I have been turning for about a year on and old Dunlap that I restored. It has been a good lathe to learn on. Mostly I do cabinets and furniture.  But I made a couple of replicated artillery shells for brass canister for myself. Well some of my artillery friends seen them and I have made over 30 and have a lot more to make.

I need a bigger lathe and have not had good luck finding a good used one.  Recently I found a craftsman with a duplicator. The number on duplicator is 351.249520.  They are asking 450 which include all tooling to go with it

What is everyone’s thoughts or am I wasting my money.

Thanks

Will your friends buy 10 each, set them next to each other and then start measuring them up accurately?

If that is the case, a duplicator may be the way to go.

If, as I suspect, they don't, I fully concur with Don, regular turning would be faster and probably leave a better finish, leading to less sanding, as well.

It sounds like you're comfortable buying a used machine which of course opens numerous options for you (and of course potential problems).  Perhaps I'm missing it, but I don't see where your geographically located and/or what your comfort level is for going to get a machine.  From my own vantage point, I can't help but scour Craig's List and other forums for machines I'd like, can't afford, don't need and the like.  To that end, I've seen excellent high-end machines available from northern MI, Denver, and VA (I like the Ad Hunt'r web set as a CL compilation web site).  Besides a personal seller on Craig's List, there are other forums besides here where you can connect with turners on used equipment (SawMill Creek, AAW, etc) as well as a number of places that re-sell old equipment.

That said, you may consider some other options.  When I got back into turning some years ago now I purchased a factory 'refurbished' Teknatool NOVA DVR XP lathe from Teknatool for $1600.  In recent years, new products from both Grizzly and Laguna have come on the market at dramatically lower price points than comparable Powermatics and you'll find many threads here and elsewhere on their pros and cons.  Point is, while you're willing to go the used route, and there's no problem with that, you may find with some more research a new unit within your price point.

Hope some of the above is helpful...John

You've likely already considered this, but pulleys, switches, and other essential parts may be hard to substitute if they need replacement.  If the lathe is as old as I suspect, and lacks variable speed, the price sounds quite high in my opinion.

Thanks everyone for the advice.  I did pick up the pw90, I went and looked at it and turned a 5 in blank down.  Everything seemed to run real smooth and worked great.  Talked him down to 1500 for everything he had (probably still paid too much but he loaded with his guys and was 30 miles from me so I took that into consideration.  Right now I am trying to figure out the year.  serial number is 8290123 and the color is gold. 110 V  I got it set up and played with it all weekend.  The speed looks like it ranges from 500 to 2100. This thing is night day difference from what I had been using and for what I am going to turn, it is going to work great. Still trying to find a manual for this specific model so I can learn what maintanence I need to be doing.


Thanks