Buying a second lathe

Make it easy

Here you go. I work in a box! I have a mid size and I have a deluxe plus I have a shaft repair lathe. All Hightower! Yes the big as lathe would be nice to do things that you can't on the Hightower but folks we live in a world were if you can think it draw it it can be built.
Do to this place being the showroom of everyone making money off others ideas I will not show my 790.00 motor upgrade and 350.00 controller for it plus all my other upgrades to my Hightower lathe. But I can core anything I want I can turn my motor as slow as I want and will not lose torque with no slip of the belt! Please don't ask me to tell I am not going to tell or show! Took me 13 months to build it.
But a Deluxe in my mind is the better way to go if you we use to the brand plus like the other say parts can go from one to the other. If you have the room and you have a taper bar set up XXXX it get the big one..
Just my thoughts so damn late at night.
 
With a metal lathe, you can live thread different pitches .
You're not stuck to taps and dies for everything you thread.
From collars to butt caps to ferrules to jigs.
With threaded jigs you can bore thin ring materials to different OD's .
Who says everything has to be either 5/8 or 3/4 ID ?
It's amazing how much flexibility you have when you can bore out some of these material to different ID and thread the parts at the end holding them.
No glue lines and you get a much more solid joinery.

The compound on the metal lathe has more travel if that matters to you.
You can also add a DRO later if you want.

Metal lathe should be your first lathe if you already have a taperer.
 
JoeyInCali said:
With a metal lathe, you can live thread different pitches .
You're not stuck to taps and dies for everything you thread.
From collars to butt caps to ferrules to jigs.
With threaded jigs you can bore thin ring materials to different OD's .
Who says everything has to be either 5/8 or 3/4 ID ?
It's amazing how much flexibility you have when you can bore out some of these material to different ID and thread the parts at the end holding them.
No glue lines and you get a much more solid joinery.

The compound on the metal lathe has more travel if that matters to you.
You can also add a DRO later if you want.

Metal lathe should be your first lathe if you already have a taperer.
Click to expand...
You can do live threading with a Deluxe also, if you add that option. I do think the metal lathe is a little nicer for that operation, but you can do all the above with a Deluxe.
 
Chris I hate to be contrary...

cueman said:
If you already have taper bars on your Mid Size then the metal lathe might give you some extra advantages over a Deluxe. If you don't have taper bars then the Deluxe would give you a lot of advantages over the Metal lathe.

The main advantages of the metal lathe are heavier duty drilling and easier threading abilities. It also can make metal parts from scratch.

Some of the advantages of the Deluxe is it is easier to hold things in line, especially shorter parts. It comes with the rear chuck and precision steady rests. It has tapering capabilities, indexing for cutting in points, router, and portability.
Click to expand...

I hate to be contrary Chris, but the 4003G has the ability to do tapers, at least straight tapers, not shaft tapers like the deluxe. You can offset the tail stock and do straight tapers fairly easily.

Jaden
 
Jaden said:
I hate to be contrary Chris, but the 4003G has the ability to do tapers, at least straight tapers, not shaft tapers like the deluxe. You can offset the tail stock and do straight tapers fairly easily.

Jaden
Click to expand...

I assume he will want to build pro tapered shafts.
 
Yeah I thought about that...

cueman said:
I assume he will want to build pro tapered shafts.
Click to expand...

Yeah I thought about that right after I clicked reply which is why I mentioned the shaft tapering. I have the CNC lathe I built setup to either do them from cnc programming or manually from a guide similar to your deluxe.

So I don't have to worry about it.

Yeah the 4003G might be a little tight, but not much. The center to center is 36" and the addition of the wide 3 jawed chuck is just 3 3/4" so there is more than 32" which gives enough room for both a live center on the tail stock and a dead center in the chuck with a 29" cue in between. With some chuck-able Q-pins or maintenance drive sets, you can easily do any work on a butt that already has a pin.

The carriage travel is over 30", so carriage travel isn't a problem either.

Jaden

I do some gunsmithing as well as cue making, which is why I went with the 4003G, the 709G that is 40" is a little out of my budget range at this time.
 
what the hell do I know

But I have owned 3 hightower lathes and one hightower inlay machine. I have made from scratch, converted and sold over 400 cues. Maybe not for everyone but it works for me. Chuck starkey
 
Here let me rephrase.

If you don't have a means to taper and you are limited on your budget, the hightower deluxe cuesmith is probably the best available cue making lathe as an all in one. But even Chris has a saw jig setup for tapering.

Jaden
 
I bought a new 13X36 Enco lathe in 1992 and the first day that it was delivered I made a mount for a rear chuck for it for less than 3.00 and the next day I constructed a full length tapering jig with changeable taper bars for less than 15.00.

With a full size metal lathe and a milling machine, even if just a mill/drill, you can then save 1,000's of dollars by building all of your own jigs and appliances for cue repair and building.

Dick
 
This is true...

rhncue said:
I bought a new 13X36 Enco lathe in 1992 and the first day that it was delivered I made a mount for a rear chuck for it for less than 3.00 and the next day I constructed a full length tapering jig with changeable taper bars for less than 15.00.

With a full size metal lathe and a milling machine, even if just a mill/drill, you can then save 1,000's of dollars by building all of your own jigs and appliances for cue repair and building.

Dick
Click to expand...

If you're a decent machinist, then the above is true. If you want a plug and play way to start making cues, without some machining experience or know how or at least some ingenuity, then a cuesmith deluxe and Chris' videos and book is the way to go, IMO.

There is information in the book that is not in the videos, but the videos do provide that visualization that some people have difficulty getting from the books.

Jaden
 
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