A cousin has a great 1939 Pratt & Whitt 12 x 30 lathe made in 1939 3 and 4 jaw chuck, it was bought new and used locally during WWII then sat unused 50 years, moved and set up, tuned up by a machine pro has original manuals and paperwork. My question being would it make a good gunsmith lathe for threading and cambering, action work ? Ill take photos and post. Im a pre 64 mod 70 nut and want to blue print actions,re-barrel and restock several. I have SOME machine work under belt. A ballpark price for machine would help. thanks
Gunsmithing Ole timer ? on P&W lathes
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Re: Ole timer ? on P&W lathes
Yes. Those things are rigid. Turned many a piece on one like that. If used so sparingly, there should be little to no backlash in the gearing on the infeed, cross feed and compound.
Yes. Those things are rigid. Turned many a piece on one like that. If used so sparingly, there should be little to no backlash in the gearing on the infeed, cross feed and compound.
Re: Ole timer ? on P&W lathes
These are heavy, accurate lathes built like a brick house. As far as using it for chambering and threading goes there are better choices. The headstock is long so only the longer barrels will extend all the way through the headstock. The bed is very short when you consider the amount of usable room over the bed. This makes doing barrel work cumbersome but not impossible. My buddy has the same machine and he does barrel work with so it can be done for sure, and if its still in good condition they are very good lathes, just wouldnt be my first or even third choice for barrel work. YMMV
These are heavy, accurate lathes built like a brick house. As far as using it for chambering and threading goes there are better choices. The headstock is long so only the longer barrels will extend all the way through the headstock. The bed is very short when you consider the amount of usable room over the bed. This makes doing barrel work cumbersome but not impossible. My buddy has the same machine and he does barrel work with so it can be done for sure, and if its still in good condition they are very good lathes, just wouldnt be my first or even third choice for barrel work. YMMV
Re: Ole timer ? on P&W lathes
I don't have any experience with that particular lathe but I have found that lathes of that vintage were build for using high speed steel cutters as carbide was not available or hadn’t been invented (not quite sure which as I wasn’t around back then either). Thus most of these old machines have a top spindle speed of about 1200 RPM, this is very limiting for polishing a chamber or sanding a barrel. The older machines just aren’t as easy to work around and are a little clumsy. Not to mention they weight a ton when it comes to moving them. Not a bad thing when you want to take a big heavy cut, but I hope you aren’t planning on big heavy roughing cuts when doing gunsmithing work. I would rather see a newer lighter weight lathe that has 2500 RPM and has a cam lock system for changing chucks quickly. The newer lathes are faster to work around and are made for lighter cuts and carbide tooling. But any lathe is better than no lathe at all.
AJ
I don't have any experience with that particular lathe but I have found that lathes of that vintage were build for using high speed steel cutters as carbide was not available or hadn’t been invented (not quite sure which as I wasn’t around back then either). Thus most of these old machines have a top spindle speed of about 1200 RPM, this is very limiting for polishing a chamber or sanding a barrel. The older machines just aren’t as easy to work around and are a little clumsy. Not to mention they weight a ton when it comes to moving them. Not a bad thing when you want to take a big heavy cut, but I hope you aren’t planning on big heavy roughing cuts when doing gunsmithing work. I would rather see a newer lighter weight lathe that has 2500 RPM and has a cam lock system for changing chucks quickly. The newer lathes are faster to work around and are made for lighter cuts and carbide tooling. But any lathe is better than no lathe at all.
AJ
Re: Ole timer ? on P&W lathes
thanks for replies ,folks
thanks for replies ,folks
Re: Ole timer ? on P&W lathes
A gunsmith by the name of Doan Trevor uses a P&W for the long range competition rifles he builds. He's a hell of a stock maker too! The palma rifle he built me is an outstanding sample of his work.
Mark
A gunsmith by the name of Doan Trevor uses a P&W for the long range competition rifles he builds. He's a hell of a stock maker too! The palma rifle he built me is an outstanding sample of his work.
Mark
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