Anyone have any good recommendations on a good starter lathe and what other stuff I would need with one? Thanks.
Dan

Dan by starter lathe. I'm guessing your are thinking about needing a better lathe later in life. My lathe is a peerless and does every thing I need it to do. I have tried making staff but it is not my lathes fault that I can not do it. It is my gravers faults and maybe a little of my own.

In other words as long as the lathe is tight/ not worn out it will most likely handle any job you ask it to do. If you are planning to be a professional watch maker then you might need a $5,000 lathe.

As for as options you will need some collets, Maybe a three / four jaw chuck. but all of this can be purchased later.

When a watchmaker graduated school they bought a lathe with about 10 collets and off to work they went.

In my opinion, if you are going to buy a lathe, buy as complete a lathe as possible with as many accessories as possible or you will be terribly frustrated that you can't really do much with it. Yes, you can purchase accessories later, but you will wind up spending a lot more than if you buy a complete lathe in the first place. I would also suggest a WW style 8mm lathe since there are so many of them and most accessories interchange.

Look here: lathe info for some good information.

These are good points and the link to the site is helpful as well. I guess as any budding watchmaker I would love to buy a good lathe right off the bat at a good price. Is there any particular brand that is considered the one to get or can't go wrong with? Like when I think of staking sets I think K&D. Is there a sure fire great lathe maker out there or does it come down to personal preference?

It also sounds like gravers are pretty critical as well.

Dan,
As they say above, the worst thing you can do is buy a less than perfect lathe, these are precision instruments and anything less than true is no use other than items you can get away with large tolerances, you would never be able to adjust a staff or pinion correctly. Collets you need to buy a full set 1-50 will save a lot of frustration they step in 0.1mm increments so they either fit or don’t so with a part set you will always be short, these are the expensive part of the kit, (I have 2 sets for sale ) Then you will need gravers , these are cheap buy new gravers about $20 each I would guess get about 6 for start, avoid carbide you need special equipment and knowledge to sharpen and use, even then expect to spend 2 full days preparing your gravers for initial use and they will be good for many years once done, after that its practice you would need to sit on the lathe full time for several weeks to start to become proficient to start making basic parts and adjustments. I have had peerless lathes mosley they are very good if you get a good one, my latest is a Levin with full set of collects 1-60 and heading to 80 including half sizes at the low end. I have two cross slides and never use them.

I respect every thing that Chris has to say. He is a professional Watchmaker and has most likely $100,000 dollar degree or a least that much in training. He has the knowledge and equipment that most of us would love to have. He has it because he uses it 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year. and 20,800 hours in ten years. Now if he has just one other employee then you can double that #.

With the above stated. I will say once more. What are you wanting to accomplish. To some day make staffs. Take any part that you will ever need. and be able to walk over to $2,000 dollar lathe including accessories and fix it. I have [3] different Jawed chucks. 1 cross slide. I have never used my cross slide. The jawed chucks maybe twice to hold a case. I do have 40 collets. But only because I upgraded to a complete Lathe set up. That came with all the stuff listed above.
It is sort of like buying $30,000 worth of snap-on tools when you change the oil on your car 2 times a year.

The reason I say you can start with 10 collets. then see how often you actually use you lathe. Most people will use there lathe 3 times a year. I use mine about 10-12 times a year.

I do enjoy being able to go to my collets and picking the one that fits correctly. Correctly is the ket word. This why Chris is looking to add another 10-20 collets to his set. He is looking to be more precise about the word correctly. Because he wants higher standards. Tighter tolerance. Professionally.