Delta 46-700

[Bernie Weishapl]

My BIL called last night to say there was a Delta 46-700 for sale with a utility chuck, turning tools (which I already have), face plate, manual, and wrenches. I have a Delta LA 200 now and am wanting to upgrade but do have a budget of $500 according to my accountant (the wife). The BIL says the guy told him he had only used it for aobut 1/2 to 1 hr at the most and he bought it in 1998 for around $600. He decided he liked motorcycles better and couldn't do both. He wants $370 for it. I know it is a older unit and I can't find much info on it or find much on reviews on it. Does anyone have one or have had one? Is that to much to pay for this unit? The only thing I did find was some of them had bearing problems. As usual it was about 50-50 for the good and bad on what I did find.

The other ones I have been looking at are the Sears 15" model made by Palmgren and the Grizzly G0462. Both can be had new for less than $500. Thanks.


Bernie

 

[Dudley]

Bernie,
I was in the same situation before Christmas. I was looking to buy my first lathe and came across a guy who was selling a Delta 46-541. I tried and tried to get info about this machine but had little to no luck. I ended up buying the machine for $500 and am very happy with it. This is probably the best sie I found with information: Ace Power Tools

Choose your country and search for 46-700. It only provides a schematic, but it helps!

EDIT: OOOOO.... I'm now a Sage!

 

[retiredtog]

Lathe

Bernie,

I had the craftsman 15" pro... didn't last a year. The way it changes speed is by spreading the pulleys apart and when the belt starts to stretch out it just flops around at the lower speeds. Save another 300 and get the jet 1442 when it's on sale. I just upgraded last week and it's great.

Jerry

 

[MichaelMouse]

I was not impressed by the fit and finish at all. Believe this was the first of the Delta Taiwan ventures, and it set the pattern for a lot of clones. That said, it was heavily revised mechanically within a year or two of issue. Can't be a good sign. Noisy item, and on my friend's, a bearing heater.

I would do a Dudley and shop the old iron while building my war chest.

 

[Bill Grumbine]

Hi Bernie

I turned on a bunch of these, and knew several people who owned them back in the 90s. I cannot think of a single instance where the owner was happy with the machine, and the ones that I used were plagued with all sorts of problems. In addition to the design deficiences, like a low high speed and a high low speed, the controls were mushy and fit and finish was poor. QC was a nightmare, and if you were lucky you would only get a bad one and not a nightmare. I also say pass on it and keep looking.

Delta does not have much in the way of a good record lately when it comes to less expensive lathes. Their 16" steel bed lathe is a nice machine, but for a while they were making some real clunkers. The mini, the 12" and the 14" lathes all seem to have more trouble than they are worth. It is a shame, since they once set the standard for machinery.

Bill

 

[john lucas]

I have to agree with Bill. I owned one and liked it at first but after buying a good quality mini lathe I found out how bad it was and how much it vibrates. The Craftsman is worse from all I hear. I have just talked to 2 different people who own the Grizzly your talking about and they both like them very much. If it was me I'd go with the Grizzly or save up and buy a Jet 14"

 

[Bernie Weishapl]

Thanks for all the replies. As far as the Delta 46-700 for $370 I will leave it alone. I haven't found much on this unit but what I did find was it viberates badly, headstock bearing go out all the time, plus other problems and this unit is 8 yrs old. For $100 more I can get a new one with warranty.

I am really leaning toward the Grizzly. On the Sears 15" I have heard 50% that love the lathe and 50% that hate the lathe or Sears. The Grizzly has more features that will fit my situation plus 2 hp and at a price I can afford. In a couple of years I am hoping for either a Jet 1642 or NOVA DVR.

Thanks again I appreciate it.

Bernie

 

[Steve Worcester]

The way it changes speed is by spreading the pulleys apart and when the belt .....

Reeves drive.

 

[Myrel Willeford]

Lathe 46-700

I just got the same model for $125. with a full set of buck brothers turning tools, face plate and rest extention for out board turning. It is a step up from my last lathe and the price was right.

I have noticed one problem with mine, When I mount the face plate it wobbles. Once I have roughed a piece of wood round when the tool makes contact with the wood it feels like the tool is being pushed toward the tail stock slightly and then pulled back.

