# Need Some Help Identifying Rockwell Lathe



## Sandia (May 19, 2015)

This lathe has come up for sale in my area and although I already have a 14X40 lathe, I am interested in this one as a second hobby lathe. I don't know anything about them and this pic is all the info I have. Can you guys identify it and tell me about it. Would you recommend it, size, short comings, parts availability, etc.

Thanks, Sandia


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## AaronD (May 19, 2015)

That is a Rockwell 10x36. Appears to be in nice shape.  I have no experience with this model as I own its bigger brother the 11x36.  I do know that parts are out there but hard/time consuming to find. There is a dedicated Yahoo group on Rockwell lathes that is a great resource. 

Looks to have lots of tooling with it.  Any more in the cabinet? Items like follower and steady rests are rare finds.  Do I spot a taper attachment?

Now you know what it is, research will be easier.  I'm sure others will chime in with more details.


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## Sandia (May 19, 2015)

AaronD said:


> That is a Rockwell 10x36. Appears to be in nice shape.  I have no experience with this model as I own its bigger brother the 11x36.  I do know that parts are out there but hard/time consuming to find. There is a dedicated Yahoo group on Rockwell lathes that is a great resource.
> 
> Looks to have lots of tooling with it.  Any more in the cabinet? Items like follower and steady rests are rare finds.  Do I spot a taper attachment?
> 
> Now you know what it is, research will be easier.  I'm sure others will chime in with more details.



Thanks Aaron,
I am not familiar at all with the Rockwell or Delta style lathes. This one is pretty close and I thought I might go look at it but wanted some idea first. Looks like it has a collet closer and some tooling, don't know about collets, there don't show in the pic. Lathe does look fairly clean and not abused if it is original.
What is a ball park range for these machines.
Thanks, Bob


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## Ed ke6bnl (May 19, 2015)

I have a 11 in Rockwell didn't know a thing about them when i bought it but got that lathe and a Burke millrite mill for $900 and he loaded on my trailer with a fork lift. I would check closely  for any broken teeth on the back gear, very common for people to strip some teeth, on mine you can lift the top and see all the gears.  check to see the variable speed works. I was ready for 3 phase and built a rotory phase converter but both machines were 110 volt. but found a big Delta Rockwell drill press that needed 3phase and put it to work.


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## AaronD (May 19, 2015)

Price range varies a lot based on condition, tooling, and location.  Where are you located?  If in the northeast a machine may fetch $1500 but if in the southwest that same machine may be almost double.  These are just general observations gathered over the last handful of years.

If you end up going to look at it find the serial and model numbers. These will give you a better idea on age. Should be located on the back of the bed near tailstock. 

Hard to tell from the picture but look for a tag on front right end that says "flame hardened ways". Definitely a plus.

Is it under power? Hopefully you can run it and test all aspects.


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## Sandia (May 19, 2015)

I live in South Texas, and yes machine shop equipment is very rare down here, especially in decent shape. This is an auction deal, so can not run it, but will look at it Saturday. Really interested in a lot of tooling in the auction, but you never know, might be a sleeper.


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## thumper144 (May 22, 2015)

I live near Pittsburgh, pa and saw about ten of these go up for auction at a local high school.  prices ranged from 700-900.   I do remember talking to someone on another site that said parts would be difficult to get if needed. so I didn't get one.  On the other hand, they looked as if they were well made machines.


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## astjp2 (May 22, 2015)

They are a good lathe, parts are available from Dick Triemstra and Plaza machinery. You can goto the Yahoo website to get the manuals for free.  Uses 4C collets, and the closer is $200-500 depending on how bad you need it.


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## Sandia (May 23, 2015)

Appreciate the education fellows, I think I will pass on this one I have found although it looks really nice. Aside from that, I really don't need a second lathe.


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## Sandia (Mar 27, 2016)

This is a crazy weird deal, but here we go. I made this post last year asking for information on this lathe which was being sold in an estate auction close to where I live. Anyway, I didn't bid on the lathe for several reasons but was successful on some other items in the auction, one of which was a set of 5C collets, I thought; turned out to be 4C. Poor description on the sale information.

Fast forward to yesterday, I was checking Craigs list and there was a mill, lathe and horizontal saw for sale so I called the guy and went down to look at it. So happens I knew him and he had purchased the tools at the auction last year. He is selling his business and is moving to Alabama and wants to sale his shop out. The lathe, mill and saw are setting in the same spot where he unloaded them after the auction, never used any of it. I was kind of interested in the lathe so I was checking it out, ran it some but need to go take another look.  The lathe is in very good shape, even have the original invoice when the owner purchased it new in 1987 for the amount of $4,122.oo. Didn't have a clue these lathes cost that kind of money.

The little lathe is very well tooled, steady and follow rest, large box of armstrong style tool holders, drill chucks, taper attachment, face plate, 4 jaw chuck, no 3 jaw it got separated from the lathe at auction time, collet closer but no collets. Yep you guessed it, the collets I thought were 5C and purchased turned out to be 4C  and I sold them on the classifed on this site last year.

Apologize for the long post and I really don't know why I am interested in the lathe, I have a 14X40 Acer lathe. That being said, the gears have no broken teeth and runs very smoothly, did not check the variable speed drive.

What do you think would be a fair offer for the lathe. Any opinions are welcomed.

Thanks


Sandia said:


> View attachment 103824
> 
> 
> This lathe has come up for sale in my area and although I already have a 14X40 lathe, I am interested in this one as a second hobby lathe. I don't know anything about them and this pic is all the info I have. Can you guys identify it and tell me about it. Would you recommend it, size, short comings, parts availability, etc.
> ...


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## astjp2 (Apr 1, 2016)

I would offer 1500 to start, you can negotiate from there.


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## Sandia (Apr 2, 2016)

Called the guy yesterday to make an offer, but he had changed his mind. Now wants to sale everything as a package which includes a MSC knee mill and a small horizontal band saw.


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## wa5cab (Apr 4, 2016)

I hate it when that happens.


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## Sandia (Apr 4, 2016)

Isn't that the truth. Oh well.


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