Looking for 18-20x80 used lathe in working condition

B

Bob V

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Hello and Merry Christmas,
I'm a farmer in upstate NY (Gorham), and I have a friend/neighbor who does all kinds of mechanical work on farm equipment and yellow equipment.
Part of what he does is rebuild hydraulic cylinders- some of which are quite large off excavators etc. He tells me some of the rods of these cylinders need new threads and truing on the ends. I read your advice on this type of post so here goes:

Used Lathe, prefer ready to work, but would do minor repairs maintenance.
Requested 72-80 inch bed.
Would need steady or follow rest for these long pieces; he needs to work on the ends of these rods (not the chrome plated portion).
Budget $5-10K, maybe a bit higher for the right machine.
3-4" spindle bore.
Needs to thread both SAE and Metric threads.
Setup not a problem, level concrete floor in his shop.
Has skid steers etc to unload and move machine.
220v power single phase but can use 3 phase converter.
Truck delivery fine or I might get the machine for him with my pickup and a trailer.
Tooling: he has a good sized lathe now so probably does not need much tooling beyond the steady or follow rest.
Will be working on 1045-1050 steel- which has been induction hardened and chrome plated, but he only needs to work on the ends of these rods--not the chrome plated portion. (?1045 IHCP) and he anneals the ends before machine with a torch.

We both thank you for your advice!
Bob V

PS: I did a brief search on the machines for sale but couldn't get the search engine to come up with anything!
 
Last edited:
Forget about single phase. You will need a rotary phase converter, that will help open you up to more machines.
You will have to keep searching for a machine to become available, or go to a machinery dealer, OR look at the auctions.
 
Thank you, woodchucker,
I should have made that clear in my description: this guy who needs this machine rebuilds alternators and starter motors, and I'm pretty certain he can put a phase converter on a 3 phase lathe.
--I'm watching for auctions, and just missed one a couple months ago in our region when an entire machine shop went at auction-will keep watching.

--Can you give me any names of any machinery dealers you are aware of in the Northeast?

Thanks,
Bob V
 
Check out Facebook marketplace and Craigslist I have bought my machine that way and pretty much all mine have come from P.A. There are some really good deals out there and it seems like they are out that way !!!
 
Thanks to all of you!
I don't do facebook but will look at Craigslist.
Best,
Bob V
 
In looking at these used machines, it seems that most of the older ones do inch threading but not metric threading. However my friend needs a machine that will do metric as well as inch threading since a lot of these hydraulic rods are from overseas and have metric threads. Does anyone know about what year they started producing metal lathes that have metric threading capability?
 
Metric threading on an imperial lathe is no big deal. Metric threading on imperial lathes pretty much goes all the way back. At worst you have to acquire change gears (simple straight cut gears - Boston gear, make them, whatever) - basically you need the 127 tooth to get the conversion from inch to metric (there are other ways, but that is one common approach). Most lathe manuals will describe what gears you need, then what to set the qcgb to get a specific metric pitch (I have a 1962 English machine, no metric conversion - except the change gears and settings are all described in the manual). If the manual is really and truly not available there are plenty of posts online of people going through the effort to figure out the gearing (they set up a spreadsheet).

If you find a lathe that otherwise meets your needs, but is only set up for one type of threads - don’t worry about it. Obviously if he is usually cutting imperial threads, then prioritize finding one that is set up for imperial.
 
Chipper5783 said:
Metric threading on an imperial lathe is no big deal. Metric threading on imperial lathes pretty much goes all the way back. At worst you have to acquire change gears (simple straight cut gears - Boston gear, make them, whatever) - basically you need the 127 tooth to get the conversion from inch to metric (there are other ways, but that is one common approach). Most lathe manuals will describe what gears you need, then what to set the qcgb to get a specific metric pitch (I have a 1962 English machine, no metric conversion - except the change gears and settings are all described in the manual). If the manual is really and truly not available there are plenty of posts online of people going through the effort to figure out the gearing (they set up a spreadsheet).

If you find a lathe that otherwise meets your needs, but is only set up for one type of threads - don’t worry about it. Obviously if he is usually cutting imperial threads, then prioritize finding one that is set up for imperial.
Click to expand...
Chipper— thank you VERY much! That really expands the lathes I can look at.
Merry Christmas
 
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