A lot of good info posted here so far…
Been avoiding commenting as it’s a pretty complex subject to sum up much of without writing a book on it.
I was sort of brought up on South Bends so I’m pretty comfortable with them and they’re a good all around machine that tend to be good bang for the buck. So I’ve had a heavy 10 with ample tooling for the past 20 something years and it has served me well for 90% of what I do. Until fairly recently I’ve been lucky enough to have close geographic access to a couple 10EE’s but now the only one is an hour away, need to plan a few jobs for it before it’s worth the trip.
My top choice was always a well equipped Hardinge toolroom setup but a 10EE would be a close second. That said, in 30 years of looking I still haven’t found either in a $ range I could justify, just missed more than a few deals though. It’s a lofty goal to hold out for and in the meantime I’d tend to pick up whatever comes along first for a useable good deal, then move it on after.
I certainly agree with those saying that it would be beneficial in the long run to get a bigger/better machine as it seems obvious Brad will quickly utilize the potential of a lathe for going way beyond just cutting cylinder decks.
IMO don’t be tempted with getting along with a Hardinge second operation setup (unless it’s a deal you can't refuse), so what if they’re dead reliable when you’re just going to flip it as soon as a nice toolroom setup comes along. Having no threading gears and power feed is a huge disadvantage, though the power feed alone I could live without.
I’ve had one of those little Hardinge dv’s sitting disassembled in a corner for years in case I wanted to get into some volume production (which is what they’re really intended for) but have never so far had a use to bother with it.
One thing I haven’t seen anyone bring up (or I missed it) is the advantage to getting a belt driven as opposed to a geared head as a first machine. Easy to adapt different phase/voltage motors to most belt setups for one thing. Many are easy to break down to individual components for moving, I got the SB H10 down my buklhead into the basement by myself without too much effort.
But mostly because belts are fairly forgiving of mistakes and can be adjusted to slip a bit in extreme circumstances where in a similar situation a geared head could result in quite a bit of mayhem. Until things start becoming intuitive it’s pretty easy to be looking down at a dial when starting a cut and not notice you’re feeding the wrong axis until tool/part contact is made and things happen very fast at that point. Where a belt drive can just slip and stall rotation, the same mistake on a big geared head can result in a virtual explosion of tooling and parts. I’ve seen pretty large items go ricocheting around a shop and end up impaled in walls, safety glasses only go so far against artillery fire…
Bill
