners who might have surplus machines. I got three good machines that
way -- two had been in daily service and were ready to use. The third
needed some work, but I got it free for hauling it away.

But you should expect to get a three phase converter. One converter can
power multiple machines, especially since you tend to use them one at a
time anyhow...

Jerry

Good advice.
The flip side to that is, the answer is No from a machinery dealer.

Defly make the rounds of machine shops--I had shots at exc deals, where the
timing/details just weren't right. Or the machines just *too* robust, like
a 15x48 (or bigger) Breda lathe, w/ *complete* tooling (collet closer,
taper, you name it), excelletly maintained, for $500, mebbe less. Too
big/heavy a machine.

Machinery dealer: either ****ty condition, or asking $3500 for a 10"
belt-driven SB.
If you know what yer doin, you can get a half-decent deal from dealer, but
rarely fully decent.
Keep looking, keep tabs on price vs. value, you'll eventually "know" when
the right deal comes along.

In my case, a very improbable deal came up, an Enco, yeah, I know, thumbs
down, right?
Wrong.
I would (and did) take this Enco over an abused Colchester w/o hesitation.
Why?
Cheap, original owner who completely reworked it and maintained it
meticulously, DRO (!!), snap handle, ALORIS!!!, everything (incl a set of
collets) except a taper attachment.
Is it a Colchester? No way.
Is it better than a beat-up Colchester? For me, yes.
Was it *right* for me? Absolutely.
And I wouldna known had I not been looking for so long--and posting here
asking about possibilities, as they came up.
Yeah, the DRO--man, does it spoil you!

I've heard BPs are really high now. I was offered what seemed to be a
decent Westbury for $900, long table, no tooling/power. But since I'm not a
manual mill person, and am short on space, I can wait.
----------------------------
Mr. P.V.'d
formerly Droll Troll
"Jerry Foster" wrote in message
m...

"Ignoramus9874" wrote in message
...
Would it be possible to buy a nice, single phase lathe or mill for
under $1,000.00? I am willing to look hard at military sales (unlikely to
find anything small enough for my garage), garage sales, etc. I am not
looking to buy a brand new item at an upscale store. I want to look
for a bargain, but, as all bargains go, there is a lower limit on
price that I can expect to find.

I am not looking for crap that would fall apart after a few hours of
use.

i

Make friends with a machine shop owner. A shop will often sell a good,
older machine because they need the space to replace it with a newer one
(often bought from another shop/auction, etc., so there is no dealer
involved to take away the old one). And most shop owners know other shop
owners who might have surplus machines. I got three good machines that
way -- two had been in daily service and were ready to use. The third
needed some work, but I got it free for hauling it away.

But you should expect to get a three phase converter. One converter can
power multiple machines, especially since you tend to use them one at a
time anyhow...

Jerry