got me a new toy too; 1920?? lathe

a Monarch from the thirties maybe?

all there and then some,
just got it home,
need to clean, inspect and setup

but so far it looks to be in excellent shape

thanks, Paul Windshield and Josh of Amocat fame for the help getting it home
you guys are tops!

 

garage sale find? pretty damn cool. I bet that thing weighed a ton?

 

Cool. I would guess that it is early 20's. I have two 1925 Monarch lathes and mine have a few advancements over yours...but still pretty close.

Here is my 1925 gearhead lathe...

 

I could make room for that in my shop too,........your a lucky guy Paul.

 

Here we are. Building 80 year old cars with 80 year old machines. Seems reasonable to me.

 

how does one date a machine like this?

is there a model number somewhere on it?

the motor looks like fifties or sixties maybe?

 

On the tailstock end of the ways, you should find a serial number. Monarch Lathes LLC (the company that bought out Monarch Machine Tool) still had the records on both of my lathes. This has been 4-5 years ago, but hopefully they can still help.

Here is a page out of an old manual showing the markings...

 

KOOL...now alls it needs is a blower and some white walls and your off to the races!

 

Great stuff...Neal--you have some of the Coolest stuff....Harking back to the Beadroller thread...and now the Lathe.......too neat. What other cool stuff lurks in the Shop?? Oh and Paul....NICE SCORE!!

 

I used a lathe just like that one i split some 35 ford wire wheels so i could widen them.

 

My south bend has all them wang fung pulleys exposed like that and its late 30s early 40s and works awsome and is a real kick to run . Nice score I hope it came with some tooling

 

My Grandfather and a few others from my Dad's side of the family worked at Monarch for many years. I'd like some Monarch equipment in my shop ... just because.

 

i love old machinery and that one is a beauty!

 

What a score,great old machinery is so cool.

 

Paul
I'm thinking your is quite a bit older than Neals'. Remember that the motor was adapted to it later on.
Yours was steam or water powered originally.
From a quick check Monarch started production in 1909.
Paul

 

thanks Neal,
but mine does not have a number there,

any idea where else I might look?

edit; the ways are this clean the entire length

 

being from Ballard it may have come off a ship
looks very similar to the one in the engine room of the boat I worked on in Alaska, an ex WWII radio recon vessel, had a line of machines driven by an overhead shaft..

 

Impressive piece of machinery.

 

Very nice Paul.

A friend of mine had four of them, one about the size you have and the other three went up the scale.

Thing I remember the most about them was they were very smooth running.

You should be able to find some info about your Monarch - and many others - on this site: http://www.lathes.co.uk/index.html

Scroll down for the list.

 

I went to Chaffey high school (So-Cal) in the early '80s, Took all the machine shop cl***es they'd let me.

There were machines in there from before WW2, and they STILL had 75% of the machines running the 3" leather belts up to the main drive shaft running over head!

It was cool. Very old school.

My dad took the same cl***es when he went there, and came in with me on the first cl*** day (school rule), and found HIS shop teacher still teaching the cl***.



NICE score.

 

I work for the company that bought the Westinghouse fractional motor division. I have put it to the nerds to find out when the motor was made if we still have the right oldtimer around.

 

Hmmm, wonder if the ways have been reground?

I have a copy of a Monarch time line that John Legge (a former Monarch employee) put together. They introduced the quick change gear box in 1912 and then changed to Timken roller bearings in the headstock in 1928. This places your machine somewhere between 1912 and 1927.

I have a catalog and cover letter that was dated 1926 and it shows a 16" tool room lathe that looks almost identical to yours.

You might post some pictures here...

http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/Monarchlathe/

JC Legge posts there, so he may be able to ID it better than I.

Neal

 

Hey there Lathe guys, sorry to highjack but........
I've got a box of what look like mill bits or lathe bits or what ever you call em'. ( found em' at my old house when I moved out. )
Prolly 15 or so. They are packed in small blue cardborard tubes. I have no use for them if anyone has interest pm me.
Sorry for the lack of technical speak, I don't know much at all about lathes. But I'll do my best to figure out what they are if someone can use them.

 

ricknroll...sent you a PM.

 

great story elcornus!

thanks one more time Neal
I would like to see that picture
and any info on this thing

here is a picture only moments old

you know the term "well oiled machine"?
this is it

still need to put some real feet on it and do a real set up
but I mounted the motor and oiled her up
and it looks and sounds great!

 

some neat info!

 

What all did you get with the lathe far as tooling goes?

And what size is it?
Looking from here, I'd guess an 8" x 42" or so.

Now you're gonna need the MSC catalog - a 4000 or so page freeby.
You can get it through their site.
Google Manhattan Supply Company.
Good place to deal with and they don't mind shipping the small quan***ies that most amateurs deal with.

Enco is another ok place to deal with, they have some good deals every month and now and then, a killer deal.
They also have no probs in filling small orders.

 

I'd make up some kind of screen or sheet metal safety guard for the belt/pulley system.

Incidentally, I've read that honey is an excellent anti-slip for flat belts.
Doesn't take much.

 

yes it's got an 8" swing and six foot bed,
so it'll take 16x48 material +/-

it came with about five hundred pounds of misc tooling
still need to sort through it to see what I have

and it did come with gaurds
I haven't put them on yet because I wanted to see it work

it has a synthetic belt on it now but did also come with a new leather belt

thanks for the sources

 

Paul,
Great find. The Monachs always had an excellent reputation.
The correct way of describing the size of any lathe is a two digit number, "** " x "zz", where the first number indicates the maximum diameter material you can turn and the second number indicates the maximum length between centers. Looks to me like yours is about 16" x 60".
Leather is still the best material for a flat belt drive. Older Machinery Handbooks have a lengthy description of leather belts including Navy specs. regardig belt dressing honey would probably work ina pinch but there are several proprietery types available. Thebest I have used comes in a cardboard tube about the size of a grease gun cartidge. it is pine tar based and won't damage the leather.
An old machinist friend told me when i was looking for a lathe "Remember, you can turn small stuff on a big lathe but youcan't work big stuff on a small lathe"
Good luck, ted