cadillac lathe purchase - opinions?
 

I went to look at a cadillac 1440 lathe yesterday. Visually it looked ok,
albeit well used, and there was a lot of backlash in the cross slide (about a
half turn worth), but I guess this is normal? The ways looked clean but I
didn't take a test cut or anything. The spindle sounded good in all speed
ranges and I didn't see any broken teeth on the gears. I talked with one of
the machinists on the floor who uses it for odds and ends (big company with a
lot of cnc turning centers) and he said it would make a decent home lathe but he
warned me that a part mounted in the chuck would not turn true to the part, but
it would turn true to the lathe. I think what he was trying to say was that
there is about 5 thou runout in the headstock? The seller (different person)
claims the headstock spindle bearings were replaced 3 years ago...perhaps they
didn't do such a good job?

The lathe has quite a large set of tooling that goes with it, including a 5C
lever operated collet closer, 3 chucks, lots of collets and bit holders.

He is asking $3500. Should I make an offer or run away fast? This lathe looked
identical to the YAM lathe I posted about...I think they came from the same
factory.

Thanks guys,

Rick

On Thu, 26 Aug 2004 19:11:32 GMT, "rick" wrote:

I went to look at a cadillac 1440 lathe yesterday. Visually it looked ok,
albeit well used, and there was a lot of backlash in the cross slide (about a
half turn worth), but I guess this is normal? The ways looked clean but I
didn't take a test cut or anything. The spindle sounded good in all speed
ranges and I didn't see any broken teeth on the gears. I talked with one of
the machinists on the floor who uses it for odds and ends (big company with a
lot of cnc turning centers) and he said it would make a decent home lathe but he
warned me that a part mounted in the chuck would not turn true to the part, but
it would turn true to the lathe. I think what he was trying to say was that
there is about 5 thou runout in the headstock? The seller (different person)
claims the headstock spindle bearings were replaced 3 years ago...perhaps they
didn't do such a good job?

The lathe has quite a large set of tooling that goes with it, including a 5C
lever operated collet closer, 3 chucks, lots of collets and bit holders.

He is asking $3500. Should I make an offer or run away fast? This lathe looked
identical to the YAM lathe I posted about...I think they came from the same
factory.

Thanks guys,

Rick


Cadillac made some good lathes. The lathe you are looking at probably
has a chuck that doesn't hold the part concentric. This is common with
cheap chucks and worn out ones. To test the spindle runout the chuck
needs to be removed. Put an indicator on the taper that locates the
chuck. It should have .0002 max runout. Maybe .0003. The lathe may be
all worn out so it's hard to say if the price is right. I have two
cadillac CNC lathes. I use the **** out of them and they are both good
lathes. These are 21" swing machines. If you look on the web for
Meridian Machine, www.mermac.com , you can read his section on how to
buy a lathe. There's some good advice on his site.
ERS