blount vega oliver and more

i recall your previous comments about general here

did not look closely at this one but from what you are seeing this is a real good buy

The General 160 lathe for $600 is probably a great buy. Value wise. BUT, its still a 12" swing lathe. Is 36" between centers. Pulley speed changes . Maybe Reeves drive to get variable speed. Not sure. You can get the ex act same specs today by buying a new mini lathe and an extension. For less than $600. Maybe even get variable speed on the mini lathe. The General is a good lathe. But technology has changed a bit in the last 30 years. I would love to have this General. But you can get the same capabilities fo r less today. The $600 is probably based on the fact the lathe cost $1500+ brand new 30 years ago. The seller thinks its still worth 40% of retail b ack then. Probably true. But retail prices of lathes has come down since then. Maybe quality too compared to this fine Canadian General.

No, it's a 4-speed. If it had the Reeves drive, there would be a lever on the front of the cabinet. I'm faced with a similar problem regarding pricing. I have a 160 for sale. It is just the cast iron top on a custom base. I bought it that way and built the base as I'm too tall for the cabinet-type in this advert. Apparently General used to age all the castings to allow stress relief before machining them. The quality of their table saws was legendary. I saw some ex-school shop ones in a local store recently for very reasonable prices but I have no room for one at the moment. Graham

i saw on some vendor site future metal lathe parts they season them outdoors for months and years before they finish them and make them into lathes or mills etc

i doubt the stuff made in china is seasoned before they finish them

They most probably re-heat the cast iron to relieve the stress in higher quality tools. In the early days of Taiwanese imports, it paid to take a straight edge with you when buying, say, a table saw to check the flatness of the table. These days the quality is much higher.

UT, its still a 12" swing lathe. Is 36" between centers. Pulley speed cha nges. Maybe Reeves drive to get variable speed. Not sure.

I hear you. Your problem is even though your 160 is undoubtedly a fine lat he, it really just isn't worth a whole lot today when compared to what you can buy brand new. For what you want for the 160, its possible to buy a br and new Chinese lathe with an extension bed and maybe variable speed and be able to do 120% of what the 160 can do. Think of cars. A fancy luxury ca r from the 1970s is the same or maybe worse than a medium Camry, Accord etc . today. Camry and Accord are not luxury cars, but they probably have bett er, more powerful motors and nicer interiors today than what the 1970s luxu ry cars had. Would you buy a 1972 Coupe de Ville for the same price you ca n buy a new Camry? Most likely not. Unless you really want the pimp image .

It is just the cast iron top on a custom base. I bought it that

I agree! My new lathe is a Nova Galaxi and although much more expensive than the 160, is far more versatile. However, I know some top-class turners still using the 260, which is a bigger version of the 160 and used to grace the workshops of internationally known turners until the likes of Oneway and Robust came along. Graham

BUT, its still a 12" swing lathe. Is 36" between centers. Pulley speed c hanges. Maybe Reeves drive to get variable speed. Not sure.

lathe, it really just isn't worth a whole lot today when compared to what you can buy brand new. For what you want for the 160, its possible to buy a brand new Chinese lathe with an extension bed and maybe variable speed an d be able to do 120% of what the 160 can do.

The General 160 and 260 lathes are fine, fine lathes. Just like the now no n existent Powermatic 90 and Delta made one similar too. 3 HP with variabl e speed I think. Or maybe it was pulleys, not sure. All fine 12" or 24" d iameter lathes with 36" between centers. Pretty much identical to Oneway l athes today except Oneway is welded steel and not cast iron. All fine and good. But lathes have improved over the years. Sliding head stocks are fa r superior to the old time fixed head lathes. You get a short and long bed lathe in one. And you do not have to bend your body in half over the bed to hollow out a bowl. Pain.

Although my Nova Galaxi has a sliding and swivelling headstock, I still adopt the old "fixed headstock" position from force of habit:-) I now have a Hope System hollower with both laser and TV attachments and for deep hollow turning, a speciality of mine, the headstock has to be in the "fixed" position.

they do iterate and listen to the customer and over time they end up making quality but it has taken them a while to learn

they are still learning but they go through iterations more quickly now with cad designs and automation

well having one too many lathes is not the worst problem to have

maybe you can donate it to a local maker space

some schools still have woodshops too and believe it or not they may be happy to have it

i get it and not disagreeing with your point

one thing about using a vintage car as a daily driver is that safety was not as well baked in to cars then as it is now

crumple zones come to mind first

but the air bags and abs etc

lathes are as safe as the operator

I wasn't even thinking about the safety differences between the Eldorado an d the Camry, Accord. Just the quality aspects. You're right the safety as pect is there. Even though the Eldorado probably weighed one ton more, it probably fared much worse in any safety test crashes.