Got a friend who is looking for a vintage Milwaukee lathe, the only criteria I have at this point is, woodworking, old, and green. Any ideas?

John,

Several idea's but Green?

Your friend must be looking for an old school machine.

They are, I am not sure if they are stuck on Milwaukee, or did Milwaukee even do green?

Delta Milwaukee did some special order work, but I've never seen a factory green paint job.

Most school shops repainted the machines green.

Larry, old Delta Milwaukee lathe is what is wanted, now that I have it narrowed down, any suggestions?

John,

What does your friend want to turn?

Delta made quite a few models over the years ranging from 9" to 11/14" gap bed models.

The 11", 12", and 11/14" models would be the easiest to find tooling for.

Best bet is to keep an eye on Craigslist or estate sales looking for one that has quite a few accessories/tooling with it.

There was an 11" beauty near me a couple of weeks ago that had alot of tooling/accessories with it, that went for $250.00. ( The tooling alone was worth double the price) 

I didn't have $250.00. 

 

Thanks Larry, he is looking for something to get his feet wet again, he's been out of turning for years now. But he wants to go old. I did just what you suggested, I found some decent Delta Milwaukee's on craigs list in our region for him to look at, he did not even think of Craigs list, so now he has a resource. There wasn't much on fleebay, one over priced small Delta for 640 bucks a few states away. I also put a bug in his ear to keep an eye for basket cases, since lathes are such simple machines, they are easy enough I think even for the rookie to restore.

Thanks Larry

Did your friend find a lathe?

I don't know Larry, have not heard back from him. I'll check in and see what's shaking and ask for pics if he got one. Thanks for the follow up!