inexpensive lathe advice needed

cuejunkie

cuejunkie

"In the Shadows"
Silver Member
For the last couple years or so, I have been doing my own minor cue repairs using a lathe at my friend's shop.
He has recently gone out of business and decided to retire from that line of work.
So I am now looking to buy an inexpensive lathe to do tip replacements and shaft conditioning.

Can I expect to find anything reliable/quality under $300?

I'd like to start off small and work my way up, so any suggestions/recommendations would be most welcome.

Many thanks :)
 
Michael Webb

Michael Webb

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I personally think you step up a little bit more, Whether it be Brianna, Cue smith or Unique products, ( Alphabetical :grin:) all 3 have entry level machines. Be fair to yourself and your cues.
 
Eric Wynne

Eric Wynne

Banned
There are several Unique machines for sale here , I believe they are CC 3 ... I would go ahead and pop for one as they are great for what you are wanting ... Get the one with the most tooling . Drills , centers , taps , foot control , wrap press, drive pins , etc. WilleCue has one ... You can't make money unless you spend some ...;)
 
GBCues

GBCues

Damn, still .002 TIR!
Gold Member
Silver Member
IMHO the short answer is "NO, you can't do anything useful at that price point".
But you said he's your friend and you've used his lathe in the past - what will he sell you HIS lathe for and will he take payments?
Give it a try!
Gary
 
Craig Fales

Craig Fales

Registered bubinga user
Silver Member
cuejunkie said:
For the last couple years or so, I have been doing my own minor cue repairs using a lathe at my friend's shop.
He has recently gone out of business and decided to retire from that line of work.
So I am now looking to buy an inexpensive lathe to do tip replacements and shaft conditioning.

Can I expect to find anything reliable/quality under $300?

I'd like to start off small and work my way up, so any suggestions/recommendations would be most welcome.

Many thanks :)
Click to expand...

Why don't you buy his old equipment?
 
desi2960

desi2960

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
cheap lathe

when i decided to start messing around cues, i had a chance to pick-up a really cheap lathe. i had this lathe about 48 hrs before i decided i made a mistake.
i gave this lathe away, called hightower and ordered the delux. that was about 8-9 years ago. i have since bought another delux and hightower inlay machine.
its hard do quality work with less than quality equipment.


chuck starkey
 
cueman

cueman

AzB Gold Member
Gold Member
Silver Member
The only way you can expect to find something of the quality you need for under $300 is to find it used, and the person who has it does not know what it is worth. I have heard of some older Cue Smith lathes going for $500 and if you found one for that price I would think that is the way to go. But I have rarely if ever heard of even an older one going for $300.
 
cuesmith

cuesmith

BEEN THERE, DONE THAT!
Silver Member
I heard in the forums about an entry level cue lathe by some cowboy guy. ;) That should stir up some shit! lol
 
greyghost

greyghost

Coast to Coast
Silver Member

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DaveK

DaveK

Still crazy after all these years
Silver Member
cuesmith said:
I heard in the forums about an entry level cue lathe by some cowboy guy. ;) That should stir up some shit! lol
Click to expand...

Or maybe a semi-retired cuemaker will put one of his old lathes up for sale ?

Dave
 
cuesmith

cuesmith

BEEN THERE, DONE THAT!
Silver Member
DaveK said:
Or maybe a semi-retired cuemaker will put one of his old lathes up for sale ?

Dave
Click to expand...

I am semi-retired and plan to keep my shop intact until I definately won't be doing any more cue work, BUT I do have several lathes in storage that I won't be using and are for sale. I have a bad back and can't dig through the stuff to get them where I can take good pictures. Some are metal lathes and a couple are quality smaller wood lathes that could be good sanding, wrapping, polishing, spraying or serve several other purposes set up as a dedicated workstation . None have a hole through the headstock that a butt will go through but a couple will accomodate shafts and a couple of them, the headstock could easily be bored out big enough to accomodate a shaft. I mentioned these before and didn't get much interest because I couldn't really show them as well as necessary. I really don't need to sell them, they're not eating anything, but I would make an AZ'er a good deal on them and especially if he wanted to take them all. I also have a few saws, bandsaws and table saws that are just collecting dust, a couple of air compressors, a bunch of misc electric motors, a small heat treating oven, an X.Y table with thompson bearings that could be turned into a CNC inlay machine, Some really cool displays for cues, like for a show or tournament that knock down in a few minutes and store in a cleverly designed rolling crate that doubles as a cart to move your stuff in and out of the site, and a whole lot of stuff I'll never get around to putting into action as I'd planned at one time. I live in what was the machine tool capitol of the world, at one time and I used to go to a lot of auctions and sales. It's always been my philosophy that it was easier to take a cue from workstation to workstation than to keep changing the set-up at one workstation to do the different operations. It also make it MUCH easier to get repeatable results. Thus I have about 8-10 lathes set up in my shop to do the different steps. There are lots of advantages to this method if you have the space to do so. These lathes I have for sale are great to set up for different operations.

Anyway, yes I have lathes for sale but none like a "Cuesmith" that is set up to do cue work "out of the box". Also if anyone wants to look at any of the lathes they need to be prepared to dig it out themselves. They're not hard to get to, but with my back, I can't be of any help, other than to point them out. OH, I forgot to mention I'd even be willing to take trades if your cash is tight. Guns, cues, stuff like that, nothing too heavy that I can't lift.
 
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Shiftysmooth

Shiftysmooth

Just The Tip cue repairs
Gold Member
Silver Member
cuesmith said:
Guns, cues, stuff like that, nothing too heavy that I can't lift.
Click to expand...

So tempted for a Rodney Dangerfield reference!

But seriously, this is why I love the community here, everyone has been awesome so far with my interest in cue building, and here is a great opportunity! If all my funds werent wrapped up at the moment, Id have shot you a PM already, someone needs to hit him up!!
 
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