Let's See Your Lathe

[EdK]

Bill,

I sure hope you get along with your 9x20 better than I did with mine. We just could not see eye to eye so I ended up hating that thing. I blame the lathe 25% and me 75%.

Ed

[Bill Gruby]

Ed;

If mine were stock things might be different, although I do know people that have stock machines that swear by them.
The only thing left on mine that is Asian are the castings and the stand. All the rest of it was replaced by made in USA. Even the spindle is new and heavier. The only thing left to change os the drive. I am going to 220 with a cog belt drive. Yup VFD here we come.

"Billy G"

[EdK]

(06-20-2012, 06:02 PM)Bill Gruby Wrote: Ed;

Yup VFD here we come.

"Billy G"

The only way to go. You will get spoiled with a VFD.

Ed

[Rickabilly]

Hello All,
What can I say, too many years of collecting machine tools and not enough "letting go"
For your viewing pleasure my Colchester Mascot 1600 during rebuild missing the saddle and apron at this point, The Mascot was purportedly the first of the modern squareline lathes, this is certainly true of Colchesters, While in a photo it looks exactly the same as a Triumph or Student but being able to swing 17 inches over the cross slide and a disc of 27 x 8.5 inches in the gap, and is 60 inches BC.
It does all that with a 12.5hp 3 phase motor with 16 speeds between 20 & 1600rpm, and 123 pitches including inch, metric, module and DP without touching any of the change gears
   
Here you can see the apron, I can't help myself I like engine turning so I did the front of the Apron and the top of the cross slide
       

Then I've got my Ole Colchester master 1942 WW2 War Finish model, no lead screw to save production time they were supplied with automatic die boxes instead for thread cutting as it was thought it too difficult to teach women to cut threads accurately in time for serious production, and i suppose who would want to do production threading by single point if there is another option. as it was originally designed to be used in conjunction with line shafting it has a clutch on the headstock spindle, which is very handy, I really like using this old girl and often use her for my milling work as well, with the carriage being so well tee slotted she is great for line boring and I have a ball turning attachment that bolts directly down to these slots. I'll supply photos when I'm back on my feet, but it is really quite simple using a vertical pin/shaft and a swinging mounting plate that drops over the pin, I take the compound slide off of my 9x20 and bolt it down to the swinging plate and "hey presto" a fully adjustable screw fed ball turner.
As I found her,
   
As she is now
   

Finally my 9 x 20, we used to travel the world together, when I was doing R&D projects I would ship a 20 foot container that was fitted out as a workshop ahead of me so when I got to site I had all my gear to resolve any issues, The workshop also had an RF45 mill, TIG and Stick welders, plasma cutter, benches and a rollercab toolbox full of hand tools, Ahh the good ole days, nowadays this little one is my "go to" machine for any small scale accurate work, some folks don't like 9x20s but I think she's great, she has done work at twice the size she should and even when completely standard was fine for general use.
   

Best Regards
Rick

[ScrapMetal]

Nice collection of equipment there Rick but what is this "letting go" thing you mention?

-Ron

[Mayhem]

I'd only encourage Rick to let go if he was to let it go to me!

[TomG]

Here are some pics of my baby, a Hardinge HLV-H toolroom lathe. I bought it new around 1980 and took on general machining jobs to pay it off. My wife and I had just bought our first house and the payment on the lathe was nearly as much as the mortgage payment. It's still pretty much as new except for a few cosmetic issues from being stored for a year while we were building a new house.

It has a taper attachment, an Aloris quick change tool post, a six jaw Buck chuck, a full set of 5C collets. I never got around to adding a DRO, but maybe some day...after the kids get out of college...

The Hardinge is a joy to use. Turning diameters to within .001" is routine and with it's rigidity, surface finishes are excellent. Threading is a lot of fun as well because it has a quick lift lever for the tool. No need to undercut a thread.

Everything about this lathe is massive, which is why it's capable of holding such tight tolerances. It actually weighs more than a Bridgeport mill, around 2200 pounds.

Tom

[Mayhem]

Very nice Tom.

[ScrapMetal]

Impressive as all heck Tom. Now I'm starting to get those "inadequate" feelings again...

-Ron

[DaveH]

One super lathe Tom
Still looks brand new

DaveH