90’s MSC Lathe info

[Nesse1]

Curious that some of these machines have the thread dial on the left side of the carriage (mine does) and others have them on the right. I'll have to see if mine can be moved, since I think RH side is more conventional?

 

[Harry Knutz]

Curious that some of these machines have the thread dial on the left side of the carriage (mine does) and others have them on the right. I'll have to see if mine can be moved, since I think RH side is more conventional?

The machines with the thread dial on the left of the apron are Usually from the UK and they usually also have the half nut lever on the left also. It is surprising that your's is on the left? I don't see it in your photo. Here is a pic of a lathe from Australia that has the half nut lever on the left side of the apron. The feed lever is also on the left side of the block.

 

[Harry Knutz]

The carriage handwheels are on the right too.

 

[Nesse1]

The machines with the thread dial on the left of the apron are Usually from the UK and they usually also have the half nut lever on the left also. It is surprising that your is on the left? I don't see it in your photo. Here is a pic of a lathe from Australia that has the half nut lever on the left side of the apron. The feed lever is also on the left side of the block.

I took off the dial when fiddle farting around with building the stand and installing the DRO. If you look in the manual PDF, you can see the dial on the left.

Just got back from the garage, and confirmed that my machine is not set up for the dial on the RH side. I'd have to drill and tap holes in the apron.

 

[Harry Knutz]

Yeah it would be pretty easy to put the dial on the right, But I would want to take the apron off just to be sure no cast iron swarf gets in there. Although, I'm sure there is lots of chips and stuff in there already. You can take a mechanics mirror and look behind the apron to check the condition of the brass spur gear for the apron feed. I also found it handy to use a teslong borescope to check the apron oil level on my apron since it doesn't have a sight glass.