Originally Posted by
bangerjim
One thing nobody has mentioned is quick change gears! A bit out of the price range of those cheap ChiCom mini's but well worth the upgrade to a decent machine. I ran a manual back gear change lathe for years and always longed for a QCG lathe. Then I ran into my gently used SB tool room lathe! OMG what a dream. No more digging thru a drawer to find the right gears, looking up the gears needed, positioning them on the spider, and then aligning them and hoping I got the right gears in the right position. Then cleaning off all the grease mess on my hands!!!!!
With QCG lathe, if I want to cut 14TPI, I just move 2 levers and............there it is!. Same with feed speeds, need 0.002"/rev, just move the two levers and bingo! Granted you are looking at a bunch more money new, but it is nice to know what to look for in used tools.
Just some advice for the wise tool shopper.