I'm looking for some info or manual of this lathe. There's a specs-plate on the machine which has French language and some gearing info on it I think. Other than that I haven't found anything else. I've tried Googling the words "Accura Simplex" but that came up fairly dry. Can anyone perhaps shed some light on it as for specs, info and such? I would also like to find out how old this thing is. We dis***embled it prior transport to my place. Man this thing is heavy. The engine 'box' had to be lifted with an engine hoist. Same as the main beam. The moment I got the lathe in the shop I started s****ing the badly applied and flaking blue paint of the machine and applied some more vintage like green paint on it instead.
I suspect you're gonna regret pulling the headstock off the bed long before you get the 2 of them back in alignment! Beats the HELL outta me why people are so worried about the appearance of a machine tool that they tear it down to paint it when they don't know a damn thing about it to begin with, much less how to get it realigned! Friend of mine who is a damn sharp engine builder and drag racer has done the same damn thing and I know sure as HELL that when he starts to re***emble it that I'm gonna get drafted to line the thing up. And even after earning my living as a machinist for 40 years, I'm gonna have to do a LOT of research to properly align that thing! I've got a 1942 Monarch CW 16X54 that is as fine a lathe as any new one available as far as maintaining tolerances while machining at a metal removal rate far better than almost anything available new for less than $15K, but it looks like it just surfaced from a septic tank! And it's gonna stay that way as far as paint goes! As long as the machined and ground and hand s****ed surfaces are OK, I say leave well enough alone! OK, rant over! go here and look around for your lathe and you may find it: http://www.lathes.co.uk/ Here's a good spot for help on rework of old lathes and other machine tools, one forum section of many on Practical Machinist.com which is the largest machinist forum I know of, and this section is on antique machines: http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=19 These guys are almost all either employed as a machinist or retired machinists (like me) and some serious hobbyists. Most of them will try to help you, but (also like me) they'll bite your head off if you try to ******** them or question their judgement and opinions on something they know far more about than the average gearhead hot rodder. Good luck! Dave
Go here in the Antique Machinery and History section of this forum and ask some questions: www.practicalmachinist.com
Looks somewhat like an old LeBlond we had at one of the schools where I taught shop. I really grew to like that particular lathe. Send these guys your pic http://www.leblondusa.com/ maybe they can help. Good luck, and I agree with Dirty above, dont take it anymore apart.
Thanks for the links guys. Dirty, hold your horses here fella! The lathe had to be dis***embled in order to get it moved out of the tiny garage it was in. Moving it, let alone lifting it, as one ***embly was simply not possible at the moment. Therefore, since it was apart anyway, I decided to clean it up to the best of my abilities today and slap some fresh paint on it aswell. But, you gave me a good reason to pay better attention when ***embling this baby again as I can fully understand alignment is rather important here. Thanks for that reminder.
Whats to know? On, off, in, out, speed ,metric or imperial? Nice score Herm . I came into a similar one a couple of weeeks ago at my buddies shop. I was fixing it for him as it was damaged when he got it and he told me to come back when no one was near. then he said why dont you just take that home and set it up in your shop. I get you to do all that kind of stuff anyway and if i need it I will know where it is. I double checked friday to see if he had changed his mind. He hadnt. Not quite as good as owning it but maybe better since there is no cost. Need any info getting yours going you know I am here for ya. Compared to your occupation it should be childs play. Don
Small update: I've found the lathe is most likely an English build 'Empire' lathe, but sold under a different name in Belgium once. I've only done a repaint of the machine. I've found out some auto-feed gears are missing a teeth here and there, so those will need to be fixed in due time. Below's how the lathe has turned out. In the pictures the headstock gearcovers are still off the machine and hanging on a hook, waiting for the paint to dry.
Too True! ,never pull one apart! and spend a few days organising the move. A lathe is a precision machine and should not shifted,lifted or bolted down with out a lot of care. I see plenty of used ones for sale But I will never buy one that has been moved and dumped in an Auction yard. When machining you are working at a maximim of 005 ". So if the bed has been twisted it's almost impossible to attain the correct tolerances for a job. Besides,most of us know that shiny machine means you have no work....
Good thing tolerances for old traditional hot rods is around 1/4" so he won't have to worry too much if he is .005" off here or there.
Exactly! Looks like a South Bend knock off. My old South Bend heavy 10 and 13" look pretty identical to yours. The main difference I see is the gear box. You sure cleaned it up nice! The practicalmachinist site will help you id it.
[quote=dirty old man;3509597.I've got a 1942 Monarch CW 16X54 . We think my Monarch is a 1928....... I jacked it up, slid a wood platform under it and rolled it on pipes. I dont know if thats good enuff for dirty old man but I am happy with it
That's why I hardly clean up my workspace at the printshop I work... Or maybe I'm just lazy This lathe is way overkill for what I will be needing it for anyway. But during the rebuild I had already noticed a couple of issues which needed fixing or adjusting; - The 2 carriage clamp-bolts at the rear had backed out 3/8 inch! giving the carriage room to move and vibration during turning. - front headstock bearing had excessive play. Oil would seep straight out after oiling them 2 minutes before. Tightened up the bearings. - All the open oiling holes had no felt-material in them anymore, just a pile of chips and dust. I carefully cleaned out all the **** and replaced oilwicks and re-oiled everything again. So this lathe is already in way better shape now then it was before I bought it, eventhough I still has some wear on the gears ofcourse. Had I just left the lathe in it's greasy state like I couldn't care less about it, I probably would've never noticed some of these issues.
