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Well, in my recent thread about outgrowing a lathe Todd had some good advice that I often see repeated...buy bigger if you can.

Now I'm torn between a bigger lathe and a lathe with a lot more tooling. Both South Bend lathes. One is a heavy 10, the other is a 9A. Both with the cabinet. Both appear to be in really good shape. I spoke with the owner of the 10... it's been in his dad's shop since he was a kid, and served light duty, and then twenty years ago he took it all apart, oiled everything up for deep storage, and is just now bringing it out to sell. From what he's described it's one of those "oh my gosh" lathes that you read about people finding and you hate them for it. I can't necessarily jump on this one since it's in an auction and doesn't close for almost a week. It comes with a fair amount of tooling, chucks, etc. It has the collet closer but no collets. It is 3 phase but I was planning on getting VFD for about a $150 to make it work in my shop. Plus side of that is variable speed and not having to swap out motors. I obviously lose some power there...

Because of the auction format I have no guarantee it will land within my price range.

I haven't spoken to the owner of the 9A, but from the looks of the pics on craigslist its in good shape. It has a clean paint job (could cover some sins), but could be a restoration project that someone is ditching. It has a lot of tooling... taper attachment, milling attachment, chucks, centers, reamers, and a bunch of collets. I obviously will know more once I speak to the seller. What I do know is that his price is crazy good... I guess he's moving and needs to sell. I'll try and offer him lower, but if he doesn't budge I'm still way way under budget paying his asking price. If this lathe turns out to be in tip-top shape then its also one of those "oh my gosh I hate you" kind of finds.

Both are about three hours away from me, but in opposite directions, so I don't really feel like going to see both. I'm afraid to wait to see about the heavy 10 because this 9 will be gone for sure by then. I am on craigslist multiple times a day and just saw this one, which is new within the last three hours. At the price he's asking I doubt it would last more than a day.

What should I do? Pipemaking is my long term career goal. This isn't just a hobby for me, or at least I don't want it to be. The nice thing about this 9 is that if I need to upgrade I could probably get more for it than I will be paying so it could serve well to hold me over for a few years. Plus it has lots of tooling.

ARGGHH.

If I weren't me, I'd probably hate me for having this luxurious problem...

Well if the 9 was clean and a great price, you have nothing to worry about. Its already sold
Thats pretty much what happens with good machines at good prices. They dont last a day. So my advice is make up your mind quick when one comes along.
I dont know the difference in those two machines, but if its a 9" swing versus a 10" swing, theres probably not a lot of difference except features, extras and weight to base a decision on.

I don't know that the 9 has sold yet. If it has I won't weep over it, although I think if I can get ahold of the seller (left a message) and it is in good shape in person then I'll probably go for it. I'm just hoping it hasn't sold in the few hours it was posted before I saw it. That would just fry me since I'm a craigslist hawk.

Just like what was said earlier decide on one before hand and know what you want on it and when it pops up drop the hammer