- Joined
- Sep 13, 2016
- Messages
- 137
Good evening!
I am finally in a position that I'm going to be able to finish enclosing the workshop section of my barn, and actually begin doing the things I enjoy in my sparse time off from the paying job. I'm new to the fora here, so please bear with me if I come across as insufferably dense. There are two piece of equipment I wish to obtain for my workshop: A (vertical)milling machine and a lathe. On my small farm, there are so many things I could finally fix/build/concoct if I had those two machines, it's ridiculous. I also like building custom things, and tinker and experiment with things. I was a mechanic for the 7 years of my Army career, and have worked on everything from M151A2 "jeeps" to M992 Ammo Carriers, and also work for 13 years after my Army stint on pneumo-hydraulic aircraft arrestment systems used by the Air Force. I have done some minor electrical work, lots of welding(built the barn, for instance,) and have messed with electronics, specifically 70s-80s audio amplifiers and speakers from the same era. I have an adult daughter who, consequent to a bad car wreck just after graduation from high school, has impulse control issues and doesn't do well in social situations. One of my objects with all of this is to be able to teach her to focus again, and to do so absent social stress. She helped with the welding when we built the barn(a teenager then,) and I find she does better when you can unplug from people and focus on a task. I'm now a computer nerd, specializing primarily in databases, networks, and virtualization, and we have a small thoroughbred farm here in Central Texas. Yes, I am the most un-interesting man in the world.
Okay, now that I have all that info out of the way, I've made a list of criteria for my "lathe-to-be," and I'm focused on the lathe now because once I finish enclosing the workshop, it's going to be somewhat harder(read impossible) to move a lathe into the space if it's of any significant size.
Things I need a lathe to have/do:
chase threads of metric and inch varieties.
at least 48" between centers
12" diameter max is fine
a taper attachment
spindle bore of at least 2 inches
must have no greater power requirement than 230 3 phase(and this will require a rotary phase converter)
I don't need super-duper accuracy for most things I do, though accuracy is always nice.
I don't need a DRO, but again, that's always a spiffy thing.
I don't need latest-greatest-most-complex if old and simple work fine.
I do have a budget that tells me that in order to get my list of criteria fulfilled, minimally, I need to be looking in the secondary and tertiary market(s.) I can't afford a new machine that fulfills that list above.
To that end, I've looked up and down craigslist until I could broadcast chunks. I've looked as far east as Mobile Alabama, as far North as Wichita, and as far West as New Mexico. I find a lot of ancient machines, some in very good shape and apparent condition, but most of them are lacking in the threading department, and most of them weigh 6000 lbs or more. Now, I have no objection to a big old lathe. I'm fine with it. There was a Monarch in Dallas that I almost decided to ignore my metric thread requirement because it was a nice looking lathe. Sadly, but not surprisingly, it was gone already.
Along comes another lathe. It's a big machine, unknown brand, dataplate and nameplate missing, but after spending hours and hours perusing google images, I think I know the manufacturer, and I think I had guessed right on its approximate age.
Anyway, turns out, that lathe has some issues. I'm going to inspect it looking for mechanical issues, because I think all of the problems are likely to be electrical. I'm not too proud to buy a broken lathe if there's some real expectation of fixing it, but if the gearbox is a bucket of shavings and fragments, I have no interest whatsoever. Electrical things can be fixed. I can figure out most things, and I know there's a wealth of experience in the world who will gladly provide advice. I'm here in part because I've read postings here in the past looking for solutions to particular problems.
Anyway, I'd like to start out with this project. Obviously, there are downsides. If I can find a manual for this specific model(which is still unknown at this moment) I could probably fix it if it's only an electrical issue. If there are mechanical issues, I'm outta there because getting parts will be impossible.
On the other hand, I could just hang out and wait on a better lathe at a price I can afford. Not too long though, because placing a lathe larger than a modern 13x40 in the workshop will be tough once I button up that last wall.
Ideas, suggestions, and general interaction is welcome.