If you have a lathe and a milling machine, you can build ANYthing. Boy, do I envy you! Have wanted a lathe ever since I got my BA in Industrial Arts. God luck with it...you are very lucky...
This is how to level a lathe. It may lead to other areas about alignment etc. http://www.atlas-press.com/tb_bedlevel.htm#HOW TO LEVEL THE LATHE BED
Thanks for the link C9. Alignment is what I'm going to look at a bit more. I've also already downloaded a pile of vintage manuals and such about lathes and machine work and I've been reading on a number of topics aswell on PracticalMachinist. Good info there.
BigBlock, Your lathe looks great! As far as aligning the headstock, I aligned the headstock of a wood lathe I repaired years ago, it had to come off; the alternative was s****ping the lathe. Now before anyone goes ballistic on me, I KNOW tolerances are a different thing with wood lathes. Consider that so are speeds: spindle speeds of over 3000 rpm are not uncommon on a wood lathe. Misalignment causes vibration; vibration on a wood lathe can cause “flyers”. Flyers, on any lathe, are very bad. Because wood lathes cut with hand-held tools, the technique I used was entirely different than the one I suggest from the link provided here. What the 2 methods have in common is trial and error. You could think of it as sighting-in a rifle, you are going to waste some ammunition and time, but with patience, you can get pretty accurate. The link: http://www.sherline.com/align.htm In order to head off the nay-sayers ahead of time, I know the link is for a small hobby lathe, but the it’s the METHOD that has merit. In a nutshell, this is the method: “Remove the headstock and clean any oil from the alignment key and slot and from the area of contact between bed and headstock. Replace the headstock, pushing squarely against the key and retighten. Take a light test cut on a piece of 1/2" to 3/4" diameter by 3" long aluminum stock held in a 3-jaw chuck. Use a sharp-pointed tool to keep cutting loads low so as not to cause any deflection of the part. Measure the diameter of both machined ends. If there is a difference, the headstock is not perfectly square. Now, without removing the key, tap the headstock on the left front side (pulley end) if the part is larger at the outer end. Tap on the right front side (chuck end) if the part is larger at the inner end.) You are trying to rotate the headstock ever so slightly when viewed from the top until the machine cuts as straight as you can measure. There should be enough movement available without removing the key, as its factory placement is quite accurate. Take another test cut and re-measure. Repeat this procedure until you have achieved the level of perfection you seek.” (Now watch the discussion begin on how best to measure accurately…… Again, your lathe looks great. I wish I had one like it.
The very first lathe I helped install was German horozontal wheel lathe ,$1,000,000 in 1972. it took 3 months to set the bed to install the machine and 7 days to set the bed correctly on it. We used small spirit levels and a Dumpy level to get it as close to perfect as possible . Today it's easier because of Lazer levels,just hire one from a tool place and make 100% sure the machine is dead flat on the floor from the Vees on the bed. A lathe cannot turn work accurately if there is twit in the bed and just because it's cast iron doesn't mean that it cannot happen. You can shim the feet to get it flat. Once you have the machine perfect,then it is simply a matter of learning the basics of how to grind tools to suit certain jobs ( get a little bench grinder and keep an eye open for machine shop closing etc to get their cutting tools) ,then it's moving on to screw cutting . It's amazing what you can make when you know the basics of thread cutting. e.g I haven't bought tap washer ever...I just turn up a new one when i need it. Make up a pump so you can run cooling fluid on your work. A cool job turns out so much better . Good lighting and safety gl***es are a given.
I've been wondering about using cooling fluid on a lathe, but wouldn't that just make a big mess in the chip pan? Ofcourse a good filtered drainage and recirculationsystem is required, besides making the chip pan watertight. Lighting and safety gl***es are present. I've got one 4ft long fluorescent lighting unit straight above the lathe and 2 on both sides slightly behind the operator. There are no annoying shadows to be seen in any angle while working on the lathe. Yesterday I tried to check if I could mount a discdrake rotor which posed no problem at all. Will try a drumbrake aswell soon. Maybe I'll to sacrifice a hub for this to get some stability in the drum. Below's an 11" (10.75") rotor in the lathe. A larger rotor should also fit if I removed the gap-piece from the lathe I guess.
Couple of inexensive things you can do during the alignment process. Go to a pump shop - found in farmland, oil field and other communities. Get a piece or two of pump shaft about 18"-30" long depending on lathe length. These are usually chromed and many times all stainless steel. They are precision ground and very accurate if you get an unbent one - which isn't hard to do. Depending on lathe size, 3/4" to 1" will do it. Use them for alignment test bars. Set up a dial indicator on the carriage, install the longer test bar between centers - drill the center holes yourself. If they're back flush with the jaws in the chuck they'll drill on center with no probs. Put the dial indicator in the middle of the bar and turn the lathe by hand so as to indicate a bent test rod. Zero the dial indicator at one end and traverse the distance between centers which will indicate true or not. (Keep in mind the tailstock may be set over few .001's so you'll have to get that squared away.) Use the shorter test rod clamped in the chuck and traverse the carriage w/dial indicator and see if it stays on zero all the way. This one is pretty much the acid test for headstock alignment. That should give you a good start and for most things hot rod you'll be building until you get some more machining experience it will be accurate enough. Lathes are fascinating machines and a good hobby their own self. Just don't forget to come back and finish the hot rod....
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