Craftsman 80

[canadianhorsepower]

Can anyone give me their opinion on this lathe
Good side
and Bad side

thanks

Luc

 

[portlandron]

Very basic lathe, can not cut threads.Gears in head stock are made off a type of pot metal and if it's had wear out if it's been used a lot.

For the lathe with out any tooling and the lathe in good condition around $100. If there is a lot of tooling then price accordingly.

I would not go over $200 even with a lot of tooling. You would get a better lathe by purchasing one of the low end imports.

 

[gmac]

http://www.lathes.co.uk/craftsman/page4.html

Cheers Garry

 

[canadianhorsepower]

Very basic lathe, can not cut threads.Gears in head stock are made off a type of pot metal and if it's had wear out if it's been used a lot.

For the lathe with out any tooling and the lathe in good condition around $100. If there is a lot of tooling then price accordingly.

I would not go over $200 even with a lot of tooling. You would get a better lathe by purchasing one of the low end imports.

are they that bad

 

[Modhydro]

I have seen guys knock them as being cheap and inaccurate. I guess it all boils down to what you want to do with it. For simpler things it will be just fine.

I guess ask yourself, for the price, is it better than what I have now. If you use it until you find something more advanced/better, it may fit your needs. At that point see if you can find someone young to pass it on to in order to help get the next generation interested in what we do.

Just some thoughts.

Steve

 

[canadianhorsepower]

I guess ask yourself, for the price, is it better than what I have now. If you use it until you find something more advanced/better, it may fit your needs.

Thanks Steve
It would be an addition to what I have, "king 12x36, seig 7x12 and my taig" I was under the impression that they were verry good.
The guy want 300.00 for it with some tooling and a bench

cheers

Luc

 

[vederstein]

I have one of these under my workbench. It was purchased by my father in the late '50s or early '60s and basically sat idle its entire life. I've played with it but that was when I had absolute no idea what I was doing. I couldn't really cut anything accurate.

But then again, I had no idea what I was doing. My father said that the only things is actually made was a couple of bronze bearings by my grandfather who was a machinist for Singer.

Unless it's very inexpensive, I'd pass.

...Ved.

 

[portlandron]

It's not that they are "bad". In it's day they were they only low priced lathe being sold. Today there are so many other new low priced lathes to pick from that these old ones don't have a lot of value.

If it's in any kind of shape it should still be able to turn down a piece of metal. It can not, and never could, take a very heavy cut but it will cut metal.

 

[Brian Rupnow]

I can not speak from experience, only hearsay. I think those lathes got a bad reputation for having a rather weak headstock spindle, that was prone to bending.---Brian

 

[Tin Falcon]

I have a couple these are commonly known as As the 109 or dunlap.

The guy want 300.00 for it with some tooling and a bench

About a typical price for these lathes .

These are not the easiest lathes to use there or no increments on the dials. They typically only have a 4 jaw chuck get one with a three jaw that is special and rare as these were quite an expensive option.
These have been described as boat anchors by some and used as tools to make engines by others.
These were basically the affordable lathe of the time similar to the seigs of today but american made. they were set up so you could buy one motor and run many machines of of it. Set up properly it will have 6 spindle speeds.

Brian is correct the head stock spindle is on the light side so the machine is not made for hogging.
They are an interesting piece of american history . An affordable lathe for the home shop of people who had learned to machine for the war effort.

Tin

 

[doc1955]

Very basic lathe, can not cut threads..

Oh but yes it can cut threads if all the change gears are there. I have a fiend with one of these and they are nice little lathes.
It looks to be a Craftsman 80 (Model 109.21270)

 

[Tin Falcon]

yep came with change gears and threading dial.
tin

 

[doc1955]

The one my friend has looks almost like new and is a nice little lathe! And worth every penny of $300 if he were to sell I'd buy it with no hesitation. To me it would be worth that in just the WOW factor of such a nice little old lathe!