Newbe Lathe Question

[Lazerrus]

OK cue makers here is a question. I am thinking of picking up my 1st lathe to start dabbling in the craft like sanding, shafts, wraps, tips, etc. I find a lot of good deals on craigslist for good used wood lathes. My question is can one of these work or does it have to be an official "cue" lathe. I have seen lathes on there big enough by the names of Jet, Craftsman, etc for like 250.00. Would this be a good start or do I have to spring the 2500+ for an actual cue lathe? Any pointers appreciated and thanks!

 

[BHQ]

OK cue makers here is a question. I am thinking of picking up my 1st lathe to start dabbling in the craft like sanding, shafts, wraps, tips, etc. I find a lot of good deals on craigslist for good used wood lathes. My question is can one of these work or does it have to be an official "cue" lathe. I have seen lathes on there big enough by the names of Jet, Craftsman, etc for like 250.00. Would this be a good start or do I have to spring the 2500+ for an actual cue lathe? Any pointers appreciated and thanks!

lee (brianna ) had a recent post about lathe options
i was going to post that link for you, but now i cant find his post
btw, my world war two era 11x54 sheldon metal lathe was $1000 (with an extra collet chuck i sold for $400)
i use my wood lathe for sanding & spraying finish only
here it is
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=162968

 

[Guerra Cues]

OK cue makers here is a question. I am thinking of picking up my 1st lathe to start dabbling in the craft like sanding, shafts, wraps, tips, etc. I find a lot of good deals on craigslist for good used wood lathes. My question is can one of these work or does it have to be an official "cue" lathe. I have seen lathes on there big enough by the names of Jet, Craftsman, etc for like 250.00. Would this be a good start or do I have to spring the 2500+ for an actual cue lathe? Any pointers appreciated and thanks!

Get a Hightower lathe. All the way. I have a midsize lathe that does everything I need.
If you can afford the 3K get a Deluxe Hightower and you can start messing around on cue building.
If you want you can come to my house and check out my setup, I can also teach you and give you a few hints on the stuff I do.

 

[Trent]

for the same price of a midsize you can buy the original cue smith with the full size bed and you can still get all the attchments for it. this is what i was going to due until i bit the bullet and bought a deluxe:grin:

 

[cueman]

Here is my take on it. To start off I am probably somewhat biased as lathe builder, but I have also modified dozens of wood lathes myself and it usually cost hundreds of dollars to make them do tip and ferrule work with a cross-slide. If doing all the work by hand with hand held wood tools you can do it cheaper. So to compare a used $250 wood lathe to a $2500 cue lathe is no comparison. What you would compare to a wood lathe that has had several hundred dollars spent on it would be a low end cue lathe for $850 to $1000. I even went overkill on one wood lathe in my shop that I put about $900 into the heeadstock alone making it a large bore double chuck headstock. And now it mostly collects dust.
So you can get a precision cue lathe for tips, ferrules and shaft cleaning for under $1000 that has plenty of horsepower. Or you can get a wood lathe for $250 and start adding on to it spending a minimum of $400 to $500 more on it to do tips and ferrules and in the end not have as good of a lathe with the wood lathe.
If you are determined not to spend $1000 on a cue lathe then you could look around for a used metal lathe and go from there. It will still need some modifications done to it to be able to do cue work, but it won't need as much $$ put into it as the wood lathe will. You can always also look for a good used cue lathe. They pop up from time to time.