Some properly old school heavy metal

[yorkie_chris]

I've been after a lathe for a while. Always been fascinated with making things, especially out of metal.

So, this slightly sorry looking example came up on eBay. Perfect size considering the space limits in my garage ruling out "proper" tackle (which is gutting since I had to pass up a well used but bang accurate colchester with DROs and all the tooling for £600) and the small size and ridiculous price ruling out the bench top types like the myford and boxfords.



"Slight damage" to the compound slide, hmmm...

Of course, I asked the wise council of DavieSV, who's basically a swarf-filled coolant-scented machining version of Yoda, who agreed it was probably a can of worms and not to bother. Of course I didn't get the message until after the end of the auction, which I'd won

So, with the lid slowly loosening on the can of worms, I rustled up my Dad (wearing a suit!), and a van to go and collect it and transport it to the garage of doom.

£122 poorer and a few hernias apiece later, we managed to get it into the van. And a 6 million point turn and 20 minutes later, we managed to extract the long wheelbase sprinter from the blokes 3 foot wide driveway...

Using some skillful bribery and only minor threats of violence, some more help was secured to carry the (bloody heavy) bed casting down my driveway without hernias
And in the morning, the stripdown began... The can of worms fully opened!!
I'd love to show you before and after photos, but suffice to say the previous owner had NOT been shy with the grease gun and I suspect the pound and a half of dried up heavy grease was a full 30 years worth of accumulation!

About a gallon of paraffin later...
The bed, nice surface finish still. Yet to see if it is straight


The (powered ) cross slide and (massive!) carriage assembly.


The right of the apron, leadscrew and power feed shaft


The exterior and cleaned up workings of the leadscrew and power feed gearbox. Reversing mechanism for feeds strangely absent though the lever is present







And finally for the moment, the prehistoric motor it came with. Never seen one like this before, it actually has an adjustable brush mounting plate to adjust the electrical timing of the motor!!


IP65 conforming of course!!!

About time as well, I reckon... Nothing like a bit of old-school heavy to lighten the mood. Whats on your mind if it turns out to be straight?

[yorkie_chris]

This and that
Nah, useful bits of kit. Allsorts; spacers for wheels, swingarms, shock and fork tools that you can buy for a small fortune etc.

I'm quite fascinated by model engines, but not sure I have the time or inclination for projects of that size. I'd rather make bikes go faster.

P.S these messings around set to the tune of "to hell and back again" by Saxon

[Speedy]

I'm jealous.

I'd love a lathe, only trouble is, A, I have zero experience in operating one, B, not enough room for one!

[yorkie_chris]

I did not have room for the TIG or oxy set either... no excuse!!

[Speedy]

Before I bought one, I'd have to make sure I could operate one, or there'd be loss of fingers and such like!! Haha!

Night school I suppose, bit gutted really, when I was at school, they had lots of lathes, big ones too! But the National Curriculum didn't include metal work at that time, they just sat there idle. Doing nothing.

I wonder if they're still there.....

[yorkie_chris]

Same here when I was at school, pair of decent size boxfords (made a mile from my house ) which never did owt.
Lucky, I had friends in the staff and could basically make what I wanted while I was in 6th form
Shame really, all the new "design technology" stuff is a load of bollox.

Keep your fingers out of the gears then
Not complicated machines, just expect to make a lot of scrap in your first attempts!

[Speedy]

Yeah, that will probably be the case!!

Originally Posted by Speedy

Before I bought one, I'd have to make sure I could operate one, or there'd be loss of fingers and such like!! Haha!

Originally Posted by yorkie_chris

Keep your fingers out of the gears then

And don't try and pull the swarf off when the lathe is spinning, bloke at work de-gloved his thuimb by doing the above.

[Speedy]

Originally Posted by cuffy

And don't try and pull the swarf off when the lathe is spinning, bloke at work de-gloved his thuimb by doing the above.

OUCH!!!!

Thats made me balls shrivel just thinking about it!!!!!!