12 x 36 gap bed lathe for sale (CLOSED)

[KeithB]

I thought I would put this up for sale here for a week or so before I try to sell it some other way. I have a 12" x 36" gear head gap bed engine lathe for sale. It is a Harbor Freight product ("Central Machinery") so it is an import. It's a 2004 model, not recent production. I bought it from my BIL a couple years ago before he died. He used it very little and I haven't used it at all.

It runs on 22V single phase and comes with:

- 4 jaw chuck
- 3 jaw chuck
- face plate
- 5C collet chuck (I bought this and it's a POS but it goes with it anyway)
- steady rest
- follow rest
- drill chuck
- dead center
- live center
- extension cord
- 4 levelers







Anybody interested let me know. Probably not worth shipping commercially but if you live within driving range we will load it for free, bring your own tarps!

$1250, price negotiable, will consider swap for cash and goods. Want to buy gen5 G17 or 19 so one of those could be part of deal.

I live in Evansville Indiana, that's in the SW corner of the state and is midway between Indianapolis, Nashville, St Louis, and Louisville.

 

[smokeywolf]

Just out of curiosity. Your title says "Gap Bed", but no mention of what the swing is when the gap is removed.

 

[KeithB]

I’ll have to check, I don’t think the gap piece has ever been removed.

 

[KeithB]

W/o removing gap piece, the best measurement I can make seems to indicate a 17" - 18" swing in gap.

 

[Ian]

That's really a lot of machine for the money. Similar units new without the gap bed are in the $5-10K range. A little cleanup and maintenance is all that one needs and a relative beginner would benefit greatly from "going over" the whole machine for familiarization anyway.

 

[Ian]

@JustJim and @Dimner , Ya'll take a look at this one.

 

[462]

Ian, it's only a 32-hour round-trip, for you.

 

[Dimner]

I took a good hard look at this when it was first posted. I'm good with the road trip, it's maybe 6-7 hours each way?.... I just don't know the first thing on how to use it... and I don't have the room for it indoors. But man, there is a future version of me, a retired me, that would jump on this in a moment!

 

[Ian]

Ian, it's only a 32-hour round-trip, for you.

I'm already becoming a machine tool whore, don't encourage me.

 

[KeithB]

It would make a good lathe for an amateur gunsmith, it has a spindle hole big enough for a rifle barrel. I bought it to (a) help my BIL while he was still alive and needed money for medical expenses, and (b) use as a light duty second operation machine for a job we no longer run (buyer changed specs and doesn't need that part any more).

We have a much larger and heavier built manual lathe that we use all the time, this one is just taking up floor space. And you're not going to beat the price. I've looked at used lathes this size and larger online from a number of vendors.

 

[Brad]

That is a great price. Lots of projects there waiting to be dreamt up.

 

[462]

I'm already becoming a machine tool whore, don't encourage me.

Just think of all the time you'll be able to spend with your wife and kids, because you won't have to remake it. Likely less than the drive time.

 

[Ian]

because you won't have to remake it.

Wait.... Oh...



Ahem... Um, I thought you knew me better than that? You're talking to the guy who spent several long evenings hand-scraping a shaper vise base because it was out of tram somewhere in the high fourth decimal place. Kinda nice to throw a mini-lathe carriage on it and and it be dead level over five inches though. Those vee-ways there sure would look good with the Moore pattern hand scraped on them....

Somebody buy this thing. I don't have the room, the scratch, the time, or a Gen V Glock.

 

[462]

Well, your remaking projects (shaper and the latest lathe) make for interesting reading, though I'm not familiar with most of the terms.

 

[smokeywolf]

Just the tooling Keith is offering with the lathe is probably real close to being worth the price he's asking for the whole shebang. That makes the lathe nearly free. Plus, it's single phase. It'll plug into an outlet for an electric clothes dryer.

 

[L Ross]

Well, your remaking projects (shaper and the latest lathe) make for interesting reading, though I'm not familiar with most of the terms.

Oh thank goodness. Now I don't feel so bad.

 

[JonB]

Well, your remaking projects (shaper and the latest lathe) make for interesting reading, though I'm not familiar with most of the terms.

Oh thank goodness. Now I don't feel so bad.

LOL...
I learned to have the dictionary handy some 10 years ago, trying to read the extreme lube thread. And even then, many of the terms would need a "technical term" dictionary(which I don't have), so I'd just guess while reading within the context, LOL.

 

[Dimner]

Wait.... Oh...



Ahem... Um, I thought you knew me better than that? You're talking to the guy who spent several long evenings hand-scraping a shaper vise base because it was out of tram somewhere in the high fourth decimal place. Kinda nice to throw a mini-lathe carriage on it and and it be dead level over five inches though. Those vee-ways there sure would look good with the Moore pattern hand scraped on them....

Somebody buy this thing. I don't have the room, the scratch, the time, or a Gen V Glock.

I have a hard enough time keeping my cabinet scrapers sharp when using them for woodworking smoothing tasks. Im kinda of a sharp tool junkie. I cannot imagine trying to keep a metal scraper sharp.

 

[KeithB]

Ok, unless the site has some kind of rule against it I now plan to try to sell this lathe thru some other venues. I'll leave it listed here until I sell it.

I predict that at some point in the future somebody will lament not being able to find a decent hobby lathe that they can afford while they look for a virgin South Bend or some other piece of 'merican Iron that no longer exists. I have certainly kicked myself for not buying certain guns and hardware while they were available and relatively cheap.

 

[Rick]

Ok, unless the site has some kind of rule against it I now plan to try to sell this lathe thru some other venues. I'll leave it listed here until I sell it.

I predict that at some point in the future somebody will lament not being able to find a decent hobby lathe that they can afford while they look for a virgin South Bend or some other piece of 'merican Iron that no longer exists. I have certainly kicked myself for not buying certain guns and hardware while they were available and relatively cheap.

That is not an issue on this forum. Good luck.