Springfield

[428Bird]

Please don't take thy wife!!! Unless she likes machinery too. That could turn into a no deal! Cash does entertain.

Good point brought up, moving the beast! Your looking at around 5,000 to 6,000 lbs there. This kind of weight does not move around easily. If you have the equipment to move it that's fine. But if you don't, be careful there. Things to consider is how are you going to load it, if you have a trailer? If you don't have a trailer, look at hiring a roll back tow truck to pick it up and take it to your location and unload for you. If the seller has this tucked away into a room with no opening to the outside to drag it out of, I would pass on it. Ken

I hired a steel decked rollback for 200 bucks to move my Holbrook. It weighs in around 5800 pounds and the truck had no problems pulling it up the deck, or sliding it back off. Mine has continuous rails for the base feet so pipe rollers to get it in position for pickup made it a breeze.

Britt Bettell

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S7 using Tapatalk.

 

[4GSR]

Electrical for this machine shouldn't be too bad. My guess is it has either a 5 HP or 7-1/2 HP motor. It could have a 10 HP motor but I doubt it. Regardless a good static converter will run this lathe without any problems. It is a clutch driven machine so once you start the motor it stays running until you kill the power. You just engage the clutch when you want to cut. I had my 20" Lodge and Shipley lathe with a 10 HP motor running off a static phase converter I built myself and it ran fine. My only real problem was I had to run a 6-3 SO cord from the machine to the meter box that turned out to be about a 90 foot run of expensive cable! A minimum electrical requirement would be about 30 amps 230 volt 1 phase of on 7-1/2 HP. A little less on 5 HP and more if it's 10 HP. Had mine on a 50 amp breaker. Ken

 

[Gfrost]

Well, I did go and look at the lathe. Did not buy it, it is quote bit bigger than I need/want, the gentleman could have loaded on a trailer for me but I wouldn't be able to conveniently get it to where I want it.

All that being said his father was the owner who recently passed. He was a wrecking yard owner and turned drivelines and other parts on the lathe. Was not in great shape, it appeared that the cross feed had been run into the Chuck a couple times, handle and knobs missing and bent/broken. It seemed to run fine but I just don't want my lathe to be "the hobby".

Gary

 

[mo' stainless]

I saw the same Craigslist listing. After receiving more picts and info from the seller, I too thought the lathe was too big for my needs and told him so. I searched within an 800 mile radius the next two weeks without finding anything worth making a trip for. Curiosity finally got the better of me so I went to see the Springfield beast, sitting in a very cold wearhouse. I spent 2 days fiddling around with it and then made the seller an offer. He was asking $1750 but accepted a bit less.

I noticed the same things that Gfrost did. What made me decide to go for it though was the condition of the bed ways. Though not without a few nicks and pits, they had surprizingly slight wear - no ridge on the carriage V way.

I know it was not completely definitive of the amount and type of wear, but, for what it is worth, here are the digital indicator readings for the carriage drop relative to the tail stock flat way, from the head stock end of the bed, every 6 inches:

*0" - .0000"
*6" - .0003"
12" - .0013"
18" - .0015"
24" - .0017"
30" - .0016"
36" - .0010"
42" - .0003"
48" - .0001"
54" - .0002"
60" - .0002"
66" - .0003"

The significant amount of tooling, taper attachment, and overall impressive stability of the machine helped as well.

Transport and getting it into my basement? Complete disassembly was the only way. The seller has willingly allowed me access for that feat. I've been at it a good week now and should have it moved within a couple of days. No regrets.

 

[Gfrost]

Very Cool. Yeah I felt that it could be cleaned up and the some of the things repaired. That being said, I just didn't want that kind of hobby and moving it was going to be an issue for me! Just didn't have the time for dismantling etc.!

Glad your making use of what seems to be a stout machine!

 

[mo' stainless]

Thanks.

 

[Glenn Brooks]

Just read about another method to measure wear on the bed of a lathe: use calipers or a micrometer to measure thickness of the bed - top of the ways and the machined underside edge of the bed. Difference in thickness measurements along the ways gives you an approximation of bed wear. Haven't tried it at home yet, but sounds interesting.

Glenn