Is there a cheap place to get one or do you have to spend a couple hundred to get a good one?
LAthe bed?
- Thread starter poolgod1984
- Start date
Thats a pretty vague question bud. What kind of lathe? How long of bed? What model of lathe? Metal lathe? Wood lathe? Cue lathe? You will need to be quite a bit more specific.
Joe
Joe
Cheap and good should never be used in the same sentence...
I could be very wrong as I don't mess with these type of lathes an usually just read these posts to kill time but it is my understanding that these aftermarket beveled dovetail plates are not the complete lathe bed but just the top part that bolts onto the rest of the bed. This could be very wrong but that is what I have always understood. I believe the complete bed would be much more than 200.00 but like I said, I'm certainly no expert on these.
Dick
You are right on this. Complete 4 foot beds are more than he thought would be expensive. Something that puzzles me is that this repair business can make someone an average of $50 per hour or so when they have work to do, or if they only want to do it for themselves it saves them that much. And yet many hope to get into it for only a few hundred dollars. I am not saying this is the case with the original poster.
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I have been in need another lathe recently. I already had some of the parts, and plan to make the rest, but I just had Chris build me a 4' bed, with carriage and full gear rack. Money well spent IMO. He quoted me a 2 week build time, and I received It in 2 days. That's awesome service in My book. He must have jumped right on It after We finalized everything, because at least a day of that had to be transit time. When I received It, It was also just as I requested, and built to my specifications.
This may not be the way to go for everyone. I have a small mill and metal lathe so I have the capabilities to machine some of the small stuff that someone starting out may not. My revenue from cue work helps to support my family, so I cannot throw all the funds I make back into this, and I was trying to use what I had to afford another lathe, but I didn't expect to get what parts I did need with out coming off of more then a couple of bills.
As far as expense goes, a couple of hundred dollars wouldn't even cover supplies, in fact would nowhere near cover them.
I guess It depends on what someone plans to do with It. There are cheaper ways to do a tip or ferrule I suppose, I mean to be honest I did them with hand tools and a wood lathe for several years, back in the day, but as someone already alluded to, Cheap and good rarely go together. To do a professional job with primitive tooling, not only takes a skill of It's own, but to achieve anywhere near professional results is very time consuming and risky. I wouldn't be able to keep up with my work load with those tools today, nor would I want to risk damage to some of the more expensive cues that I work on.
This may not be the way to go for everyone. I have a small mill and metal lathe so I have the capabilities to machine some of the small stuff that someone starting out may not. My revenue from cue work helps to support my family, so I cannot throw all the funds I make back into this, and I was trying to use what I had to afford another lathe, but I didn't expect to get what parts I did need with out coming off of more then a couple of bills.
As far as expense goes, a couple of hundred dollars wouldn't even cover supplies, in fact would nowhere near cover them.
I guess It depends on what someone plans to do with It. There are cheaper ways to do a tip or ferrule I suppose, I mean to be honest I did them with hand tools and a wood lathe for several years, back in the day, but as someone already alluded to, Cheap and good rarely go together. To do a professional job with primitive tooling, not only takes a skill of It's own, but to achieve anywhere near professional results is very time consuming and risky. I wouldn't be able to keep up with my work load with those tools today, nor would I want to risk damage to some of the more expensive cues that I work on.
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Gary
Thanks for pointing out the steel dovetails, I still have 3 pcs, for some reason my posts are getting deleted, even though they aren't for a standard product that I stock sell or produce, just 3 dovetails which I bought here on AZ from RBC
$195 each plus shipping, I had the 2 grooves on the bottom put in, so it fits a taig based cue lathe perfectly
Best Regards
Bassel
www.customcuelathes.com
248-884-4469