Gunsmith Lathe - do I need a DRO

[GARD72977]

I'm looking at a grizzly G0709 - 14" x 40" Gunsmithing Gearhead Lathe on sale for $4999. The only down side I see is the 1.57 spindle bore. This should be large enough for what I want. Any opinions?

Do I need a DRO? I have one on my mill but don't really see the need on a lathe

[M-Tecs]

Need no, but a DRO on a lathe is way handier than a long travel indicator. Setting the shoulder depth when chambering is a piece of cake with a DRO. I use the tool post and cross slide to hold the reamer when chambering. Personally I find the DRO on a lathe more useful than the DRO on the mill. DRO's are easy to mount so you can add it later or go with a cheap eBay or Amazon DRO.

[JeepHammer]

Need no, but a DRO on a lathe is way handier than a long travel indicator. Setting the shoulder depth when chambering is a piece of cake with a DRO. I use the tool post and cross slide to holder the reamer when chambering. Personally I find the DRO on a lathe more useful than the DRO on the mill.

What he said x2.
I'm not familiar with 'Grizzly' lathes, but I will tell you a flimsy bed/tool head on a lathe will be more trouble than you can believe.
It's easier to take slop out of an old heavy bed/solid tool head, and usually cheaper, than buying a flimsy lathe to start with.
I made that mistake, cost me about 5 grand.

[B R Shooter]

I had a DRO on my first lathe. My Acer now doesn't have one and I have no need for one. I do use dail indicators, and the feed daily are true. I use an indicator to thread to the shoulder, there is no way I could watch those numbers and tell when to pull out. I spent the DRO money on other things.

And the 1.50+ bore will be fine.

[country gent]

The dro with quick change holders and tooling that's set up and certified to 0 is a big plus when turning multiple parts. Where the dro does stand out on the lathe and few have it is the tailstock spindle travel for drilling and reaming to precise depths. Ive always turned shoulder short and faced to location with a relief in the corner. I would personally have the DRO on the mill, jig bore or jig grinder. Now a lathe with a easy trac controller is a different story.
The spindle bore at 1.57 is actually generous, the monarchs in one shop were 16" swing 60" beds and only had 1 3/8" spindle bores. How many pieces at over 1 9/16" dia will you be doing? even then a steady rest can be used to face ends. If you want to make multiple parts and feed thru the headstock a production machine will be better. Ive seen 2 big turret lathes with 8" spindle holes both were warner and swasey. They were also a lot more work setting up as chucks and most tooling required a chain fall to lift.
I would put the money in tooling and other equipment. Most shop machines are the cheap part its all the tooling that adds up.

[GARD72977]

I got divorced 15 years ago and moved my machining equipment to my parents house. My mother Passed away a few years ago and my Father passed away in April.

I don't have a shop where I live now. I had a 40' shipping container delivered Thursday. I leveled it today and need to start moving my stuff in it. Im not going to have a lot in it. Just my Mill, bandsaw setup table and the new Lathe. I sold my wore out 9x49 South Bend.

I have been an amature machinist for 20 years. I'm going to a class given by the machine shop where I work. I'm hoping to end up with a gunsmith job in the next year or so.

It will be nice to have a Lathe with some power and not wore slap out ..

I see Grizzly has a model G0824 that looks like the same specs but with DRO and a 2" spindal bore for 6250. Not on sale. It may be worth the extra cash for the upgrades.

[oldred]

I'm not familiar with 'Grizzly' lathes, but I will tell you a flimsy bed/tool head on a lathe will be more trouble than you can believe.
It's easier to take slop out of an old heavy bed/solid tool head, and usually cheaper, than buying a flimsy lathe to start with.
I made that mistake, cost me about 5 grand.


I have that same 14X40 lathe except sold under a different name and it is in no way "flimsy"! These are heavy well built machines for the price and worth way more than worn out used industrial machines, I have used my lathe almost every day except weekends for over ten years rebuilding farm/construction/logging machinery and it is just as solid and accurate as it was when new. That Grizzly machine is well worth the price and is way better than almost any industrial type lathe with sloppy ways, etc from thousands of hours of daily use in an industrial setting.

[John Taylor]

I got divorced 15 years ago and moved my machining equipment to my parents house. My mother Passed away a few years ago and my Father passed away in April.

I don't have a shop where I live now. I had a 40' shipping container delivered Thursday. I leveled it today and need to start moving my stuff in it. Im not going to have a lot in it. Just my Mill, bandsaw setup table and the new Lathe. I sold my wore out 9x49 South Bend.

I have been an amature machinist for 20 years. I'm going to a class given by the machine shop where I work. I'm hoping to end up with a gunsmith job in the next year or so.

It will be nice to have a Lathe with some power and not wore slap out ..

I see Grizzly has a model G0824 that looks like the same specs but with DRO and a 2" spindal bore for 6250. Not on sale. It may be worth the extra cash for the upgrades.

don't quit your day job until you have a good customer base and lots of work backed up.

[John Taylor]

I bought a 14X40 Birmingham a little over 12 years ago. It has filled my needs for gunsmithing very well. Spindle hole is 1.57" and it would be nice to have 2" but I have made do with what I have.

[KCSO]

I don't have the DRO on my Grizzly but I wish I did. I got the Grizzly about 5 years ago when they were some cheaper and have done a ton of work on it. In addition to gun work I have the biggest lathe in town so I do a lot of shafts and parts for mowers, tractors and antique equipment. I am getting ready to retire and am thinking about making the shop over into a man cave so the lathe may be for sale.

I started with an old atlas lathe and learned to do work between centers so the 1 1/2 hole in the headstock is no problem for me. The spider on the end is a hassle and I use turned bushings for barrel work with complete success.

