# I doubt I will ever want for swing or length between centers again...



## Mwieczorek (Mar 21, 2017)

...because I brought home a 14x60 Hercules-Ajax lathe today.  It was made in the early 1970's by Yamazaki-Mazak in Japan.  Its a nice machine.  Everything works, and moves smoothly.  It came with a 12" Cushman 3 jaw chuck, a 1/2" drill chuck, and a live center.  All for $1100.  The seller seems like a great guy, and I think he was happy that the lathe went to a good home.  I was really looking for a 12x36 or 13x40 machine.  This is way bigger than I need, but extra capacity never hurts!

My brother drives a tow truck on the side, and he moved it for me.  We got it off his flat bed, onto some car dollies, and moved into the garage without getting ourselves hurt.  Way better than my last machine moving experience.

My plan is to clean everything and give it a fresh coat of paint before I move it to its new home in my garage.  I need to get a BXA QCTP and some appropriate tools.  I may also downgrade to a pair of 8" chucks (3 and 4 jaw).  That 12" is a heavy beast and I'm not sure I want to be installing and removing it.  I also have to decide what to do with the coolant setup.  I doubt I will ever run coolant, so I may just strip it off the machine and set it aside.  I am still trying to decide whether to go with a VFD or RPC for power.  It's a 5hp motor, and I can only find one or two 5HP VFDs that run on single phase 220, and a 5hp VFD on a 5HP more may be stressful for the VFD.  I can get a 7.5 hp RPC and know that I have capacity to spare.

I have a South Bend 9A that I have been using for a while.  It is a decent little machine, but nothing like the big Turn-ado and Cincinnati lathes we had at my first engineering job.  I learned how to machine and built A LOT of stuff on 2nd shift in that lab.  LOL.  This machine is much closer to what I'm used to using.


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## woodchucker (Mar 21, 2017)

Nice good luck, keep your 9a for small stuff, hang a crane off the back for changing chucks.  That's one big machine.
Why BXA, I think that can handle a larger QCP, which means never having to worry about having large cutters that don't chatter when you need them.
Keep the coolant, it's better to have , than need.


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## tweinke (Mar 21, 2017)

Nice find for a good price! Keep us posted on the cleanup and first chips!


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## 3strucking (Mar 22, 2017)

I would think you could use a cxa size qctp. That will allow you to use 3/4 shank size tool holders.


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## 3strucking (Mar 22, 2017)

That is a great price for that size of machine. Congrats.


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## FOMOGO (Mar 22, 2017)

That should definitely cover your needs. The Japanese make some good machines. Mike


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## 3strucking (Mar 22, 2017)

The side view of the headstock kind of has the okuma shape.


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## Chuck K (Mar 22, 2017)

Nice find.  It has an interesting tailstock. As others have said, you might want to go with the cxa.  I have a 14 and wish I had a cxa.


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## kd4gij (Mar 22, 2017)

Nice little lathe you have there.


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## Mwieczorek (Mar 22, 2017)

I think you guys are right.  A CXA QCTP will probably work better on this machine.  It really is a nice piece of equipment.  The scraping and painting will probably begin this weekend.


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## markba633csi (Mar 22, 2017)

Nice hunk you got there- you're going into the watch repair business I take it.. lol
Mark S.


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## Mwieczorek (Mar 22, 2017)

It's perfect for "extreme gunsmithing"...


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## Chipper5783 (Mar 23, 2017)

Very nice.  I have a 15x60 Enterprise (MK - India) probably a thousand pounds lighter than the Ajax.  I use the CXA and it is a good fit (you can get 1" holders for it on e-bay).  My machine is also 5HP, it run it off a 5HP RPC.  The machine has a 2 speed motor and I usually operate it on the lower speed (quieter) - it is not happy starting on the 5 HP motor setting if I have a good sized chuck or if I am also in a high gear.  However, my 5 HP air compressor has no problem.  Getting the 7.5 HP RPC should set you up very well.

Let us know how it works out.  David


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## jamby (Mar 25, 2017)

I hear you on the  "This machine is much closer to what I'm used to using"  most of the lathes I ran in the 70's had cranks on the tail stock to move them.  Especially when I worked for Washington Iron Works their idea of a small lathe was a Gisholt #3 turret lathe.   The shafting lathes were all longer then 8' and one of the largest lathe they had made in the foundry back when they still had overhead belts.

