In here I think that would sell in about seconds :cowboy_hat_face:
Shipping something that weighs ~250 lbs overseas would be pretty brutal ;)
I'm only a few hours out from Chicago, and my friend already offered to help me pick it up (he has trucks and trailers). I would love to turn some parts, but it would take a good amount of time to learn how to operate everything.
JonnyC, you can do it! Running a manual lathe is 99% pure common sense. If you ever put a piece of stock in the chuck and stick a tool in it one time… it will make perfect sense! 
I’ll bet…other than threading…. you can play for three hours and have a part in your hand the fourth hour! Not a space shuttle part, but a part! Another DAY….and just a little head scratchin will give you a good head start on threading…. It isn’t hard… it’s just building a skill like anything else. Repitition is the key. DO IT!!! You have a lot of help at your fingertips!!
Dan.
Texaslumens is bang on the money - it’s just common sense, plus there are plenty of people on here that would help with advice.
Seriously Jonny, if you’re even slightly serious about getting this, do so before it goes. You could spend easily that much again tooling up a lathe, so this is a complete bargain. And don’t worry about whether or not you’ll use it enough - once you have it there’ll be so many more things you can do that you’ll end up using it all the time. Heck, just add a machine vise to the tool post and you’ll have a light duty mill too.
I just happen to be heading down to the Chicago area tomorrow to meet family for breakfast and talk politics. I'm currently talking to Chi X about meeting up :)
I was almost hoping you guys would talk me out of it, but you were convincing!
common sense isn’t all that common, but it sure isn’t rocket science
safety first.
rule 1 - no neck ties
That video is painful to watch.
Well, if the lathe is in good shape…and I suspect it is, you won’t get in any cheaper I don’t think. Especially for that size of unit with threading capabilities. Follow you’re own head…but if you’re seriously wanting to get into a lathe, this really is a steal!!!
Dan.
Well, I have gray whiskers… but I STILL recall my daddy saying “There is one born every minute” . Thats the best thing that could have happened to that idiot. I hope it broke his leg…. and hurt like hell!!! Perhaps it will save his life!!
Dan.
haha, yeah, that poor lathe.
I don’t think it did break it. Probably a good enough sprain for him to smarten up a little.
The slo-mo has a good lesson in it - LET GO.
And if the rpm had been faster, the video could have been uglier - ie if that chuck key got launched at someone’s face
yeah right, convincing other people to buy stuff you want is almost as good as buying it yourself
WRONG WRONG WRONG!!! It’s BETTER!!! J) Ha! I don’t get in trouble!!!
Dan.
As a (retired) machinist (well I was a machinist for 2.5 years, but I moved on so I count that as retirement), I definitely learned about lathe/mill safety, luckily not the hard way!
Hair tied back, no loose clothing or jewelry, and NO GLOVES. Unless the lathe is off and not rotating. Seems like a good idea to keep chips away from cutting up your fingers if the chips start building up but nope. BAD idea.
A friend of mine had the chuck grab his glove, and wrap his arm around it. Luckily he only came out of it with multiple breaks in his hand that required several pins and multiple surgeries. I say lucky because it was a bigger machine and it doesnt take much for much more terrible things to happen. I could go on and on about machine safety…
But the main point is: Use caution and proper safety and you’ll be fine, and have a blast doing it. I WISH I had a lathe and mini mill!! And I wish I could have picked this up!!
edit: double post, my bad.
so very true. I got “the raised eyebrow” from my wife just for mentioning the existence of this lathe…
+1, that looked painful and scary...
The lathe is in my possession :) Wayne was very gracious in meeting up with me while I was with my family. I can't wait to get this thing home and figure it out! I'll write up a better post when I get it home with pictures and all.
Nice!
Wow! You really bought that piece of junk >) …… JUST HAD TO!!!
Congrats on a great buy…. or I should tell the truth and say Congrats on a great THEFT!!! You’ll have that much fun with the unit the first day. I’m sure I speak for several on BLF when I say that if you need some help, we are here.
ENJOY!!! Dan.
Congrats on the deal. I hope you just have hours and hours of fun with it :-)