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Rifles, Reloading, Optics, Equipment
Gunsmithing
Lathe for gunsmithing??
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<blockquote data-quote="Trickymissfit" data-source="post: 453820" data-attributes="member: 25383"><p>first of all 98% of all machinery shipped is via a non union source. The other 2% is via a specialized group. The biggest item in machinery moving is insurance. If you buy a lathe and have it setup you will pay the insurance fee twice, and if you do it on your own you will of course only pay the over the road insurance (it can easilly reach five figures). I know of no domestic unionized machine tool builder, unless it would be Monarch Cortland in New York (they don't make lathes) and I doubt that as well. Brown & Sharpe used to be, but think they are out of the machine tool business. All German pieces of equipment is of union manufacturer, and over half of the Jap stuff is. It's just not a big deal anymore as most all are cost competetive in labor, but engineering is another ball game. Engineering and design are where the money's spent. They may build a half dozen machines before the design is finalized, and in this day an age where half of the equipment is a custom design installation you really start to add the bucks. The one thing the Asians like todo is fill wharehouses with equipment to avoid the buyer having to wait a year or so for delivery. But even that is now considered to be a bad investment. Still 80% of the folks writting a check have absolutly no idea what they are buying. In my job, I usually did a minimum of a dozen onsite inspections to monitor the progress of a particular piece of equipment. Some folks were a waste of time to go up there as it was always done right, and some of them you had to be in there almost daily. The very worst were the small job shops.</p><p> </p><p> The thing I try to impress upon guys I know looking for a lathe (or really most anything) is frame design and construction. Most Asian stuff has a very weak frame design (even the big names). If the frame flexes or changes (they all do) you killed your accuracey. You cannot look at the spindle group and tell if it's a good design or a bad one without the blue prints in hand. But in a used piece you can at least check it for wear (85% of folks don't have a clue what and how). The ways are an over talked about subject, and in the better pieces of equipment there's little difference between a hand scraped bed and a ground one if they are in the same price range. You might try prying up on the lathe chuck with a three foot long 2x4 to see how much spindle movment is in there. Should be less than .001". You can tighten the spindle bearings inside the headstock, and it's really pretty easy to do.</p><p> </p><p>gary</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Trickymissfit, post: 453820, member: 25383"] first of all 98% of all machinery shipped is via a non union source. The other 2% is via a specialized group. The biggest item in machinery moving is insurance. If you buy a lathe and have it setup you will pay the insurance fee twice, and if you do it on your own you will of course only pay the over the road insurance (it can easilly reach five figures). I know of no domestic unionized machine tool builder, unless it would be Monarch Cortland in New York (they don't make lathes) and I doubt that as well. Brown & Sharpe used to be, but think they are out of the machine tool business. All German pieces of equipment is of union manufacturer, and over half of the Jap stuff is. It's just not a big deal anymore as most all are cost competetive in labor, but engineering is another ball game. Engineering and design are where the money's spent. They may build a half dozen machines before the design is finalized, and in this day an age where half of the equipment is a custom design installation you really start to add the bucks. The one thing the Asians like todo is fill wharehouses with equipment to avoid the buyer having to wait a year or so for delivery. But even that is now considered to be a bad investment. Still 80% of the folks writting a check have absolutly no idea what they are buying. In my job, I usually did a minimum of a dozen onsite inspections to monitor the progress of a particular piece of equipment. Some folks were a waste of time to go up there as it was always done right, and some of them you had to be in there almost daily. The very worst were the small job shops. The thing I try to impress upon guys I know looking for a lathe (or really most anything) is frame design and construction. Most Asian stuff has a very weak frame design (even the big names). If the frame flexes or changes (they all do) you killed your accuracey. You cannot look at the spindle group and tell if it's a good design or a bad one without the blue prints in hand. But in a used piece you can at least check it for wear (85% of folks don't have a clue what and how). The ways are an over talked about subject, and in the better pieces of equipment there's little difference between a hand scraped bed and a ground one if they are in the same price range. You might try prying up on the lathe chuck with a three foot long 2x4 to see how much spindle movment is in there. Should be less than .001". You can tighten the spindle bearings inside the headstock, and it's really pretty easy to do. gary [/QUOTE]
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