The usual advice is to buy the biggest machine that funds and space allow although it depends on the size of items you are likely to make.

A friend of mine insists that you can make small parts on a big lathe but not big parts on a small one.

I would go for an English or US make that is well known such as Colchester, Harrison, Brown and Sharp, Southbend etc so that information and spares are available.

I would avoid any dealer that charges VAT and ideally go for a privately owned, model engineer owned one.

Another important consideration is, what is with the lathe such as chucks, collets, taper turning attachment (if necessary) digital readout unit, lathe tools etc.

Think also about power supply and access.

If you are new to lathes it would pay to take someone with more experience with you when you go to view.

All the best with your search and please let us know the outcome.

Best of luck with it.

Brian

Gary

My holy grail is a 40" bed M300, it perhaps says something if I say I have been looking for one at a sane price for about a year now, and I haven't succeeded. Most of what I see advertised appears to be hammered.

Condition always should stand head and shoulders over any other criteria.

History is very relevant – if it is 30 years old but has had a gentle life in a prototyping environment, or school where it doesn't get used much, or home workshop background, this will always be preferable to a ten year old machine that has been used in a time pressured production environment and had the hell bashed out of it.

Your pricing is about right – the only recent M300 I have seen that might fit my bill was £5,900 + vat.

I echo Rik's comments above, I would say personal inspection is vital.

Whilst looking for an M300, I bought a Boxford 280.

Allegedly designed by the same person as the M300, the X10 series Boxford's (10.20, 10.30, 280, 330 etc) are very much like a cloned 90% copy of an M250/M300 – virtually identical in design and capability, just a bit lighter built.

Back in June, a very lightly used Boxford 330 came up (ex school, as most of the X10's are/were sold into education), I bought it via the man that installed it in the school in the first place, and serviced it every year, and I traded up to this.

I got lucky with this 330 – it genuinely is very lightly used, and I paid just £2,200 for it (a picture is in my album) – compare this to the £7,000 + I would have to pay for a M300 in similar condition.

No better X10 has come up in a year, and I just happened to be in the right place in the right time.

The X10's are oddly unpopular, for no good reason. This makes it a buyers market. Several of us on here have got them, and they are very capable lathes. There are several on eBay at £2,500 to £2,950, and they have been there since God was a boy, and will never sell at those prices.

If you are hankering for an M300, look seriously at the Boxford X10 series.  I would say that now I have my current Boxford 330, I have given up the search for an M300.  I would have to pay £5,000 more, for something that probably wouldn't be any better for my needs.

I hope this helps.

Edited to add a photo of the 330:

Edited By David Standing 1 on 09/11/2017 17:22:59

Buying a used lathe, is much akin to buying a used car, and about as risky. Cosmetics can be deceiving.

Small industrial sized machines like students and M300's are about the hardest to buy sucessfully, as most either get a hard life in an industrial setting with little or no maintenance and tend to be well worn out, or are from training establishments where legions of Spotty Herberts have been let loose on them with the inevitable consequences.

I wouldn't lay out any serious money without having a good look and feel close up, and especially in the case of an M300 hearing it run……iv'e come across a few Harrison M's that looked ok but sounded awful. IMHO Spindle bearing replacement on a 600 group lathe is not financially viable for a hobbyist, infact any spare parts/ bearings etc from them are diabolically expensive.

Colchester's if they have been run with flood coolant and not well maintained tend to end up with rusty apron gearboxes full of old coolant.

Unless you are very lucky, expect to find a good bit of backlash especially on the cross slide handwheel, however this can be sorted without too much expense.

I always look at the accessories when buying a lathe, things like steadies are hard to come by and expensive secondhand. The headstock MT adaptor is often missing in action from Colchesters and Harrison's and can be a pig to find secondhand for reasonable money.

At the kind of money you are talking about i would want a full complement of chucks and accessories, a quick change toolpost with holders and ideally a DRO.

My advice would be to go see a few before parting with your cash. Unfortunately going back to the car analogy, you won't truly know what you've bought until you've lived with it for a while.

