Should I buy this lathe??

[Christopher Stahl]

I have a friend of a friend that has an old J-Line lathe that he wants to sell. I don't really know anything about it and was hoping to get some opinions.

This is a photo of what it looks like, but it's not the actual one. I found this on the internet, but it's the same one. I believe it is a 12" and is variable speed.

He is asking $400 for it, should I buy????? Will I be able to get parts for it??

thanks,
chris

[lou sansone]

short answer is probably yes if you are looking for a decent lathe in this size range. The price is very reasonable - old rockwells and deltas in that size catagory usually go for twice that.

Some creeker may actually have one of these and their advise would be worth much more than mine.

Longer answer is to look at oldworking machines .com under yates american where you will find info on the j line series of machines. It is probably from the 40's and should have ball bearings in the headstock. It looks like it has been worked on a little judging from the new electrical enclousre on the front of the lathe. What type of spare parts do you think you would need? It looks pretty complete. By this time in history it should be using standard MT for the head and tail stock so there should be no problem getting new centers for it if need be. If you want you can change out the motor and put a VFD motor/drive combo and you would have a pretty sweet mid -size lathe.

[Bruce Page]

I'd buy it in a heartbeat and I'm not much of a lathe fan!

For me, old iron at that kind of price is a no brainer.

[Wes Bischel]

If you don't, let me know who's selling it - I'll buy it!! :eek: :D

It looks like it's in good shape - even if it needs bearings or a new motor, $400 is a good deal. It looks like it has been set-up for spinning metal as well.

Wes

[Jim Dunn]

I wouldn't hesitate!!! I'd buy it in a New York minute and I don't even know how long that is;)

[John Weber]

J-line made some really nice tools, $400 seems like a fair deal.

John

[Christopher Stahl]

It's definitely a cool lathe and it very beefy. I've never owned a lathe, so I just want to make sure I know what I'm getting into and that I can get parts for it if need be.

thanks,
chris

[Bill Grumbine]

Hi Chris

If the lathe you are looking at is complete, and you are aware of its design limitations, then that is a good price. I had a friend who bought an old J Line once. This is 1995, so we are talking 10 years ago. He asked me the very same questions you are asking here, and he was buying a used machine from a man with whom I had dealt in the past. I even knew which lathe he was buying. I warned him not to buy it from the guy because it was missing parts. He told me that man had promised to look for the missing tailstock, etc, and would deliver them to him as soon as he found them. Well, you can probably guess what happened. He paid $600 for this machine, and another $600 to buy the parts from the company, which were still available at the time. So now he has a $1200 used lathe. Before you plunk down your money, make very sure that it has all the parts it needs, or if it needs parts, you know what they are going to cost you.

Limitations. This is a fine spindle machine. You can turn bowls on it, but it was not designed with that in mind. It is not going to have the swing, stability, or low start speed of many modern lathes when it comes to faceplate turning, but when compared to machines which sell new for the asking price, it is certainly competitive. If you plan is to turn mostly spindles, you will do well with it. If you have plans to get into irregular turnings and off balanced pieces, keep in mind you may have some modification work to do. All things considered, it is a good machine, and will outperform similarly priced machines now on the market.

Bill