- Joined
- Jun 10, 2019
- Messages
- 542
I acquired an Enco 1760 lathe recently. It was a bit of an interesting story as far as how I got it. It's also a quite uncommon model - so between the two I figured it would be worth sharing.
The Find
I was hunting for a lathe chuck on eBay that was near me and this lathe was in the first page of results. It caught my eye because of the price. Very very little info online and only a couple others which had been listed in auctions years ago. There wasn't any detail in the eBay ad - only said "lathe machine" . No manufacturer, model, condition, description…nothing. Just 3 pictures. It looked to be about a 14x40. It seemed it was near the bottom of the scale quality-wise. I wasn't interested but sent the link to a friend. I also kept an eye on the ad because I was curious what it would go for. I watched it tick down - lots of watchers, no bidders up to the last seconds….then 1 bid at the opening price of $100 (no reserve). Wow, someone may have got a decent deal if it worked and was reasonably OK.
The next day my friend texted me asking if I'm able to help him move a lathe. At first I thought he was joking. Itturns out he threw the bid in in the last seconds for the heck of it, sight unseen.
The Move
We made a first visit to get an idea of what was going to be involved. Its then we realized the lathe was quite a bit bigger than I had guessed. It was 17x60, 7.5hp, 4000 lbs, and nearly 9 feet long (430mm x 1525mm, 1800kg, 2.7m long for the folks who use real units). My buddy determined that this was way more than what he could handle. He asked if I wanted to have it. It was covered in gunk and couldn't be tested (no power)…but I figured what the heck.
The move itself wasn't too bad. The basement was only 2 feet below grade. A ramp, iron pipes, some hastily made dollies, and some levering got it into position. Huge thanks to another friend of mine who offered to help yank it up the ramp with his large skid steer and load it onto my trailer - that was a huge time saver. The lathe came out thru a residential doorway with less than 1" to spare.
The Lathe & Clean-Up
The lathe was purchased new by the original owner around 1984. He ran a machining business out of his residential home for about 35 years and retired around 2010. His machines sat idle for over a decade until he passed in the spring of 2024 (RIP). His family posted some of the larger machines in the fall. This was why the ad had so little info. I'm still shocked nobody else bid. But between no bidders, the rust, and the fact that I knew it was very uncommon / not a decent brand: I was hoping I didn't buy a paperweight. The machine was complete - two 3 jaw chucks, 4 jaw, faceplate, steady rest, follow rest, 5c collet closer, OEM manual.
Unfortunately between our first visit and the move, someone left the house door open for an extended period during a warm humid snap. Every bare surface on the lathe formed a rusty scale.
I gave the lathe a semi-teardown before attempting to run it. I didn't want to operate it due to all the dirt, neglect, rust, and very old oil & coolant. There were also some non-functional items I found during my first look: foot brake (physical and electrical) non-functional, feed trip lever not working, feed gear selector seized, and carriage auto-oiler not working.
This initial cleanup was tedious. I pulled the tailstock, apron, carriage, control rods, and flood coolant system. Everything was caked in cutting oil and chips that had dried to near epoxy hardness. The teardown also revealed how cheaply / poorly lathe was built and assembled. But all the functional items I found in the first go-around were easy fixes. The grime and rust took time: a lot of soaking, scraping, stoning, and trips to the ultrasonic cleaner. I was surprised to see how nicely it cleaned up - ways feel like glass, controls very smooth, and no notable slop.
Mounted the QCTP from my 14x40 and made some initial chips out of 3" CRS round bar. Wowza. 7.5hp is no joke. I was taking 0.200" DoC and the load was just starting to register. I didn't play for long - there's still a few things to tie off before I can really use it: make new way wipers, add guarding, install new belts, change oil (no oil yet in the apron, old oil in headstock & feed), and re-plumb the carriage oiler system. I don't know how accurate it is yet, but at this point I'll be keeping it and selling my 14x40.
Pics
Some random pictures I took. I wish I took more but I wanted to get thru the initial clean up quickly. If anyone knows more about this lathe / manufacturer: would love to know.
Made some dollies based on Tom Lipton's design; pretty simple and uses 7" pallet jack wheels. I didn't get 1 set of dolly wheels in time so one set ran on raw bearings. Worked great otherwise. Only 2 of these dollies are typically used (front uses a single skate), but I made 4 because I needed to keep it dead straight due to next to zero clearance thru the doorway. If anybody wants the 2nd set: hit me up because I have no need for two sets.
Getting her out. Look at all that rust that formed in just a week.
Filthy! Seized oiler pump piston in the 2nd pic. There was oil in the apron, bottom was sludge. I wish I had pics of the junk I fished out of the flood coolant reservoir.
Missing carriage oiler port. This is an important main junction. 3 of 4 way oilers and the cross-slide never got auto-oil during its life. Yikes. Lathe also has manual oil ports and thankfully it looks like they were used.
