Reply To: Am i going crazy, possibly

[arutha]

I totaly understand, I went through the same thing! I now have four lathes, one for cutting wheels, one for pinions, a watchmakers lathe and a myford ml4, thats not including a jacot tool and a set of turns! For accuracy you cant beat a watchmakers lathe but like you have found, if you want to machine larger parts like brass pillars etc you would need to spend a small fortune on 3 jaw chuck, cross slide etc. People are collecting this stuff now and it has pushed the prices sky high. Bob will give you the best advice but I would aim for a watchmakers lathe WW 8mm type and something like the sherline for bigger stuff. There are people who use a Myford ML7 for clockmaking but I think they would struggle with some of the finer work. Some of the cheap chinese lathes can be ok but you have to keep your fingers crossed that you get a good one as their quality control isnt very good and even then it will need some cleaning up of rough castings etc and proper setting up before it would be suitable. Hope this helps a bit.