I bought my Student 1800 at auction sight unseen, but it was at the right money and i knew i was unlikely to lose on it. It came out of a maintenance environment and looked dreadful, however it cleaned up ok and although is a little worn, it does everything i need ok, All chucks and accessories were present including a rear qctp which was a bonus. Sorry if all this comes across a bit negative, but you really do need to tread carefully, especially if your new to the game.

Forgot to mention in my post, and to echo Davids 'Holy Grail' comment. If you have the space, go for a long bed version, my Student is a short bed, and although i rarely turn any long parts, it still feels a bit 'cramped' in use.

Sadly in my case, i couldn't fit anything longer in the space available, infact iv'e got a hole drilled in the wall for the tailstock handle to go into

Hi Gary

Having recently gone through the same and viewing a load of s*** all over the country dealers included I ended up with a Runmaster 330 from Axminster tools http://www.axminster.co.uk/machinery/lathes/engineering-lathes.

Excellent service and no regrets, Highly recommended and a 3 year on site warranty

And the training courses they do are excellent as well Bob the instructor is Brilliant

check em out it won't cost you a penny online

Tony

PS where are you I be happy to show you mine……

Edited By Antony Powell on 09/11/2017 18:03:57

When i first started out in business for myself i bought a colchester student mk1..it was absolutely worn out really but it did what i wanted to do with it forward on 25 years and i have a small pot of cash that i thought would buy me a better lathe I was thinking student 1800 or so or a mk2 at the least after looking for ages on ebay etc i spotted a student mk 1.5 with lots of tooling and a start bid of £50 i enquirer if the seller was going to let it run or if they had a buy it now in mind and they replied if i offered enough it was mine.asking what was enough the reply above a £1000 came back so I rang him asked a few Q’s and offered £1k which he accepted I transferred £200 to secure it and then made arrangements to collect it (300 miles from me)

Hired a trailer and went to collect it .when i got there it was in fantastic condition what looked like surface rust on the ways and any bare steel was in fact a protective brown gloop which after removal with thinners left everything in superb condition wear wise.

And as i was there loading it up the tooling kept on coming out to be given to me chucks rotary tables collet chucks cutting tools general tools etc

Also it was fitted with a clutch which was a bonus…i hate starting and stopping motors constantly

After getting it home and installing it sold my old lathe instantly for £500 on gumtree surprisingly so that had cost me nothing over the 20 years i had had it

After a while i had this huge pile of surplus tooling that went on ebay and i got eventually over £1200 so in effect the lathe had cost me nothing..

So after all that good lathes can be had even if they are 30-40 years old and if you buy in big job lots you can reclaim some of your outlay..

And buying unseen isn’t so bad if you can scrutinise photo’s and ask questions and get what you think are honest answers. I was prepared to walk away if it was bad when i collected it and lose my deposit

Recently I went to a training workshop closing down they had 4 colchester students 1800’s and 4 similar far eastern lathes and Bridgeport’s and excell milling machines. All of the lathes and mills went for between 300-500 each

All of them were on ebay the next week at £3k or so each

So buying from a dealer gets you nothing in work done to the machine…i know they had to move it and lay out the cash and fees on ebay.

So if you can find a real life auction somewhere with lathes you may get a good bargain or keep on looking on ebay and get in quick if you see a good looking machine..remember the bigger machines put many hobbyists off hence prices are low

Which of the comments have you not appreciated?

Indeed you can’t. By the way, my wife is from Norfolk. I’ll be around that area nearer to Christmas if you still want someone to go with you to look at something.

I don’t pretend to know it all but what I do know has been learned the hard way.

Edited By Carl Wilson 4 on 09/11/2017 19:51:57

Sorry, just read the post stating you are in Norfolk, might be a bit far for delivery

Dougie

If you can find a Pratt & Whitney lathe in decent condition I would highly recommend it. One of my favorite lathes was a 14 x 30 Pratt & Whitney. I am guessing it was made in the early 1940s. I bought it used here in the US. Strangely, it had a Buck & Hickman inventory tag on it. Pratt & Whitney made lathes with similar features in, I believe 12" and 13" swing.