Talk ME out of buying a Clausing 5914 lathe

[BadDog]

That Rockwell was my first real lathe, before that was the Griz 9000. Really an almost perfect lathe for a home shop and did very well on 95+% of the stuff I needed to do. L00 spindle, heavy rigid bed, and lever 5C are all strong positives. It had very little wear on the ways because they were "flame hardened", and it was used almost exclusively with a bed turret. But it just fell short too often on some tasks that were too large, difficult to turn (requiring small cuts, 1 hp), too slow speed at 1500 rpm max, and short compound/quill travel. And of course it lacked metric threading. When the big 7.5 HP, D1-6, 2" bore, 4500 lb, 2000 rpm, Newall DRO, gear head, metric threading (all options at flip of a leaver) beast was found in my path, I had no room to keep the little lathe. I really miss the little lathe, but the big lathe will do everything that rockwell would do, and a whole lot more.

[spro]

Well it was a step and a good one. I consider that near a recommendation.

[spro]

I think I said that ten years ago. Some go forward and some are limited but at least we had the paths before us.