Featured Technical Picked up a lathe...

Since the hamb is the only place I exist besides insta, im posting this up in hopes of some knowledge. Since this board has more diverse expertise than anyplace on the fkn planet, Im hoping the mods will tolerate this "o/t" thread for a day or so untill it disappears into the void. Any information, tech, history, use, humor... whatevr u got. Tell me its a piece of shit if thats ur take. Im $500 in with a pile of lathe/ mill tooling and a bunch of dope shit i can post up (like a mini degreed lathe type head for a bridgeport with a half dozen indexable inserts, very high end and "pretty", shit i haven't used in 25 years) along with a nice 70s air compressor, and a killer 70s hi/ fi and some american acoustics. Gentleman was building tiny steam and hit/ miss(?) engines in his basement machine shop. I got the scraps. Thanks to all who respond


Edit: Yes I googled that shit, but honestly, fuck google. I come to the experts....

 

I like it! Chuck up a piece of material and see what she’s got you might find out it’s accurate the old stuff is usually better than the new

 

Better then nothing ,most time you find you all way's need a bigger one
I have 1925 & 31 .
If leather belt brakes disassemble use a serpentine belt installed backwards on the flat side, & save the unique pin that looks like a camshaft that laces the belt together, can be hard to find ,
The new fiber belts I feel junk , my opinion

 

+1 on using a serpentine belt, that was the best thing I did to my 9' South Bend.
The only bad thing about buying your first lathe is now you will need a small mill.
What you got looks good! set it up and have fun.

 

I see it has Babbitt bearings in the headstock. If you grab 'hold of the chuck, how much lateral play is there? Up/down, side/side.......If none, great.
Lantern-style tool post. I got a quick-change for my 40's vintage Atlas/Craftsman, but I'm not so sure you can get one small enough for that little benchtop tool. (Then, too, I haven't investigated it.)

Either way, HotRodPowell is right......those older tools were a good piece of kit. Many a B-17 bomber part was whipped out on them during WW2.

Roger

 

That thing is bitchin!

 

When I got my lathe, I wondered how I lived without one for so long. If I had the space, next would be a milling machine.

 

Good score. A lathe is one of those tools you don't know how useful it is till you have it. I bought this little one for ten bucks at a garage sale. It doesn't look like much but I have made all kinds of stuff with it for me and my buddies.

 

By pic , looks to able to adjust the Babbitt bearing, with in reason,.
There are mill attachments for tool post.
& there are 3 & 6 self adjusting chuck,
Keep the off set chuck , unique things can be done with that chuck.
There also small micro chucks and you can make your own adapters.
When mountain 1 inch or thicker to a bench /table make sure you level and shim evenly , slowly on all four corners as you tighten it down.

 

Thats a pretty cool old machine! You will find many uses I'm sure. Did you get a 4 jaw chuck with it? 3 jaw is almost never dead accurate if working on an existing piece, good for when turning both inside and outside, like a bushing though. I have a 14" clausing, but always thought it would be nice to have a little bench top for small stuff

 

My thoughts exactly on the serpentines. My plan was to shorten everything up too. Why inside out/ beads out?

 

@dearjose
Flat side of serpentine belt against the hub / pulley steps for full with contact traction

 

That's a way better/ user friendly set up than this thing. Not sure on accuracy tho. If I read it right I gots to oil, like maybe 9 spots on this thing b4 it hit the switch.

 

You know it. Ive been humping a bridgport my whole life till i got out of pattern work 2 years ago. Missed the mill by 2 days or Ida walked right past this relic

 

I gots all the gears, 3 and 4 jaw, and a collet set with a half dozen collets. I also got 2 fixture style heads that are limitless.

 

Thank u sir. I always read ur posts
You're a valued member on here.

 

What do I got fellas. Familiar with most but always up for new information. Not a clue on pick 4... wtf is this set up?? Speak up!!

 

Thats a dividing head I believe. don't know how to run one.

