I saw the link below on wood lathes and it got me thinking...any ideas for a suitable lathe that I could experiment turning reels on? I know its probably really expensive etc but I am just interested to hear what lathes are likely to be suitable candidates to turn a reel on.

Jet, Grizzly, Enco, etc., all have 10 inch metal lathes that sell for about $1000 or even less. Oriental machines, but not bad once you get them set up.


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Taig, Klien, Shurline all make smaller lathes and mills

You may want to check your local phone book for used equipment dealers, I picked up an older Atlas 10" with a 30" bed for $300. Its badged Craftsman, but is simply an Atlas rebadge from the late 60's. It was still new in the crate when I got it, the story I got was that it came from a Vo-Tech school that dropped it's machine shop program.
I also have a very small Enco precision lathe that works well, but I got that for cheap at an @#$%& needing some cleaning up. Someone had left it sitting where it got some surface rust on it, it went through the @#$%& without a bid, I got it for $50 cash from the owner at the end of the day along with two boxes of tooling. It took a few hours of polishing and lube but it works 100% now. It's made in China or Taiwan.
I upgraded the chucks on both to fully adjustable versions for more precision work.

The old Atlas lathes were very high quality - a similar lathe today would run in the thousands. You got lucky, very lucky. Treasure that machine.

If you can handle the size and weight, there are many older yet still functional American made lathes that are being sold due to them not being CNC compatible. Many companies are selling them at a song, but many also weigh many hundreds of pounds (or more).

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