Best Lathe for the money?

CamposCues said:
Actually I've seen the Deluxe cuesmiths sell for almost what they cost new if they are still in great condition. Also, all the tooling and add ons to make a full size lathe suitable for cue building can cost more than the lathe itself. The turnkey cue lathes are great and if things don't work out, you won't loose much money as long as you maintain your equipment, I promise you that.
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A bold promise.
Well-that's valuable information for the original poster regarding resale if true though.
I can't even imagine paying $500 for the "cue boy" or whatever its called.
Here is one small cue lathe offered near me.
http://detroit.craigslist.org/okl/tls/1601126361.html
As I said earlier, I would be shocked if he got $300 out of that thing.
Not in this town for sure. He would have to ship it to get that I would guess.
Much of my perspective is regional.
Detroit has taken the brunt of the war with China and Japan.
In a local auction last week Hardinge HLV-H machines sold for $900 and $1400 tooled up.
It's common to see light Atlas and South Bend machines selling for $500 or less here.
I have noticed it's hard to get $450 for a nice (upper end) used Schon cue on ebay right now.
I would be thinking twice about cue building for income at this time especially if I had to lay out up front for machines and tooling.
People need to think about saving some cash during these good times (2010) to prepare for the bad times to come.

Eddie
 
Those machines are like "toys" compared to a real metal lathe
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Hardly a toy but if you want to look at it that way.
They do exactly what they're supposed to do, repair and build cues for a profit. Which they do quite nicely.
 
eddieindetroit said:
A bold promise.
Well-that's valuable information for the original poster regarding resale if true though.
I can't even imagine paying $500 for the "cue boy" or whatever its called.
Here is one small cue lathe offered near me.
http://detroit.craigslist.org/okl/tls/1601126361.html
As I said earlier, I would be shocked if he got $300 out of that thing.
Not in this town for sure. He would have to ship it to get that I would guess.
Much of my perspective is regional.
Detroit has taken the brunt of the war with China and Japan.
In a local auction last week Hardinge HLV-H machines sold for $900 and $1400 tooled up.
It's common to see light Atlas and South Bend machines selling for $500 or less here.
I have noticed it's hard to get $450 for a nice (upper end) used Schon cue on ebay right now.
I would be thinking twice about cue building for income at this time especially if I had to lay out up front for machines and tooling.
People need to think about saving some cash during these good times (2010) to prepare for the bad times to come.

Eddie
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There's truth in your words for sure. But as for the current market, a full size cue lathe in good condition nowadays will pull very close to it's original cost. You are very much correct in that there's no money in cuemaking. However, there are more people getting into it now than ever before. Materials & equipment isn't getting cheaper, though. I don't have to explain where that road leads. As for saving money for the crushing future, you are absolutely spot on. But again, it'll fall on deaf ears. Nature works it's magic inevitably in every aspect of life. Those who are strong & smart will endure while the rest fall. You can preach to the masses all you want, but natural selection is still going to be the threader of the needle that sews our fate. At least until the trumpet blows. It's the way our world works.

Now for the not so philisophical rambling, the Deluxe is the best bang for the buck. Chris is unveiling a newer version of it in VF this year. Nothing wrong with the Porper, either, just $1400 more.
 
porper

mreightball said:
When I go to some big tournaments I see people using the Porper Lathe but yet nobody here mentioned it. Is there a reason for not mentioning the porper lathe.
Ron
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I have one to work on shafts in my shop. It is highly unaccurate. I don't know about ones that others have. Butterflycues
 
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