12"x20" Combo Mill/Lathe Bolton AT520

[CaptnC]

Would this be good enough for home/hobby gunsmithing?

I know you can't contour a barrel, but that's fine. My main use will be to true receivers, thread barrels and cut threads for a muzzle brakes...maybe even make a few muzzle brakes.

Thanks

 

[J E Custom]

Would this be good enough for home/hobby gunsmithing?

I know you can't contour a barrel, but that's fine. My main use will be to true receivers, thread barrels and cut threads for a muzzle brakes...maybe even make a few muzzle brakes.

Thanks

What Is the spindle bore size ? You will need at least 1&1/2" to do most barrels without special setups.

J E CUSTOM

 

[TwoMore]

is there a place for a rear spider also

 

[MTBULLET]

seems fairly small to do what you want

 

[CaptnC]

Spindle bore is smaller than I expected;
1.03"

Here is a screen shot...kind of hard to read, but here it is...

Don't know what a spider is nor what it wold be needed for. What tasks does a spider do?

 

[TwoMore]

the spider is a four jaw style chuck for the rear of the spindle used to dial the barrel to spin concentric with the spindle. in order to thread barrels you need to be able to have the barrels bore runnin center

 

[TwoMore]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mb-RvRe_9-g
everybody has there way of holding the barrel but this vid gives you the basics

 

[CaptnC]

Thanks guys...looks like no way to get in for under 1K for a lathe that size.

I'm slowly getting it! Took me a while to warm up to the idea of bigger slower high BC bullets too...but I'm coming around!

 

[J E Custom]

Spindle bore is smaller than I expected;
1.03"

Here is a screen shot...kind of hard to read, but here it is...

Don't know what a spider is nor what it wold be needed for. What tasks does a spider do?View attachment 90991

That would be fine for a hobby Lathe but not a gunsmith lathe in my opinion.

1=Spindle is to small
2=Spindle speed is to fast and not enough selection.(Different tool cut at different speeds and diameters) because of surface speeds.
3=Ways are to short (For most barrel jobs you will need 30 to 36" between centers.
4=bolt on chucks are hard to center unless it is a 4 jaw.

There are many other features that would be needed to gunsmith, not saying it could not be done but time and proper setup could cost much more and effect quality problems even for a very experienced smith.

Good tooling can be very expensive, so why buy it twice. (Smaller Lathes take different size tooling and if you ever decided to up grade your lathe, most of the tooling would not work on a larger Lathe).

Keep Looking, You will/should find a good used one over time or decide to buy a new one that is affordable.

Again, Just My opinion

J E CUSTOM

 

[Kmccord]

If you need a combo mill and lathe, you could buy new and not have to buy twice.
http://www.grizzly.com/products/12-...791?utm_campaign=zPage&utm_source=grizzly.com

If you don't want or need a mill, you could go cheaper with just the lathe.
http://www.grizzly.com/products/12-...03G?utm_campaign=zPage&utm_source=grizzly.com

I would add a DRO on whatever you do buy, I am looking at the one listed below in the very near future.
http://www.grizzly.com/products/13-...776?utm_campaign=zPage&utm_source=grizzly.com

 

[CaptnC]

If you need a combo mill and lathe, you could buy new and not have to buy twice.
http://www.grizzly.com/products/12-...791?utm_campaign=zPage&utm_source=grizzly.com

This would be perfect...I have no plans to use the mill part of it, but if I had it I'm sure I would think of something to use it for. Maybe make some of those fancy aluminum shooting rests.

Looks like it will have to wait until I retire before I could get one...that's 1.5 years away so I've got time to see if I could find one used.

Gunsmithing looks like one of those thing that's like running offshore charter fishing business.

I heard a offshore fishing guide one time say...
"If I hit the big lotto, I would run offshore fishing charters until I ran out of money!"

 

[Kmccord]

Sort of like in the cattle business, the quickest way to become a millionaire in the cattle business is to start out as a billionaire.

 

[TwoMore]

Sort of like in the cattle business, the quickest way to become a millionaire in the cattle business is to start out as a billionaire.

or drag racing