[Jeff Michel]

Get one, you will never regret it. Grizzly imports a pretty good lathe, I used the same model before it was called a "gunsmith" lathe. Used it a couple years then a 15x50 Clausing 8000 came my way. The man I sold it to uses it everyday in his job shop

[country gent]

I have 2 lathes waiting to be moved into the new building One is a 16 X40. it has a 1 1/2" spindle bore, read out and coolant. 7 1/2 horse motor. Gear head. It was purchased new in the mid 80s for a small retired 1 man shop. The other is a 13x40 basic gear head lathe quick change gear box. Has a spray mist for coolant right now.
These are both solid machines and have low hours on them for their age.
The Bridgeport is a series 1 head (pulley drive) 9x48 with read out. Also a cool mist coolant and power feeds ( servo units) It also has DRO which will be nice for hole patterns and locations. As I said above I prefer the mill have the read out as its nice when doing hole patterns to 0, X.X, XX.XX, XXX.XX thru the pattern.

[GARD72977]

don't quit your day job until you have a good customer base and lots of work backed up.


I'm hoping my day job is being a gunsmith. I'm just going to this for myself and maybe a little work on the side.

[Clark]

My mill and lathe have DRO. My previous mill and lathe did not. I can't live without it now. I am addicted. Like when the appliance store threw in a microwave in 1984. Within a week I was addicted.

[dverna]

Nice to have for sure and will be a time saver. Important consideration if doing this for a living.

But not necessary for a hobby user. And as stated above, you can always add on later.

[country gent]

I find a carriage stop to be useful. clamp it so back shoulder is dead zero then use gage blocks for each step to the end. A simple block that clamps on ways so the carriage can be "bumped" to the same point every time. Some lathes have a mating screw on the carriage or stop. here for finish turn the screw in .005 - .010 and use the same blocks as before.

[ASSASSIN]

I run lathes 5 days a week, 60 hours a week, every week, going on 36 years, and there are very few times that I would ever use a DRO. I have one still in a box that I see everyday, and mounting and setting one up is quite easy, but like I said, not really something I would use. But, if I ever do decide I need one, I know right where one is at. [smilie=w:

[Blazenet]

Get the DRO you won't regret it. I have one on my mill and use it all the time. The lathe is next.

[EDG]

I worked in a number of manufacturing plants as a manufacturing engineer for 45 years.
I bought a lot of Bridgeports and Leblonds for the model shops. All of the Bridgeports had DROs.
The lathes had a Trav-a-Dial mounted on the carriage and everyone seemed happy with that set up.

Photo of a Trav-A-Dial on a Monarch 10EE.

https://farm5.static.flickr.com/4048/4667608899_62e0d9ef93.jpg

[country gent]

I have used lathes with the travel dial set up and it was good. Our lathes also had a clamp on collar on the tailstock spindle and a stud on the tail stock housing for a 1" or more indicator to show spindle travel in .001 when drilling holes, This was handy also. Most lathes dros are X Y axis and leave out the tail stock and its spindle spindle

[kmitchl]

For me personally I don't NEED a DRO, however, as others have said they are very nice to have to do accurate work quickly. The Grizzly DRO's are over priced IMO. Look at the DRO's on Ebay. I've owned a few of these and they are just as good as the name brand ones.

Speaking of the name brands, I have an Accurite DRO on my mill that was purchased around 2000. l recently had an issue with the X axis scale so I called Accurite. They were not particularly helpful other than saying they no longer support my unit but could sell me another scale that is not a drop in for $700. So the myth of buying a "brand name" product with the expectation of being able to obtain future support did not hold up in this case.

[fast ronnie]

I have used dro's when working for other companies, but don't have them on my own machines. I have scrapped out expensive parts when they failed because of metal chips on the scales.
I machined a complete engine which I designed and built without using cnc or dro's. Yes, it took longer, but the engine runs just fine. It does not know nor does it seem to care what machine it was made on, only that it works.

[BigEyeBob]

I have a 2 axis DRO on my lathe but rarely use it ,a carriage stop and long travel indicator are easier for me to use .

[john.k]

I found at work machinists appreciate a DRO as their eyesight goes.....same as a digital vernier.......easy to read without a magnifying glass,or in dull light.

[HotGuns]

I used DROs for over 40 years. I wouldn't even think of using a lathe without one. Something to think about that no one has mentioned...

A DRO measures absolute position. The backlash on your machine doesn't matter. You won't have to even think about. For doing precision work such as chambering a barrel, its the only way to go.

[EDG]

I ran an engine lathe and other turning machines about 10,000 hours doing precision work.
The machines varied from 13" tool room lathes to 54" Bullard VTLs, turret lathes up to the 4A Warner Swasey and oil field lathes with swings up to 36" and 24 ft long beds.
DRO's were not yet in use and we did fine without them. Most lathes push the tool off anyway so the last cut usually has to be made after measuring the part. I have ran lathes with DRO's and they have basically zero impact on the precision of the work. A good machinist can do excellent work without a DRO. The only difference I ever saw was they were sometimes a little faster and more convenient to read.

The push off even occurs with CNC lathes and carbide tooling.

[W.R.Buchanan]

I have a Travadial on my Hardinge Chucker which is my primary lathe. It is accurate and they don't cost big money. I also have both X&Y Travadials on my older mill. They have been with me for more than 30 years and are still working perfectly.

Another way to go that is a proven winner. I use mine every time I use the Lathe, in fact I just used it an hour ago.

Randy

[roverboy]

I like a DRO on a lathe. One of the lathes at work does not have one. We use it though but, have to put a indicater on it. The one I have only has a 2" limit.