Re: Question for cue builders----- what type of lathe
- From: "Eddie" <edspeer1(notthis)@earthlink.net>
- Date: Tue, 17 Jan 2006 01:39:36 GMT
It's very important for your cue lathe to have at least a 1 3/8" spindle
bore.
If you don't have a big bore you will have to use a steady rest to work the
end of any spindle with a OD greater than your spindle bore.
It's easy to find a lathe with a through hole in the spindle greater that 1
3/8". The thing is, most lathes like that weigh more that 2000lbs.
Willie went with a Grizzly import lathe. His lathe probably weighs about
1200lbs. It probably cost about $2200 for the lathe not including the
tooling to run it.
I can't speak for your area, but up here in the Mid-Michigan Ohio area,
there is a very large well tooled manufacturing facility employing hundreds
or thousands of people going out of business and liquidating assets each
week. The economic devastation, loss of capital, jobs, and US manufacturing
capability being shipped to Mexico and Asia has one good side effect and
that is that lots of cheap tooling can often be found at auction.
The problem is finding a machine that's good for cue building that's not to
overly massive for a home shop.
Generally, in this day and age if it's not an automated robot or a CNC
machine it's useless for industry. This summer alone I have seen two
incredible manual lathes sold for scrap value. One was a Monarch lathe and
the other was an American Pacemaker. Either machine would rank as one of the
finest American lathes built. Both were in great shape, both weighed about
6000lbs and both got sold for scrap since industry didn't want them and they
were to large for most home shop types to get them home.
If you don't want to spend big bucks for an import metal lathe, here are
some older US machines that you should keep a look out for.
You won't find a Craftsman or Atlas with anything over a 25/32" spindle
bore - too small if you want to work
much on cue joints. There are some lathes meant for the home and
small shop market with 1 3/8" bores, and those may be big enough for
what you want to do.
1 3/8" spindle bore - Sheldon 10", South Bend Heavy 10",
Rockwell/Delta 11", Logan 11", Clausing 12".
1 7/16" spindle bore - New Chinese 12" - see Grizzly.com. There's no
second-hand market to speak of for these yet.
Bigger sizes get you into the used production equipment market.
1 1/2" spindle bore - Sheldon 10" (some models), Pratt & Whitney 12",
LeBlond 13", Logan 14", Lodge & Shipley 14", Hendey 15", Monarch 17".
Now up here in the Midwest, I see tooling like this for sale quite often.
Depending on your region you might not be so lucky.
Get a real mill and a real lathe. I would stay away from the Unique "cue
companion" and other light weight machines.
I feel strongly about this.
Here is a site with excellent information about lathes and those models
produced by almost every popular manufacturer.
http://www.lathes.co.uk/
Best,
Eddie in Detroit
> I aquired my equipment in this order:
>
> The Unique Cue Companion
> The Unique Taper Shaper
> The Unique inlay machine
> A Grizzly 13 x 37 lathe
> Sears 14" bandsaw
> The Unique Cuemaker Lathe
> The Unique CueMonster CNC machine.
.
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