Opps, thats pic 5. don't know pic 4

 

Thank u. Never checked but its solid. Not a lick of lash. Whole machines tighter than tight. Im a shovelhead guy so I dont even know shit about babbit bearings. I kno of them. Post up some info if u like. Thx again

 

@dearjose
Thats real plus all those accessories

 

Adjust how? Im sure I could figure but ur in the know. I am versed in machine setup and have a pile of shimstock. Appreciate the post because its currently on an old table with zero shims. Thats part of the charm tho. Might leave as is if it cuts true. If u knew the guy I got it from id bet he wouldn't accept anything less than damn near perfect.

 

That's it fellas.

 

https://www.lathes.co.uk/dalton/page5.html

 

The first 3 pics I saw I thought what a piece of shit, than I saw pic 4 and went WOW, a mechanical piece of art!

 

That's a high quality lathe from the golden age of English model making. The previous owner invested a lot of money and was obviously a committed machinist.

 

Just the right size for hobby use, small enough to fit anywhere, big enough to handle descent size pieces.

 

My suggestion would be......................

Keep the attachments as they are handy and usually expensive to get, and resell the lathe for the $500 that you spent.

Then start looking for a little larger lathe and put the $500 into that purchase.

Now, I'm not trying to be flippant or a smarta** here, I'm trying to give you an honest opinion. The reason I recommend this is because your lathe will be fine for small things, but it will require light cuts and take a while to make many things. A 13" lathe (center of spindle to ways) is much better, and a 15" is about perfect for our hobby. It may be difficult to get the rigidity for precision cuts. I'd suggest getting a piece of bar stock about 2" in diameter and making a bushing with a 1" ID and see how long it takes. I'm not meaning to knock your lathe, as its great for doing small things.

As you use your lathe you will want to add other items to your tool chest that let you perform different tasks. These all cost money. I think you will find a somewhat larger lathe will be more useful to you, and if you keep it in good condition it will always be worth what you gave for it or even more. I have used that idea my whole life and have bought and sold many many machine tools. I buy what I can afford at the time. Then I keep my eyes open for a better one. When I get a better one, I often can sell the first one at a profit or maybe even for what I had to give for the better tool. By doing that I have a real arsenal of good quality tools. Some of them I have basically no money in because I got good deals and made some profit sometimes. A few times I lost money, but overall I'm way ahead. Prices on most of this old stuff only go UP as time goes by.......so its an investment and not just a purchase.

Bought a 10 ft sheetmetal brake at an auction for $800. Used it for about 10 years. Downsized to a 4 foot 12 gage finger brake I got at another auction with several other tools. Spent about $1100 for all of it. Sold 2 of the other tools for about $2000 and kept the 4 ft brake. Sold my $800 brake for $2000......... and had 3 people wanting it. Sold it too cheap. Look for a 10 ft brake on Facebook these days. $3000 and up. I just keep my eyes open for a better tool and that way I don't put too much money into them.

You got a good deal, just don't stop there.

 

I got a 1945 Logan lathe with the leather belt. I was going to replace it with a serpentine rubber belt and when I first got it I had a old machinist friend ask me "how many hours you got on a lathe?" I told him 4 hours, he laughed and said " leave the leather belt on there, when you screw up the belt has a better chance of slipping and saving your machine and tooling when you crash it and at some point you probably will"

So it still has the leather belt and never had a problem with it yet, but I've never crashed it either !

Funny thing, I put an electric motor on my bead roller, ordered parts, parts come in and I find the pulleys are .020 smaller than the bead roller shaft. I'm standing at the bench thinking how can I do this ? I thought about a 80 grit head porting roll, a reamer, hand sanding it etc, 10 minutes into thought process I turn around and go DOH ! Idiot !! You own a lathe !! 20 minutes later I had the pulley on the bead roller...

...

 

The lathe wax the best tool I never knew I needed. Got mine in 2019 and use it a lot. Would like to eventually move up to one a bit bigger. You can’t buy anything like that around here for $500.

 

Appreciated. Ive been in the trades for 25 years but im a bridgeport guy. From the smallest up to 6' haas machines as a toolpather. Not to sound arrogant but i been around. But I ran a lathe for 2 years 25 years ago. And it was nothing like this machine. Solid advice. Thank u