Jim


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## markba633csi (Mar 25, 2017)

Isn't that Matt Damon holding the barrel there? 
MS


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## jamby (Mar 25, 2017)

Isn't that the original "Buntline Special"?


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## Silverbullet (Mar 25, 2017)

That punt gun is really king Kong's belt buckle gun. Very nice lathe I to would keep the coolant set up. It's not hard to build a jib crane to move the chucks around. I used an accuator with 325 lb push or pull to build one on a rolling shelf unit. I built it to move the vises and rotary table for my mills . With the bulging disc I have lifting can be dangerous to my well being. I'm still not convinced that I didn't cause it lifting from sitting in my wheelchair. I'd pick up whatever I could get my hands on and move it with my chair. Steel I beams , box channel , magnetic drill press. All very heavy extended out in front of your knees using your back to lift and carry. They said no but I guess I helped them to bulging. With a bit of angle iron or box tubing and a hand wench from a boat trailer should be easy.


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## Mwieczorek (Mar 26, 2017)

The RPC should be here Tuesday.  I also have a CXA QCTP and a set of 3/4" indexable tool bits coming.  I have to machine the backing plate for the chuck.  The chuck is a 12" 3 jaw Cushman, and the bolts go in from the front.  They are in the center section, not the periphery like other chucks I have used.  When I machine the registration boss in the backing plate, should I leave a gap like normal?  The bolts will draw on the center section where there is  gap, not sure if that will distort the backing plate and throw it out of square.  Any ideas on this?


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## tcarrington (Mar 28, 2017)

Using tow truck for moving - delivers the goods at a convenient angle.


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## compressorguy (Mar 28, 2017)

The 5 hp vfd should handle the 5 hp motor without a problem.  Just set it up correctly for the motor specs.  They are designed for the rated hp.  The nice thing is they are soft start and don't throw as much load on the the electrical service during start up.  Also the ability to vary speed without changing gears is very nice.  Great score on that lathe!


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## toploader (Apr 12, 2017)

I'm assuming this is a 3 phase motor?  If you do go the vfd route, you need to get a VFD that is rated 33% bigger then the listed HP rating of the motor you want to run. 

When I was sourcing a VFD for my 3 hp 3 phase motor for my knee mill the manufacturer said I needed a 5hp VFD to run my 3 hp motor at full power.  You lose 33% of the rated horsepower of the VFD because you are only putting in two poles of power and three are coming out.  A VFD can be  bigger then the rated horsepower of the motor and be fine.  But you will likely see poor performance out of one that is too small.


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## compressorguy (Apr 13, 2017)

If you are using an inverter designed for 3 phase input on single phase this is very true. You must oversize it and additionally, you must override the "phase loss trip" for the unused input   If you are using an inverter intended for single phase input, it is designed to operate at it's rated horsepower and no oversizing is required.  That being said, inverters rated for 5hp output on single phase input are hard to find.


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## kd4gij (Apr 13, 2017)

I doubt I will ever want for swing or length between centers again.
As your  standing there with a 16" part in your hand scratching your head and saying " If only I would of got a bigger lathe"


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## Doubleeboy (Apr 13, 2017)

Nice score on lathe.  If you are a home shop guy and do little work, I suggest keeping your eye out for an AXA or BXA set up so you can get close and personal with the small size work.  I have a 16" lathe, which I like quite a bit, but for small work the CXA is in the way frequently.  A nice set up to solve that is an AXA on riser block, its small size lets you get close to part, swing tool post around without the corner getting in the way of chuck or part.  I know a number of Monarch 10EE owners, half have AXA half have BXA, most of the guys with BXA wish they had AXA for the small work.   I have BXA on my EE and CXA on 16" machine.  I also use a homemade lantern post for certain tools for getting close, especially when using follow rest.


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## Mwieczorek (Apr 13, 2017)

Thanks for the info guys.  I ended up getting a 7.5 hp rotary phase converter.  I could only find one or two 5hp VFDs that ran on single phase 220.  It has plenty of speeds and I get along fine set speed on my other lathe, so I just wend the RPC route.  Its been on hold for a few weeks, I am waiting for it to warm up a little more so I can prime and paint it before I move it into position.


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