[Lathe] Inherited Sebastian Lathe

The old Sebastian Lathe Co. was split up and part of it was sold to Sheldon Machine Co. and the rest to D. C. Morrison Machine Co. D. C. Morrison Co. is still in business and carries some parts for these old lathes. Sebastian Lathe Co. went out of business around 1948-1950. Sheldon never carried on any of the existing designs, but did come out with a 13" and 15", ("A" and "B" model), which they called "Sheldon Sebastian". I have the 13" version of this lathe. It has similarities as the one posted on this thread.

Back to the original Sebastian lathe. They called this model the "Gold Seal" lathe because it had Timken equipped spindle bearings. The one pictured above appears to be one of the later ones built by Sebastian. This one may have harden way or may not. Looks like it kinda does but need more pictures to verify. For the ones I've seen in my past, I don't recall any that had harden ways. This one has all of the original accessories including taper attachment, follower rest, and steady rest. The bed turret look unique from most I've seen. For the condition it is in, I agree with Ted on the price.
 
Hi Larry,
Sorry about your father.
That is a nice lathe.
I would do as others have said. Oil it up good and just let it be until either you have room for it or maybe a brother or sister does. We went through this when my dad passed. We let everything go at a sale and now I have spent 20 years replacing everything that went in 4 hours.
If you do sell it, you may get low offers because it is in the basement. A lathe like that here would probably bring $1500-$2500.
Just my .02 cents
 
Wish you well in finding a home for that great machine. I was once involved in getting the big brother of that machine for the hospital I worked for. The machinists in our shop spent a great deal of their budget turning shafts for the AC units. I managed to find a big old Sebastian lathe that had been used to make cannon barrels in WWII . It took them a while to get it going but saving half the engineering budget was a powerful incentive. That old lathe had sat outside in the rain for a year. The point of all this is to ask you to please do your best to keep that grand old machine away from the scrapper. While the one I found was turning out gun barrels the one you have was probably turning out shells. The both most likely helped win the war. Someone will have a home for it.
 
These are two very important, and unfortunate points:
David M said:
Location has a lot to do with machinery values. Your area is more of a buyers market than a sellers.
Click to expand...
Martin W said:
If you do sell it, you may get low offers because it is in the basement.
Click to expand...

For these two reasons, I don't expect you will get a lot of offers above scrap value.
Around my area, one could probably list that lathe for $3,000+ and get serious interest.
In your area, probably half that.
Then factor in they have to take it apart and reassemble it, and (if they're responsible and they care about not damaging your house) hire an insured rigger to extract the larger pieces, and the value goes down from there.

I will echo what's already been said; keep it in the family.
When my uncle passed, my dad inherited a squadron of model airplanes. He had no idea what to o with them.
He went to a local hobby shop and inquired about selling them off. The guys there convinced him to bring one of the planes to their field one day and give it a try.
10 years later and my dad has doubled the collection. He's build two full size workshops for all his plane stuff.
When he dies, I'm going to have more model airplanes than any one person could ever want or use.

If it isn't you who or your siblings who take an interest in the machine, probably one of your kids or nieces/nephews would love a hand-me-down like this one day.
I was 10 when my grandpa passed, and he had a lathe and a mill.
I remember watching him as a kid and it was so fascinating.
My grandpa was/is in the top 5 most awesome people on the planet and I wanted to be just like him. I wasn't old enough to inherit those tools and they were sold off.
I would give my left nut to have his machines now. I feel regret that my grandma sold them off.
 
We can't tell if the lathe is seriously worn in the bed or not,or what else might be wrong with it. I think a lathe that old must have some wear on the bed. It would still make accurate SHORT parts,though. I think $1500.00,withjout really knowing the condition might be a reasonable price.

Oh,and those older lathes tend to have low top speeds,too. Later lathes,made in the carbide age,have higher top speeds. What is the top speed? It should be shown somewhere.

We do not know the SWING(How large a piece of round stock that will clear the bed),or the distance between centers.
 
Top speed on this one is about 600 RPM. It has around a 12" swing. They are rugged! Like a Chevy vs a Cadillac! I was thinking $1000 and of course condition of the ways, too.
 
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