Found someone who's got one for sale; sounds like he's taken good care of his equipment. For one of these in good shape, what sort of price would be fair? I don't want to low-ball him on a price, but I have a reasonably limited budget for toys right now, and wasn't really planning on buying a lathe right now, but not many used ones show up around here.
FWIW, I'm up in Canada. I checked some of the sites I'm aware of to see what the current retail is on it, but it doesn't seem to still be for sale.
It's been supplanted by, I believe, the 46-715. When it was still available, I think it was around 600USD or so--make the appropriate conversion for canuckistani dolers.
About a year ago I happened on one (with the stand, which makes it a
46-701) being sold used from the classroom at a nearby Woodcraft. They had a price tag of $250 on it. I didn't argue.
An epilogue to that story is that it was missing a manual (easily obtained from Delta), a live center (had one on my Jet Mini which works nicely), tommy bar, and the face plate (similarly, the ones from the Jet fit fine). Not three days after coming home, a wrecker posted a for sale for some Delta lathe parts. He lives halfway to the Woodcraft store. He wanted $15 for the lot. It was as if someone had given him the exact parts that were missing from mine. And I made a new friend (hi, Jim--long time no hear).
$250 seemed to me a real fair price then and still does (with the aforementioned conversion). The lathe is perfect for my intended uses. I will never be a turner that needs a Powermatic, One-Way, Stubby, or the like. It's principal limitation (which is anecdotal--I haven't experienced it yet) is that the Reeves drive doesn't transmit torque well at low speed.
If you do get it, let me give you a hint for working protocol. You're not supposed to change speeds without the motor on. Therefore, get in the habit of turning the speed down every time before you turn it off. I have twice already found that I had left the control up at sanding speed, turned the lathe off, then chucked up a big 'ol, out of balance slab of bowl stock, and reached for the switch. Thankfully, I thought about it each time before I turned it on. Could be nasty.
That doesn't make the lathe unsatisfactory. It's a feature.
You'll have to define what you mean by the above, it is a constant horse power device.
A "Reeves" type drive should be running when you change speeds to minimize wear on the belt and the sheaves.
You also don't want to leave the drive in one position because you will tend to wear a groove in the sheaves at one place which makes a smooth change of speed very difficult.
Well, it happened on my drill press once when I first got it. I was turning a good sized Forstner bit at a fairly low (what I thought was conservative) speed and the bit would stop. The motor kept running, but the shaft/chuck/bit assembly stopped. Constant horsepower it may have, but the system depends on friction to work, and the low speed/high torque demand seems to have exceeded the coefficient of friction.
Anyway, the anecdotal evidence I had was not that, but what someone posted either on the wreck or on r.c.w. as a limitation of the -700 around the time I first posted my gloat about it (as I recall).
I said that: "you're not supposed to change speeds without the motor on." My point was that if you turned the motor off when the speed was set high and then chucked up something that needs to be turned slow, you'll have to unchuck, turn the lathe on, reset the speed, and then rechuck the blank. Do not turn the thing on with big ugly, out-of-balance work and the speed set on high.
Are you saying always turn it off at a different speed than before?
Where are you? I have one, mint, never used, well I did turn it on a few times, on the stand. I think it is a 701c.
After I got it Delta came out with the big steel one and I bought it!
Delta in Guelph was selling one for 600 or 650 at the time. I asked a few people for 450 and only got shamefully lowballed so I said no. But I could let it go a bit lower.
By "real fair", do you mean widder-woman fair, or fair for both parties? I don't want to insult the guy by low-balling him on the price; he's getting out of the hobby for reasons I'm grateful I don't have to deal with.
I had a 46-700 once. I believe they were retailing for about $600 US before being disontinued. Since it is an obsolete model now and the new version is considerably improved, I wouldn't pay more than $200 - $250 US for one even if it was new in the box.
I suspect the wear you mention was caused by grit from the mixer getting on the belt. That's just a guess, but I have owned a couple reeves drive lathes, know others who have them as well, and have been a part of this newsgroup since day one, and I have never heard of the wear you mention on a reeves drive on a wood lathe. That doesn't mean it couldn't happen, I suppose, but I think it would be an extremely rare occurrence.
Mike Paulson wrote: > I suspect the wear you mention was caused by grit from the mixer getting > on the belt. That's just a guess, but I have owned a couple reeves drive > lathes, know others who have them as well, and have been a part of this > newsgroup since day one, and I have never heard of the wear you mention on > a reeves drive on a wood lathe. That doesn't mean it couldn't happen, I > suppose, but I think it would be an extremely rare occurrence.
The wear is inherit to the drive; however, doubt the members of this list are using them in a production application, 8-10 hours per day,
I went back and rechecked my original data. The market price was a little less than $600, but with the stand and tools, certainly >$500. By generally accepted standards, the price I got it for being less than 50%, it was certainly fair to me. I also don't believe you're into widder-woman territory until that particular transaction gets into double figures.
I am by no means a good one to ask, as I, too, don't want to insult someone by making a lowball offer. On the other hand, given the givens, if the guy did feel insulted by a $250 offer then he's probably too personally invested in the machinery and situation to be able to judge rationally. That, then, isn't your fault.
By the same token, the lathe is another year out of production and away from new, so even though it's "indestructible" cast iron (as opposed to Detroit tin), you still might go lower with a clear conscience. Only you can judge the circumstances.
So, the short answer is, I feel $250 was fair all around.
You shouldn't have any problems with it. Yes, it would be a rare occurrence. Lots of industrial milling machines have this type drive and don't have any problems. It would be the rare hobbyist (pretty well non existent) that would ever run their machine that hard or that long.
I have a 46-700 delta wood lathe for sale. Also 25 large wood turning tools and 16 mini turning tools. I also have a stand with wheels to move it around. I bought the lathe and never used it once. Excellent shape. Asking $700.00 for everythng
With all the tools and mobile stand, this is probably not a new lathe. I assume this because what beginner would buy 41 turning tools and not once use the lathe?
I'll probably agree with the price being too much IF the lathe was the only thing you would be buying for $700.
BUT 41 turning tools "might" be worth the price of admission by them selves. That is $17 per tool. And then there is the mobile stand and lathe.
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