Help with selecting bench top lathe and vertical mill

[Far North Hunter]

Wanting to purchase a new bench top lathe and vertical mill to allow me to do action truing and throating on prefits. This will be my venture into extending my personal hobby of accuracy and reloading.
I would appreciate the voice-suggestions of "been there-done it"on brands/models.
Thanks in advance for your guidance.
Doug

 

[L.Sherm]

Don't know what you plan for the bench top lathe but they have a small bore dia so keep that in mind.

 

[Far North Hunter]

Don't know what you plan for the bench top lathe but they have a small bore dia so keep that in mind.

Thank you. What size does a person need?

 

[L.Sherm]

It all depends on what you want to fit through the bore.

 

[shortgrass]

Thank you. What size does a person need?

Minimum 12" swing with a 1 3/8" spindle bore. 36" to 40"length is ideal for gunsmithing. Bench top tools lack the rigidity to do much. Sure, a small lathe would be handy for making small parts, but for action truing and throating not so much. Most bench top mills have round columns. This can be used effectively with an experience person at the handles, but will be an absolute PIA for a novice. It's not the cost of the machine tools, themselves, it's the cost to 'tool-up"! That's where the expense is, tooling & cutters/tool holders & collets/chucks/vise/dividing head.

 

[shortgrass]

In a nut shell, hobby gunsmithing on an advanced level with machine tools, is not a low cost proposition to get into!

 

[J E Custom]

Thank you. What size does a person need?

The best Allround spindle size is 1.570 dia and at least 36" bed between the centers. (Normally at least 40" Ways) I would look for a gearhead model also. I would recommend something like this In ether a bench top or a floor model. I have owned several lathes before finally getting one that would do most types of gunsmithing, and spent more money on tooling for working between centers (Instead of through the spindle). So I would recommend getting a capable lathe the first time and save money in the long run.

14" x 40" Gunsmithing Gearhead Lathe - Grizzly Industrial

<h1>G0709 14" x 40" Gunsmithing Gearhead Lathe</h1> <h2>A powerful, feature-packed lathe designed for extended production.</h2> <p>The G0709 14" x 40" Gunsmithing Gearhead Lathe comes with features typically not found on standard lathes, such as high-precision NSK bearings, extra-large 1-9/16"...

www.grizzly.com

J E CUSTOM

 

[birdiemc]

If I were able to go back in time, I would probably go with the lathe J.E. linked...assuming you're new to lathes. I was in your shoes 6 or 7 years ago trying to figure out what lathe to buy, I ended up with a smaller grizzly, only has 1" spindle bore which limits me, change gears for threading, and just not a rigid as I would like. I bought that brand new though, cuz at the time I was scared to get an old used lathe, didnt know what to look for. I'm on my second lathe now...got over that fear pretty easily, and I have a bridgeport clone milling machine now and am having more fun than you could imagine. But like shortgrass said, the lathe is just the first expense, then comes all the tooling....between all the machines and tooling I'm probably $20k in at this point and I dont have near enough tooling to do what I want...every time I dive in to a new project i have to drop another $200 for something it seems (there goes that barrel i was going to buy).
I could have bought some really nice custom rigs with what I've spent putting together a hobby machine shop, but i never did it to save money, i did it just to see if i can...so far i haven't regretted a penny.

 

[Mram10us]

I bought an eisen which is a precision mathews with a different brand sticker. 12x36 will work great. Don't count out the chinese cheapo ebay carbide tooling. I have used many name brands but still turn barrels down with the chinese stuff and it works great. Tooling can be inexpensive if you ask us before purchasing

 

[mtbullet1]

eisen 14x40

 

[Far North Hunter]

I bought an eisen which is a precision mathews with a different brand sticker. 12x36 will work great. Don't count out the chinese cheapo ebay carbide tooling. I have used many name brands but still turn barrels down with the chinese stuff and it works great. Tooling can be inexpensive if you ask us before purchasing

Appreciated!

 

[shortgrass]

I bought an eisen which is a precision mathews with a different brand sticker. 12x36 will work great. Don't count out the chinese cheapo ebay carbide tooling. I have used many name brands but still turn barrels down with the chinese stuff and it works great. Tooling can be inexpensive if you ask us before purchasing

Precisely! Go ahead and buy that cheap, Chinese stuff. They're well on their way to owning 1/2-3/4 of this country, anyway. I work in a machine shop ( I have been in machining since '74). We bought some lower cost inserts off of e-Bay trying to save, as it's tough enough competing against imports as it is. They looked the same, but they didn't last as long as the name brand and the finish wasn't nearly as good. The chucks that come on most of these imported lathes are just bare basic as are the "tooling packages" that come with the mills. "Work holding" is far more important than most give it credit for. Direct mount chucks s&ck for "high accuracy" work, they are fine for general machining. A good chuck mounted to a back plate that has been 'trued' to the machine it will be used on is a far superior set-up for extreme accuracy. The chucks and tooling packages that come with these lathes and mills are hobby quality. Top of the line work requires top of the line tools. I can not imagine doing the vary best I can when it comes to barrel work, both for myself or my clients. If "good enough" is good enough for you, that is your choice as we still live in the USA, at least for now..

 

[Tripodmvr7]

Have a look at Ultimate Reloader on Youtube and his exploits with mill and lathe.

 

[tobnpr]

A vertical mill isn't needed for barrel work. Nice to have in the shop- but you won't use it for barrels other than fluting or perhaps some breech extractor cuts on older rifles.

Not clear what you meant by "throating prefits"- but if you did indeed mean just that, you don't need a lathe at all.
Throating can be done by hand with a Uni-Throater. If you meant chambering barrel blanks that's a different agenda- and you would probably machine shouldered barrels and not nutted "prefits" if you have a lathe and the capability to use it.

A 12 x 36 is fine. The term "rigidity" gets used a lot, but IMHO a one-ton machine isn't necessary for turning hollow one-inch steel tubes. Lack of "rigidity" can be compensated for with light cuts, which is mostly the norm anyway for barrel work; esp when holding in spiders and not a chuck to avoid shifting the workpiece. Plenty of smaller machines that are very "tight" and capable of extremely precise work that would not be considered "rigid". That said, makes sense to buy as large as you can fit (with a short spindle if you work through the headstock). Longer bed gives you the ability to work between centers.

Really comes down to budget and what you plan to do with it. Depending where you are geographically, used machines can be found that offer great value as they often come with tooling- but you need to be able to evaluate the machine so you don't end up with something clapped-out that becomes a money-pit project.