question on lathes

"The Swing measurement is the maximum diameter of material that can be cut or machined on a lathe. You measure from the bed of the lathe to the center of the spindle and then double that measurement."
 
One thing to keep in mind is that the swing over the bed is NOT swing over the carriage/cross slide. There is no standard for how much less the swing over cross slide will be. On say a 14" swing lathe, one may do 10" over the cross slide while another may only do 8".
 
Its a very old Goddard flat belt lathe that I am gonna sell. I was just looking for data on it. Any opinion on its worth? I have a three jaw chuck, face plate and a pile of tooling.
 
Without one clue how large it is it's anyones guess what it is worth but in any case it isn't worth a whole lot. Smaller old lathes that are easy to move are worth more than bigger ones,, usually.
 
As stated, swing is always the largest diameter. There are 3 possible swing sizes, over the carriage, over the ways, and some lathes have what they call a gap bed. It's a section of the ways that you can take out to do larger diameter work, generally facing work.

From experience, the swing is important, but the diameter that will fit through your headstock is much more important. Figure out what size ranges you will need to chuck up I side your headstock and use that for finding the right lathe. Nothing worse than having the headstock bore limit what you can do.
 

If it's a British lathe it'll be the [b:e208a6051b]radius[/b:e208a6051b] that can be swung, not the diameter. So a British 6 1/2" lathe is the same as an American 13" lathe.]
 

You also need to know the length between the head stock and tail stock.
I've got a Seneca 14x40 It most likely was driven by a line shaft, It's now been converted to an electric motor with a Ford transmission.
My neighbor had a 16x60
 
The value will be in the tooling, if it's quality stuff.

With that in mind, figure up the cost of the tooling you've got, cut that amount in relation to it's condition (places like HGR Industrial Surplus often sell older tooling by the pound), and you've got a good starting point.

If the ways on the lathe are worn, or it's otherwise sloppy, it's worth at least scrap price. If everything is relatively tight, I'd double scrap price for it.

I've been looking to upgrade from an older, worn, 18x60 Cincinnati Hydroshift so I've been looking at alot of lathes lately. What I've just described is pretty much what I'm seeing market wise.

Ultimately the older stuff is going dirt cheap because everyone now days wants CNC, and thee man buying yours is looking for something to use for a hobby, or to use a few times a year to make a bushing, etc. Fortunately yours is a smaller machine, because it's what guys like that usually look for....By that I mean I've seen much larger machines go for less than scrap because of the hassle and expense associated with getting them moved.

Good luck.
 
Yes, double scrap was exactly what I was thinking but didn't type. Value is also affected it has already been converted to electric motor,, or plug and play they say these days, LOL.
 

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