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Lathe Price Help

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Darren08/10/2010 20:04:06
1 forum posts
Hello, I'm a newbie at engineering, and I'm looking at getting a lathe, specifically I'm looking at a Boxford model C, a backdrive version with a single phase motor.
 
It appears to me to be in reasonable condition (bed has no visible wear on the ways, nothing is obvoiusly broken) there is backlash in the longitudinal  feed handwheel. However the changewheels are all missing (except those fitted).
 
The big question is how much is it worth? or even is it worthwhile getting in the first place?

Space is not a particular problem, but I want to be able to screwcut in the future, and a quick look online (ebay etc) shows second hand changewheels are about £50-£100 a set.
 
Many thanks in advance for your help,
 
Darren.
Nicholas Farr08/10/2010 22:51:49
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3988 forum posts
1799 photos
Hi Darren, its really only worth what you are prepared to pay. The best way is to compair what you have in mind to those that are on offer, and see what people are paying. This is by no means definative advice, but what you are describing I personabley wouldn't pay much over £200.00 espceally if there are not many change wheels. Hope this is of some help.
Regards Nick.
Real-ale-only08/10/2010 23:15:47
5 forum posts
Hello Darren, I have a Boxford C, paid £200 4 years ago, fantastic bit of kit even though the bed is worn,  this lathe is very versatile and plenty of used spares available for not to much money on the net, a good beginners machine.
regards Morgan
ady09/10/2010 00:10:35
612 forum posts
50 photos
It's a biggie for your first, but will grow with you as your abilities increase.
A couple of hundred is fine, a boxford is a proper machine tool which can be a lifetime friend.
If one comes up with all the tooling it would be 500-1000, the tooling is the big expense in both time and money.
 
It took me over a year of fleabay searches to amass a "full" set of tooling for my drummond...which seems to continually grow as my needs increase.
 
Make sure the lead nut and the cross slide nut are good, if they fail before you are capable of cutting replacements yer up the creek without a paddle.

The rest as they say, is up to you.
 
Steve Garnett09/10/2010 14:14:57
837 forum posts
27 photos
Well for that much money, I take it that this is a Mk I/II blue one, not a Mk III green one. Mind you, even the blue ones in decent condition have been known to go for a lot more than this recently (check out Home and Workshop Machinery's website, but make sure you're sitting down...), and there's what looks like a grubby old CUD going on Ebay for £280 so far, and the bidding hasn't stopped yet.
 
So even if it's in pretty average condition and you can get it for £200, I'd say you weren't doing badly, even if the bed needs a regrind and the headstock needs new bearings. But ady's so right about the real costs - with any lathe, you can easily end up spending stupid money for all the tooling, when you've added it all up. It's well worth making sure that you really do get everything that's going with it (if anything is), and at a bare minimum make sure it has a 3-jaw chuck and some sort of tool post, just to get you started.
 
I don't think that having failed leadscrew and cross-slide nuts is quite a disaster - there are plenty of people around who'd be happy to help you out there, I think. And if all else fails, then why not just buy replacements from RGD tools? Look here.

Edited By Steve Garnett on 09/10/2010 14:38:53

Peter Gain09/10/2010 15:49:07
103 forum posts
Good advice from Steve, but if there is a 3 jaw chuck, do make sure that BOTH sets of jaws are included. Not easy to obtain spare jaws!
Peter Gain.

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