Why are metal lathes so expensive?

I dunno about blaming artists- I am a metal artists, and I know several hundred other metal artists- and I have never met one who could afford, of actually bought, a real metal spinning lathe.
The only ones I have ever seen in the flesh have been in Metal Spinning businesses. And there are damn few of them.

My guess is that the number of these lathes ever built is very very low, and its a simple case of rarity. There are probably only a hundred or so spinning shops left in the whole country, some of which only have one or two lathes. I would be amazed if the number of spinning lathes still standing in the USA is more than two or three thousand. And most are not for sale, as they are the key tool for an entire shop.

Nowadays, the new ones are CNC, and, again, I would be amazed if there are more than a hundred or so of these in the whole country.

So, basically, they are all custom. And priced accordingly.

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I'm currently looking for a bigger lathe so I'm in the same position as you, but with a good few years lathe use experience under my belt.

My experience so far is, unless your lucky, or get something medium sized and slightly unusual, you will need to spend somewhere around £. That should get you something decent, is fairly good condition, with a couple of chucks and a steady or two, that will swing 10-12".
All the bargains you normally see for less are oddball machines, or knackered/incomplete.

You might get lucky, they do come up, but it will take some time waiting/hunting.

It's slightly easier and slightly cheaper to get something 9" swing. The main benefit is they are easier to find and easier to move/house.

But if you can deal with moving and housing a 700kg 12" swing lathe it won't cost much more and will be a more useful machine.

Buy as big as you can deal with.

Once you have it, you will still want to spend some more on a few more bits.

Not much point listing makes and models as it really depends on what you want and what you can find. Local is always best as you can go and view.

Edit...

Read as much as you can about lathes! Use lathes.co.uk as reference too. The more you learn about how they work, what features they have, and what has been made, the better.

I have a Drummond made in ! It's only 7" swing but it's been increadibly useful and taught me alot. Really old lathes are ok, but not very stiff. Main issue is getting parts. I'd never have bought mine if it hadn't come with loads of accessories and tooling.
All it can really do though is make spindles, bushes, pins, spacers etc. Although I have also bored out carbs, skimmed starter motors, skimmed the outside of dynamo cases etc.

Also, think about if you ever want to work on long items as then spindle bore comes into play.

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