Gunsmith Lathe?

[huntinco]

What you guys think of this Lathe
Grizzly.com -- Online Catalog

Thanks
Justin

 

[James Jones]

I setup that exact lathe for a close friend of my dads just a while back and for the money I was impressed with its performance , its plenty rigid enough to do precision work , the narrow headstock is a nice as it allows you to dial in a barrel through the head.

I'd say for the guy wanting to get into gunsmithing or just doing it as a hobby its a good lathe , if I were planning to build my buisness around producing highend guns as a way of life I'd probably spend a bit more on a bigger more rigid tool room style lathe.

The actual lathe is a big part of the investment but plann to spend at least several thousand on a better chuck , centers , tooling , making jigs and fixtures.

 

[eddybo]

If you order one put a lot of thought into how your going to move it and where your going to put it.
I dont think you will near the problems I am having but something to consider.
The lathe I ordered weighs nearly 5000 lbs. Finding a forklift that will fit in my building and with that weight capacity was pretty hard in my locality. Got one lined up finally, now just waiting on delivery. If your primarily going to be doing gun work I hear pretty good reviews on the grizzly gunsmith lathes. I wanted a lathe for gun work but have some other projects in mind that required something a tad bigger so I couldnt use it, otherwise I would have gone that direction.

 

[huntinco]

James....
It would be used as a hobby. Do you think I could get by with this one? Also any ideas on a Mill.
Grizzly.com -- Online Catalog

 

[James Jones]

The smaller one will probably work for about all your gunsmithing needs if your carefull , Its about half the weight and I'd guess that most of that is in the stand so its not gonna be as rigid but as long as you anchor it down to a concrete floor it should be fine , most of the cutting done by gunsmiths is pretty light in compairison to general machine work so if you don't abuse it and don't expect it to make .100" cuts at a time with a good finish then I'm sure it'll do all the jobs a hobby smith does.

BUT , machines are like workshops and sheds you end up settling on what will work rather than what is realy wanted and realisticaly needed , if at some point you need to do a bigger job you will be limited buy the smaller lathes size , its always a good idea to get the biggest one you can afford.

 

[huntinco]

Any suggestions on other lathe manufacturers

 

[TMR]

Huntinco,

I have the smaller Grizzly lathe. You won't be dissapointed. It has built some very accurate rifles and is still continuing to build them. I kinda wish I would have gotten the larger version, but I am plenty happy with the smaller one. So far, I am pretty happy with it. I looked at the Jet Machines first, but decided to give this one a try. I like it alot better than the Jet and it seems to be a little more precise and tighter tolences. When I go to get a larger one, I will definitely look at the big Gunsmith lathe, although the large 14x40 Jet is a very good machine.

Just depends on how much work you are wanting to do. If you just want to build your own rifles and save some money, then get the smaller Grizzly lathe.