enco lathe

[stretch257]

I have the opportunity to buy a enco lathe used by a local smith. My question is do I dare buy it or keep saving for an other lathe down the road.

 

[paperpuncher]

What are your concerns with this lathe?

 

[stretch257]

No taper attachment. And I have had my heart set on a Clausing. It's just every time I get close to having the cash It gets spent some other way by the other half.

 

[Erik Cortina]

No taper attachment. And I have had my heart set on a Clausing. It's just every time I get close to having the cash It gets spent some other way by the other half.

No need for a taper attachment for barrel work. What's your intended purpose for the lathe?

 

[stretch257]

Barrels and the occasional farm parts for now.

 

[Erik Cortina]

Buy it if the price is right. You will soon find out that you need two lathes anyway, so you can always buy a bigger one later.

 

[Ggmac]

You can still taper .

 

[shortgrass]

The "skill" is in the man, not the machine. What size is the Enco?

 

[Erik Cortina]

You can still taper .

+1

 

[TAJ45]

Kind of a pain to use the compound to taper but "polish and blend" is the by word. Don't forget to chalk your file(s).

Turn an O D on something. Then put an indicator opposite of the cutting tool's location and rotate the chuck by hand and see how much runout you have with the head stock.

Orrrr, put your turned pc in a precision V block, indicate the top while rotating the pc to see how round it is. A three point mic is a very expensive item but would be the #1 way to check roundness/bearing ro.

 

[paperpuncher]

I would probably go for it. Nothing wrong with an enco/import lathe IMO as long as the size is suited to the task. I would not be concerned about the lack of a taper there are other ways to skin that cat. If you find your dream machine later just sell the enco, always someone looking for a good used lathe

 

[Toolbreaker]

You can still taper .

Yep. Offset tailstock & compound, both.

 

[shortgrass]

Unless the spindle is about to fall out of the headstock, I'd not be concerned about bearings. They can be changed and for a farmer, that's not too difficult. I'd check they ways and slides for major nicks or wear, make sure the electrics work and go from there. You wouldn't want to buy a complete wreck. Shouldn't be much wear on the machine if it was only used for gunsmithing unless it was totally neglected. The brand name on the machine isn't going to determine whether you can do good barrel work on it, or not.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

and youll see you dont need a taper attachment unless you just wanna say you got one. its not like you can taper a barrel on it or anything. its about 2000lbs short of that