I just unwrapped my lathe.



Inherited from my Dad when he upgraded to a sweeet Colchester metric/imperial quite a few years ago.




WW2 era made in Melbourne. It has had a long life and got a few handles and the connector box on the back of the motor broken my the removalists in transports.



Now to clean 60 years of grime off and lift it off the base and tray (has a small leak that drips cutting oil, will piss me off if it does that in my newly built (unfinished) machining room. I will clean it up really nice and show my old man, should spin him out! I gave the base a good scrub just with a rag and some degreaser in a can.



I learnt to machine on this not that I have any skills to speak of. Has been wrapped in gladwrap, grease and wax for nearly 15 years! I will have to get some stock and cutting tools to have a play. Any ideas on scrap in Brissy Nth Side fellas?

Good luck with the "old toy"! A workshop isn't complete without a lathe (or a mill or, or etc!!).

DH

Nice

Cool addition to your home workshop!
My lathe arrives today, but I have to wait a while for the three phase power.
I will post a pic later today.

Any metal supply shop should have a 'off cut' bin where you can buy short lengths
with out paying a 'cut charge'.... just a price per kg.

Eagle-globe steel still on the north side?
If not try yellow pages in steel merchants, heaps in Brissy.

Here is my new lathe.
It is a Dean, Smith & Grace English lathe in very good shape for a 1972 model.
The 4- Jaw Chuck is 16" diameter and it has a 22" swing over the bed,
with room for 11" diameter jobs over the cross slide.
Spindle bore is 3.25" and it is over 1m between the centres. (perfect for making crankshafts!)
It weighs 3.5 metric tons plus accessories, and has a 15.2 HP motor.(grunt grunt!)
and 3/4 hp rapid travel motor.

I still needs to be connected to three phase power to my house,
and am waiting on Energex to install a new transformer at the end of the street.
(they said they will pay for it in a routine upgrade in a few months).

Coool!

You win!

That is a serious toy.

I have a hard enough time moving mine let alone something like that!

I will see your guard dog and raise it a wrinkle!

[ Edited on 26-6-2007 by koolkarmakombi ]

Quote:

Originally posted by dangerous

Now I'm jealous, imperial or metric lead screw for doing threads? That is a small lathe to have a rapid travel motor, I've used lathes twice that size that didn't have one (good for building the arms up)

thats cool to have a lathe at home ,beats having to use the bosses in work time( i work with a cnc lathe everyday):thumb

I just love watching a cnc do threads, good fun to see how fast they can do it.

I am guessing both these lathes have imperial lead screws,
but you can change the gears in the back to do metric.

That will test the memory,
and I will have to sort through all the accessories to find the important one.
I hope it exists!