There may be another chance to look at a used lathe: The details are not
clear, it sounds like a Craftex B2227L - 9x18, 3/4HP, lowest speed 115, some
tools included. I am told it is about 4 years old and saw minimum use
(presumably by one careful lady owner).

http://busybeetools.ca/cgi-bin/pictu...&NTITEM=B2227L

At this point the price is around $650. The problem is that I could not tell
a bad unit from a good one. What do you look for? I understand that the ways
have to be clean, but can they be warped? Can one test them for that? I
gather the lathe is sitting on a garage floor and inspecting its operation
maybe a bit tricky. Anything else I can look for apart from the motor going
"Vroom"?

Thanks,

--
Michael Koblic,
Campbell River, BC

"Michael Koblic" wrote in message
...
There may be another chance to look at a used lathe: The details are not
clear, it sounds like a Craftex B2227L - 9x18, 3/4HP, lowest speed 115,
some tools included. I am told it is about 4 years old and saw minimum use
(presumably by one careful lady owner).

http://busybeetools.ca/cgi-bin/pictu...&NTITEM=B2227L

At this point the price is around $650. The problem is that I could not
tell a bad unit from a good one. What do you look for? I understand that
the ways have to be clean, but can they be warped? Can one test them for
that? I gather the lathe is sitting on a garage floor and inspecting its
operation maybe a bit tricky. Anything else I can look for apart from the
motor going "Vroom"?

Thanks,

--
Michael Koblic,
Campbell River, BC

I am no professional but I would check the travel on the ways feeling for
tight spots and if you can power it up take a bit of stock and a micrometer
then turn the length down a little and check the sizes at various places.
If this checks out ok I can't see there being much of a problem.

On Sat, 27 Sep 2008 14:27:13 -0700, "Michael Koblic"
wrote:

There may be another chance to look at a used lathe: The details are not
clear, it sounds like a Craftex B2227L - 9x18, 3/4HP, lowest speed 115, some
tools included. I am told it is about 4 years old and saw minimum use
(presumably by one careful lady owner).

http://busybeetools.ca/cgi-bin/pictu...&NTITEM=B2227L

At this point the price is around $650. The problem is that I could not tell
a bad unit from a good one. What do you look for? I understand that the ways
have to be clean, but can they be warped? Can one test them for that? I
gather the lathe is sitting on a garage floor and inspecting its operation
maybe a bit tricky. Anything else I can look for apart from the motor going
"Vroom"?

Thanks,

Hey Michael,

Yeah....take along a few pieces of scrap steel and try it out. Take a
truing cut about 4" long, take it out and reverse is and look to see
how much run-out there is on the previous turned section.
Try ALL the speeds including back-geared if it has it, and ALL the
feeds.
Look for limited play in all the hand-wheels, and no "grinding"
feeling in them.
Scroll the chuck jaws off and back on.
Remove the chuck, or try to without breaking anything, and check for a
clean spindle nose and inner taper is clean too.
Take a printout of the catalogue items you see on the website you
quoted, and make sure all the stuff is there and goes with the deal.

If it is in a home shop.....good.
If it is some factory and looks like it gets 8 hours use a
day.....bad.

I bet you are pretty eager to get going, but a word of advice or maybe
of safety caution, that you won't realize why until you are well into
using the new toy some day in the future.......the longer the lathe
bed, the better. 18 inches between centres isn't "long" for a lathe.
The 18" is "between centres", so the chuck takes up some of that
probably, and a drill chuck in the tailstock with say a 1/2" drill bit
in it takes up A LOT of the 18". Be aware that friggin drill bit is
SHARP, or maybe hot too. Please don't ask how I know these things!

Brian Lawson,
Bothwell, Ontario.

ps... a friend here on RCM who is without a doubt a MASTER modeler has
the slightly larger brother to the one you note. He really likes it.
Turns out some great stuff.

"Brian Lawson" wrote in message
...

Yeah....take along a few pieces of scrap steel and try it out. Take a
truing cut about 4" long, take it out and reverse is and look to see
how much run-out there is on the previous turned section.
Try ALL the speeds including back-geared if it has it, and ALL the
feeds.
Look for limited play in all the hand-wheels, and no "grinding"
feeling in them.
Scroll the chuck jaws off and back on.
Remove the chuck, or try to without breaking anything, and check for a
clean spindle nose and inner taper is clean too.
Take a printout of the catalogue items you see on the website you
quoted, and make sure all the stuff is there and goes with the deal.

If it is in a home shop.....good.
If it is some factory and looks like it gets 8 hours use a
day.....bad.

I bet you are pretty eager to get going, but a word of advice or maybe
of safety caution, that you won't realize why until you are well into
using the new toy some day in the future.......the longer the lathe
bed, the better. 18 inches between centres isn't "long" for a lathe.
The 18" is "between centres", so the chuck takes up some of that
probably, and a drill chuck in the tailstock with say a 1/2" drill bit
in it takes up A LOT of the 18". Be aware that friggin drill bit is
SHARP, or maybe hot too. Please don't ask how I know these things!

Brian Lawson,
Bothwell, Ontario.

ps... a friend here on RCM who is without a doubt a MASTER modeler has
the slightly larger brother to the one you note. He really likes it.
Turns out some great stuff.

Thanks. I am not sure that this unit is a position to be turned on (the last
one I did not go to see because it was not).
After 2 and a half hour of searching and reading I found an excellent
article on buying used machinery:

http://www.mermac.com/advicenew.html

I am trying not to be an eager beaver. There are many issues to consider
apart from money, space for one. There are others. I feel stupid not having
done this homework before but I really thought that a lathe purchase is
something that is a few years away and possibly unrealistic.

Still, today was not acomplete waste of time: I got a Mastercraft drill
press for $25 (yay, two step pulleys!) and a DeWalt circular saw for $5 (so
I won't feel bad about running a steel-cutting blade in it). Nowadays I seem
to spend half a week cleaning the Saturday garage sale purchases (last week
it was a stack of taps - some really nice ones made in US, Canada, UK and
Australia - and drill bits. Note to self: Need more Evaporust!).

Then there is Chelsea to watch on telly...

Tough life but someone has to do it!

--
Michael Koblic,
Campbell River, BC

Michael,
There used to be a fellow contributor to this NG a few years ago that was a
professional machine dealer. He wrote an article about this subject in 1997
and it is definitely worth reading. It can be found here
http://www.mermac.com/advicenew.html . Good luck.
Steve


"Michael Koblic" wrote in message
...
There may be another chance to look at a used lathe: The details are not
clear, it sounds like a Craftex B2227L - 9x18, 3/4HP, lowest speed 115,
some tools included. I am told it is about 4 years old and saw minimum use
(presumably by one careful lady owner).

http://busybeetools.ca/cgi-bin/pictu...&NTITEM=B2227L

At this point the price is around $650. The problem is that I could not
tell a bad unit from a good one. What do you look for? I understand that
the ways have to be clean, but can they be warped? Can one test them for
that? I gather the lathe is sitting on a garage floor and inspecting its
operation maybe a bit tricky. Anything else I can look for apart from the
motor going "Vroom"?

Thanks,

--
Michael Koblic,
Campbell River, BC