Time For A New Lathe

I was finishing my last cut on my pulley so I
could fit the tone wheel in and the lathe starts
to squeal and stops.. I started pulling it apart
to find that the cross feed shaft locked up.. this
is a old lathe so I will see whats out there USED..
I dont do enough now days to buy a new one.. I got
the job done but had to crank it by hand which doesnt
leave the greatest finish.. but its fine and its on
the back so its not seen.. just one thing after
another...DAMN

With all the shops updating to CNC, you should be spoiled for choice. They are all over craigslist around here.

I'll be looking.. but right now.. its beer time

Hi Mike,

I am really wanting to know how your EFI/CNP project works out!

I talked to Richard today, and will purchase my two HP ECU's from him next week...as I am very close to having Randy's GTX converted first.

In Randy's car I have a 7AL-3 installed, and according to Richard, it will be too noisy for my ECU, so I will put in a Digital 6AL (installed in the Super Bee) and coil instead.

On the Super Bee, I may just go with CNP so I don't have to waste money on another MSD box.

Regards, Mark

As of now I have the coils on it and the ECU
wired.. just waiting for the crank triggger
mount to show up tomorrow.. then its just a
little more wiring and changing the software..
so I should have it fired next week

Hey mike would love to see how you mounted your coils

What kind of lathe is it?

If it didn't destroy anything critical like a bearing bore maybe some new or used parts could resuscitate it.

Kevin

I thought I posted a pic.. I'll do it again

The spark plug wires clear under the fuel lines
but it doesnt look like it.. the drivers side VC
is loose right now for the TDC to line up everything

Its some China thing.. I bought it at a auction
at a high school some years back.. I got my mill
at the same time but its nice... when I opened
up the lathe today there was a number of worn parts
on it... some parts were pretty rough

My lathe is an old South Bend made on a WW2 government contract, needless to say it needs some tuning.

Same thing I have. They are about indestructible.

Thanks for the pics Mike. Engine looks great

I had an old South Bend and it was a great little machine. I sold it along with my Bridgeport and Cincinnati mills before I moved. Been kicking myself ever since.

I dont do a lot of big stuff anymore so I might
look at a larger Shop Smith but I dont need the
mill part.. still looking

I think they have stand alone lathes...if you are talking Smithy and that type of machine.

One of my tools is an old Smithy. I bought it late in 2008 and I use it more than I probably should. As long as you don't crowd the tooling, and use dial indicators rather than the hand wheels, you can make very accurate parts very fast on a Smithy. Mine is old enough that it doesn't have half nuts...but I had to thread a small metric part and my SB doesn't cut metric. So I went to the Smithy, set it up and actually cut threads without half nuts.

The Smithy does have some issues with size, making a backstop etc but a very useable machine.

The wife will start watching the auctions she goes
to.. she said she sees them on a fairly regular
basis... I told her what model I'm looking at.. or
if she sees just a lathe.. she does damn good at
hunting down things I'm looking for.. we will see

I have a 1969 16" x 6' Southbend. My company bought it new. I was going to replace it with a new one but one thing led to another and I am in the process of fully rebuilding it. All the critical parts are done. Can't wait to finish it.

My Dad has a 9" Southbend bench lathe that he rebuilt in the 70's. Very nice shape. Its from around 1930. My brother in law will get it - Dad doesn't really use it anymore - he is 101 so its understandable.......

Mr.P, You do realize she sounds like a keeper don't you? Lol. Good ones are hard to find these days.

Oh I know.. we get along great.. plus I'm glad we do.. she
was state champ with a bow and pistol.. I taught her well..LOL

OH CRAP!!! Gives a whole new meaning to happy wife happy life! LOL. Good teacher...

Sure does.. I kid with her saying that if she
gets pissed at me to make sure its a good shot..
dont gimp me for the rest of my time here.LOL..
but she is a good one

Mike, tell here to look for a SouthBend, LeBlonde,American or Monarch brand those are usually stout old beasts that last with reasonable care I have spent many hours on a lathe over the years and American or Monarch were the best as far as being beefy and accurate, south bend and LeBlonde make some nice little what we call speed lathes ( 6 inch chuck and 3 to 4 ft bed length) that hold up well

I worked on a Monarch for years back at work
but I dont need one that big anymore.. I didnt
know that South Bend made smaller units.. I'll have
her see whats around.. thanks

I have a question for you.. are the jaws reversible
on those.. I'm looking at the Smithy MIDAS 1220 LTD
or the 1230 LTD but I dont see that they have the
reversible jaws.. it may come down to a phone call

Love my South Bend ... 1957 with Taper.

Romeo Mi? Ha - I just made the connection. In my other life (high school robotics mentor), I've been in touch with the team over at Romeo High School. http://bytingbulldogs.com/ Small world!!

AFAIK, the standard chuck doesn't have reversible jaws that unbolt. They do come with a second set of jaws that are reversible and you just scroll the one set out and scroll the reversible set in. They also have soft jaws etc. They actually support these machines pretty well. Most anything you need they can provide.

Yeah.. I jst got off the phone with Smithy and
they said they use 2 sets of jaws(ID and OD) that
just turn in and out.. thats fine.. I also found
out that a buddy is selling his Smithy.. he just
built a new shop and he is ungrading all his equip
to new and bigger machines.. I'll check out his
Smithy.. if I step up to the fancier unit I can
use all on my mill tooling on it.. I dont know
what I'll do yet.. I'll see what my buddy has for
tooling on his... thanks

If it just has parts issues I'd Google around and see what's available for replacements.

I'd rather spend $1000 fixing a lathe I knew was good than $1000 buying a used one I knew nothing about.

Kevin

With a mill and a lathe, you can build a mill and a lathe

My lathe was also from a school auction. It is a somewhat modern leblonde/ southbend with CVT style speed control. It appears that it was only used a few times, but it was missing parts. The cross feed screw and nut were missing, the cross feed gib was missing, the tailstock morse receiver was missing, and one of the gear box/ lead screw handles was broken/ gone. I made the cross feed screw and nut after buying precision ground acme thread rod and brass nut from McMasterCarr. The rest I built from raw materials. The trickiest part to make was the gib.
After getting all of the hard parts together, I found out why the lathe was barely used. The servo for the speed control had been wired wrong, so the machine was always running at full speed. I assume they were stealing parts off of this machine to replace worn parts in the others because of the speed issue. A simple wiring repair was all it needed.

After I pulled the cross drive its nice a quiet
but only has high and low speed but low works
out nicely... high is way up there.. I talked
to my buddy that had the Smithy but of course
he sold it already..might be a new Smithy

Did you find a replacement yet?

Kevin

that looks like a "jewelers" lathe. too small for the purpose.

No I havent even looked much.. its working but no
cross feed... when I get this injection done I'll
get back to the new lathe

They used this for the big jobs.

Kevin

This is a big lathe that I ran when I lived in Atlanta big lathe

Mine looks just like that only green, I'm sure it's older than yours, working on it tonite. Still looking for a vertical mill