Look what followed me home

[mcjustis]

I was perusing facebook marketplace last week and found this gem. It was about a two hour drive from me. It's a machine built in 2007, English and Metric threading, 4k rpm spindle. There is a 3 jaw chuck, 4 jaw chuck, tailstock chuck, live centers, full set of collets plus an almost full set of metric collets, Acu-rite readouts, two lights, chip guard, also had a 10 hp phase converter that went with it. Had a mill 5c collet indexer as well. I got enough tooling and inserts to last me the rest of my life as well. Oh yeah, and he threw in a pallet jack so I could get it on a lift gate truck. Just the machine I've been looking for since I started in this line of work. I've been using Hardinge HLV-EM's since I started my apprenticeship in '99 so this machine is exactly what I was looking for. I spent a day cleaning up all the old dust and dirt off it, not that there was much. The only thing that gave me any trouble was the threading gearbox. It looked like someone fell asleep while putting grease in it with an automatic grease gun. There was about 5 lbs of grease in there. It was old and cold, so it took awhile to clean that up. Other than that small issue I haven't had any trouble with it. I've made several parts for a Stuart No.1 I've been working on. I won't say what I paid, but it was WAAAY below market value.

Martin

 

[Joe]

First of all Martin, nice score. Not familiar with that machine but it sure looks nice and seems to be fully fitted out. I don't think price comes into it, if you're happy with the unit and the price, that is all that matters.

Second, my turn. So I don't do the facey face thing but my wife does and she is really great at spotting stuff. This add popped up with four crap pictures three of which were of a lathe and one of some unidentifiable metally thingy. The ad basically read "my Dads lathe and a pile of drill bits ". No make, no size no detail blah blah. One pic had a round cornered headstock so I went and looked at it afew days ago. The pile of drill bits turned out to be a wall of jammed full machinists tool boxes. Filled the one ton up and hauled as much of that stuff as I could fit. Unfortunately a brother sold some of the stuff I had bought so that was lost, some nice Starrett stuff, but luckily not anything I didn't already have.
Today was moving day for the lathe, out of a basement door with a couple of inches to spare, an immediate left 90 with 1/3 of machine still inside the basement, up a 10 foot bank and then 30 feet up up a 12% gravel grade to my pick up. 45 minutes and no death, injury or dismemberment.
Got it home and unloaded by lunch. What is it ? A 1953 Colchester Dominion 15", with a steady rest, a four jaw and 1 1/2 three jaw chucks. Price, well let's just say as a package it was less than the nice South Bend 9" I picked up 8 years ago and I have a lifetime supply of quite a few items. I was about to order enough stuff to qualify for free shipping but the only item on the list I didn't score was a surface grinder wheel.
This afternoon I did a little cleanup to ascertain what I had got. Overall I am quite happy. The ways have some wear but I don't think it is too bad, some damage but pretty good considering that it is 70 years old. The worst bit is one gear group in the headstock, they're a bit chowdered up, could be used but I'll try and replace them first. I basically paid for a project and got a lot of free tools to go with it.
So for now I'll put it to one side and take it apart late summer or early fall and do a restoration during the winter months. In the meantime I'll see what I can scrounge up for gears, so if anyone has any or suggestions of where I might look, please speak up.

John

 

[GreenTwin]

I know this post is from January, but that is a super nice looking lathe !

.

 

[Richard Hed]

First of all Martin, nice score. Not familiar with that machine but it sure looks nice and seems to be fully fitted out. I don't think price comes into it, if you're happy with the unit and the price, that is all that matters.

Second, my turn. So I don't do the facey face thing but my wife does and she is really great at spotting stuff. This add popped up with four crap pictures three of which were of a lathe and one of some unidentifiable metally thingy. The ad basically read "my Dads lathe and a pile of drill bits ". No make, no size no detail blah blah. One pic had a round cornered headstock so I went and looked at it afew days ago. The pile of drill bits turned out to be a wall of jammed full machinists tool boxes. Filled the one ton up and hauled as much of that stuff as I could fit. Unfortunately a brother sold some of the stuff I had bought so that was lost, some nice Starrett stuff, but luckily not anything I didn't already have.
Today was moving day for the lathe, out of a basement door with a couple of inches to spare, an immediate left 90 with 1/3 of machine still inside the basement, up a 10 foot bank and then 30 feet up up a 12% gravel grade to my pick up. 45 minutes and no death, injury or dismemberment.
Got it home and unloaded by lunch. What is it ? A 1953 Colchester Dominion 15", with a steady rest, a four jaw and 1 1/2 three jaw chucks. Price, well let's just say as a package it was less than the nice South Bend 9" I picked up 8 years ago and I have a lifetime supply of quite a few items. I was about to order enough stuff to qualify for free shipping but the only item on the list I didn't score was a surface grinder wheel.
This afternoon I did a little cleanup to ascertain what I had got. Overall I am quite happy. The ways have some wear but I don't think it is too bad, some damage but pretty good considering that it is 70 years old. The worst bit is one gear group in the headstock, they're a bit chowdered up, could be used but I'll try and replace them first. I basically paid for a project and got a lot of free tools to go with it.
So for now I'll put it to one side and take it apart late summer or early fall and do a restoration during the winter months. In the meantime I'll see what I can scrounge up for gears, so if anyone has any or suggestions of where I might look, please speak up.

John

I have a bunch of gears that do not go to any of my lathes. If you can tell me a bit about your gears, that is, gear tooth size and hole size, I can look thru my pile and see if any match. Tomorrow, If I remember, I will check out some of them and let yuou know.

 

[mattb.351]

That looks like the one with total indicated runout of less than 1.27 microns. Should be good enough I reckon!

 

[Joe]

I have a bunch of gears that do not go to any of my lathes. If you can tell me a bit about your gears, that is, gear tooth size and hole size, I can look thru my pile and see if any match. Tomorrow, If I remember, I will check out some of them and let yuou know.

Richard,
Thank you very much, no rush as I have too much to do before I get to tear into it. I'll try for some numbers and pics this week. Today I moved the lathe into a lean to beside the shop so no worries with weather. I want to move it inside the shop before the damp weather sets in, in 4 or 5 months.
Also I need to develop a plan for the restoration and make measurements of the wear I'll want to address in the process. I think some disassembly and cleaning will be needed to get accurate numbers and a sense of any binding or interference that will need dealing with too.
I'm figuring it will be a long road but I think I will quite enjoy myself and learn a lot along the way. Good bye Netflix, hello life.

John