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Birmingham DLC-16120 lathe quality

I bought this lathe from a company who is a friend of my company. It is a Birmingham DLC-16120 lathe.

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It seems to be really nice and loaded. It is 16x120. It has a 4 1/8" bore (HUGE), power everything, DRO, and even a taper attachment. It came with traveling and steady rests. It can also do imperial and metric threads and goes up to 1600 RPM. It also seems, in every way, to have seen very little use.

I have a business, but I am not a machine shop, I am a machine mover and buy and sell industrial items on ebay. Nevertheless, we have a machine shop with Monarch AA lathe and we use it at least twice a week.

The Monarch AA, against all expectations, is in like new condition (believe it or not). However, it is slow, and does not do metric threads and has a much smaller bore.

My question is should I keep the Monarch, or upgrade to this one.

I think YES but my guy, who also uses the lathe, says no. I need some arguments here.

I told my guy that this Birmingham is the "lottery" lathe, like "what lathe should I buy if I win the lottery".

He says, forget it, it is too big, worth too much money, and such.

I reminded him that he himself needed metric threading a few months ago.

Overall, my question, is THIS Birmingham a quality machine. I believe that it is better made than the smaller 13x40s and so on, this is an industrial grade lathe with a big bore, power oil lubrication, etc. But, perhaps, I am mistaken?

Reply to
Ignoramus18273
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Gunner, being long, does not make the lathe bad, it just makes it capable of things that may be rarely necessary. What could be "bad" is low quality, or lack of features.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus18273

Hey, well done on the file sizing/optimization and thumbs.

Wow, now you can turn your own metal telephone poles! It looks to be in great shape. How are straight/parallel/unclapped the ways?

One question: Will your lathe guy -use- it if you switch out the Monarch?

If noone else has a negative opinion of it, and you have room for it (obviously) and it will add the missing features you have wanted, I'd say Go For It!

Reply to
Larry Jaques

Yabbut, he has an entire warehouse to work with, not just a shop space like most of us.

Reply to
Larry Jaques

Gunner Asch on Fri, 01 Jan 2016 10:01:51 -0800 typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:

OTOH, there will come the day "Ya, I gots a machine which can do dat!"

Reply to
pyotr filipivich

Not enough room for two, for sure. Plus, the Birmingham lathe can do everything that the Monarch can.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus18273

It is noticeable though that given a choice of machines most machinists will select the smallest machine that will do the job :-) Cranking the carriage around on a 16" lathe is more work then on a, say 8 inch.

There was a similar lathe in a shipyard where I worked in N. Sumatra. I don't know who bought it but it, but it was a similar size, maybe a little bigger, and looking at the dust, dirt and dried oil on the ways it was obvious that the carriage hadn't been down to the tail stock end since it was installed.

Reply to
John B.

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