I Checked to see if the centers align. at first they appeared to align then I turned the shaft by hand and the drive center makes circles about 1/16 of a inch. Is the drive shaft bent or would it need new berrings?

Myrel

 

[MichaelMouse]

I Checked to see if the centers align. at first they appeared to align then I turned the shaft by hand and the drive center makes circles about 1/16 of a inch. Is the drive shaft bent or would it need new berrings?


More than likely a headstock rotation that wasn't fully complete. The circles are a sign of relative motion betweeen head and tail. Reaccomplish your headstock alignment procedure and see if that doesn't cure the problem. My 3000 adjusts the tailstock, which is probably a better idea than the head, because you can have a more positive system for locking the end you use all the time.

Bearings announce themselves by motion when you grip and try to shake the spindle, rumbling under rotation, or heat.

 

[Mike Schwing]

I wrote a review of the 46-715 on the WoodCentral site a few years ago. I replaced it with a Powermatic 3520. I know it is not an exact match with the 46-700 but it must be close.

LINK

 

[wayne hughes]

Delta LA200 speed control upgrade

Not long after I bought this lathe, which requires manual change of belt, I thought I saw an announcement for an after-market upgrade that would allow the use of a variable speed motor control. Anyone out there head of such a thing? I have outsized hands and its really tough to change the damned belt in that tiny space.

Wayne Hughes
lexxicon@suddenlink.net

 

[Bill Boehme]

...he had only used it for aobut 1/2 to 1 hr at the most and he bought it in 1998 for around $600.

If the guy will drop the price to about $5 and deliver it to you, you might consider it. I think that it may have been their first Reeves drive unit and I was not the least bit impressed with it.

I Checked to see if the centers align. at first they appeared to align then I turned the shaft by hand and the drive center makes circles about 1/16 of a inch. Is the drive shaft bent or would it need new berrings?

The spindle is not bent nor are the bearings worn out unless you hear a very noticeable clicking or growling noise and free play in the spindle.

There are two possible causes of the problem:

1. The taper bore is damage because a Morse taper insert was not seated properly and spun which caused galling in the bore and consequently Morse taper inserts no longer fit concentrically in the spindle.
2. Another common problem with this lathe and other Delta lathes with Reeves drives is that the machining of the spindle appears to have been done so that the register and threads and possibly the taper socket were not machined to be concentric with the bearing surfaces. The first spindle on my 46-715 had that problem which resulted in a considerable coning motion for both drive centers and screw-on chucks. They sent me a replacement along with bearings and it ran perfectly true. There was no bend in the original spindle -- it was just machined without aligning things properly.

If the drive center is coning, no amount of twiddling with the headstock position is going to have any effect on that since it is relative to the axis of rotation and not headstock position on the bed.

 

[Charles Henderson]

My first lathe was an unused 46-700, and I'm glad it came to me as a gift. That first year of obsessively traveling down the vortex destroyed the lathe. It couldn't stand up to 20-30 hours of use per week. It had the spindle coning problem that Bill mentioned above. I just had to deal with it. It was also too light, so I had to weight it down significantly to turn anything slightly out of balance. It had a gremlin in the Reeve's drive. The centers would never line up, even taking the coning out of the equation. The low speed was too high, and it had no torque at all at low speed. In that year the bearings were replaced twice. I'm not sure why they went bad so fast. All in all, it was just a poorly thought out, and poorly made machine.

I replaced that lathe with a Jet 1014vs, and I consider it to be a far superior machine. It allowed me to improve my end product through efficiency, reliability, and relative accuracy. I then saved my pennies for the PM 3520 I own now.

IMHO, the Grizzly G0462 has had so many bad reviews that I would be very wary, and with a low speed of 600rpm the 16" of swing can't be utilized. I can't say I've ever heard anything good about a Craftsman lathe.

Personally, I would stick with Jet for the under $1000 lathes. The 1014vs is going for $429, the 1220vs for about $600 (low speed 240rpm), and the 1442 for about $1250. Also the Nova 1624 is a great lathe for around $1200.