Jud96
Site $$ Sponsor
After much consideration and research, I've decided to fix my current Rockwell 11x25 lathe and save up for a couple years and get something nice. I am accustomed to nice manual lathes, I don't want to jump into something that feels cheap or that I'm not happy with and regret. Maybe by then I will have a shop to put the lathe in vs my basement haha. Having said that, I would like a nice 13x40, or similar size, lathe for gunsmithing and tinkering at home with. I have been doing some research and have been looking into Acra, Acer, Kent, Sharp, and the Harrison M300/ Clausing 2500. Has anyone compared these lathes or have experience with some of these? The Acra, Kent, and Sharp all look very, very similar and they're all priced within ~$2500 of each other. The M300 is the highest priced, and the Acer is towards the lower end of price, but still double what most hobbyist lathes cost. From some researching, and talking with an M300 owner and Acra 1340 owner, the lathes listed above seem to be a step above the Precision Matthews Taiwan made lathes, and the price reflects that. We have a Clausing Colchester at Pierce and I love that lathe. I also learned how to run a lathe on a newer Clausing 2500 when in trade school. The M300 is most similar to those, and what I am leaning towards when the time comes, but I am considering the others mentioned. I would rather save for a little longer and get a really nice machine that will make me happy. Any help and input is appreciated. Thanks!