Thanks!
Mark
I am finally in a position that I'm going to be able to finish enclosing the workshop section of my barn, and actually begin doing the things I enjoy in my sparse time off from the paying job. I'm new to the fora here, so please bear with me if I come across as insufferably dense. There are two piece of equipment I wish to obtain for my workshop: A (vertical)milling machine and a lathe. On my small farm, there are so many things I could finally fix/build/concoct if I had those two machines, it's ridiculous. I also like building custom things, and tinker and experiment with things. I was a mechanic for the 7 years of my Army career, and have worked on everything from M151A2 "jeeps" to M992 Ammo Carriers, and also work for 13 years after my Army stint on pneumo-hydraulic aircraft arrestment systems used by the Air Force. I have done some minor electrical work, lots of welding(built the barn, for instance,) and have messed with electronics, specifically 70s-80s audio amplifiers and speakers from the same era. I have an adult daughter who, consequent to a bad car wreck just after graduation from high school, has impulse control issues and doesn't do well in social situations. One of my objects with all of this is to be able to teach her to focus again, and to do so absent social stress. She helped with the welding when we built the barn(a teenager then,) and I find she does better when you can unplug from people and focus on a task. I'm now a computer nerd, specializing primarily in databases, networks, and virtualization, and we have a small thoroughbred farm here in Central Texas. Yes, I am the most un-interesting man in the world.
Okay, now that I have all that info out of the way, I've made a list of criteria for my "lathe-to-be," and I'm focused on the lathe now because once I finish enclosing the workshop, it's going to be somewhat harder(read impossible) to move a lathe into the space if it's of any significant size.
Things I need a lathe to have/do:
chase threads of metric and inch varieties.
at least 48" between centers
12" diameter max is fine
a taper attachment
spindle bore of at least 2 inches
must have no greater power requirement than 230 3 phase(and this will require a rotary phase converter)
I don't need super-duper accuracy for most things I do, though accuracy is always nice.
I don't need a DRO, but again, that's always a spiffy thing.
I don't need latest-greatest-most-complex if old and simple work fine.
I do have a budget that tells me that in order to get my list of criteria fulfilled, minimally, I need to be looking in the secondary and tertiary market(s.) I can't afford a new machine that fulfills that list above.
To that end, I've looked up and down craigslist until I could broadcast chunks. I've looked as far east as Mobile Alabama, as far North as Wichita, and as far West as New Mexico. I find a lot of ancient machines, some in very good shape and apparent condition, but most of them are lacking in the threading department, and most of them weigh 6000 lbs or more. Now, I have no objection to a big old lathe. I'm fine with it. There was a Monarch in Dallas that I almost decided to ignore my metric thread requirement because it was a nice looking lathe. Sadly, but not surprisingly, it was gone already.
Along comes another lathe. It's a big machine, unknown brand, dataplate and nameplate missing, but after spending hours and hours perusing google images, I think I know the manufacturer, and I think I had guessed right on its approximate age.
Anyway, turns out, that lathe has some issues. I'm going to inspect it looking for mechanical issues, because I think all of the problems are likely to be electrical. I'm not too proud to buy a broken lathe if there's some real expectation of fixing it, but if the gearbox is a bucket of shavings and fragments, I have no interest whatsoever. Electrical things can be fixed. I can figure out most things, and I know there's a wealth of experience in the world who will gladly provide advice. I'm here in part because I've read postings here in the past looking for solutions to particular problems.
Anyway, I'd like to start out with this project. Obviously, there are downsides. If I can find a manual for this specific model(which is still unknown at this moment) I could probably fix it if it's only an electrical issue. If there are mechanical issues, I'm outta there because getting parts will be impossible.
On the other hand, I could just hang out and wait on a better lathe at a price I can afford. Not too long though, because placing a lathe larger than a modern 13x40 in the workshop will be tough once I button up that last wall.
Ideas, suggestions, and general interaction is welcome.
Thanks!
Mark
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