Feed trip lever was just a broken spring. Original spring eyes were bolted directly which caused premature failure. I machined the hat washers and found an off-the-shelf spring which worked. Properly machined the tailstock quill lock - the manufacturer just formed the cutout with an angle grinder. There were some other minor machining clean-ups I made, but unfortunately didn't take pictures of.
(note: if you buy a used lathe, make sure you have another lathe to fix it
).
Some Cleaned-Up Pics
As she sits - still some work needed but its getting there. Fun fact: there's not a SINGLE hit for Enco Lathe on the H-M forum!
The Find
I was hunting for a lathe chuck on eBay that was near me and this lathe was in the first page of results. It caught my eye because of the price. Very very little info online and only a couple others which had been listed in auctions years ago. There wasn't any detail in the eBay ad - only said "lathe machine" . No manufacturer, model, condition, description…nothing. Just 3 pictures. It looked to be about a 14x40. It seemed it was near the bottom of the scale quality-wise. I wasn't interested but sent the link to a friend. I also kept an eye on the ad because I was curious what it would go for. I watched it tick down - lots of watchers, no bidders up to the last seconds….then 1 bid at the opening price of $100 (no reserve). Wow, someone may have got a decent deal if it worked and was reasonably OK.
The next day my friend texted me asking if I'm able to help him move a lathe. At first I thought he was joking. Itturns out he threw the bid in in the last seconds for the heck of it, sight unseen.
The Move
We made a first visit to get an idea of what was going to be involved. Its then we realized the lathe was quite a bit bigger than I had guessed. It was 17x60, 7.5hp, 4000 lbs, and nearly 9 feet long (430mm x 1525mm, 1800kg, 2.7m long for the folks who use real units). My buddy determined that this was way more than what he could handle. He asked if I wanted to have it. It was covered in gunk and couldn't be tested (no power)…but I figured what the heck.
The move itself wasn't too bad. The basement was only 2 feet below grade. A ramp, iron pipes, some hastily made dollies, and some levering got it into position. Huge thanks to another friend of mine who offered to help yank it up the ramp with his large skid steer and load it onto my trailer - that was a huge time saver. The lathe came out thru a residential doorway with less than 1" to spare.
The Lathe & Clean-Up
The lathe was purchased new by the original owner around 1984. He ran a machining business out of his residential home for about 35 years and retired around 2010. His machines sat idle for over a decade until he passed in the spring of 2024 (RIP). His family posted some of the larger machines in the fall. This was why the ad had so little info. I'm still shocked nobody else bid. But between no bidders, the rust, and the fact that I knew it was very uncommon / not a decent brand: I was hoping I didn't buy a paperweight. The machine was complete - two 3 jaw chucks, 4 jaw, faceplate, steady rest, follow rest, 5c collet closer, OEM manual.
Unfortunately between our first visit and the move, someone left the house door open for an extended period during a warm humid snap. Every bare surface on the lathe formed a rusty scale.
I gave the lathe a semi-teardown before attempting to run it. I didn't want to operate it due to all the dirt, neglect, rust, and very old oil & coolant. There were also some non-functional items I found during my first look: foot brake (physical and electrical) non-functional, feed trip lever not working, feed gear selector seized, and carriage auto-oiler not working.
This initial cleanup was tedious. I pulled the tailstock, apron, carriage, control rods, and flood coolant system. Everything was caked in cutting oil and chips that had dried to near epoxy hardness. The teardown also revealed how cheaply / poorly lathe was built and assembled. But all the functional items I found in the first go-around were easy fixes. The grime and rust took time: a lot of soaking, scraping, stoning, and trips to the ultrasonic cleaner. I was surprised to see how nicely it cleaned up - ways feel like glass, controls very smooth, and no notable slop.
Mounted the QCTP from my 14x40 and made some initial chips out of 3" CRS round bar. Wowza. 7.5hp is no joke. I was taking 0.200" DoC and the load was just starting to register. I didn't play for long - there's still a few things to tie off before I can really use it: make new way wipers, add guarding, install new belts, change oil (no oil yet in the apron, old oil in headstock & feed), and re-plumb the carriage oiler system. I don't know how accurate it is yet, but at this point I'll be keeping it and selling my 14x40.
Pics
Some random pictures I took. I wish I took more but I wanted to get thru the initial clean up quickly. If anyone knows more about this lathe / manufacturer: would love to know.
Made some dollies based on Tom Lipton's design; pretty simple and uses 7" pallet jack wheels. I didn't get 1 set of dolly wheels in time so one set ran on raw bearings. Worked great otherwise. Only 2 of these dollies are typically used (front uses a single skate), but I made 4 because I needed to keep it dead straight due to next to zero clearance thru the doorway. If anybody wants the 2nd set: hit me up because I have no need for two sets.
Getting her out. Look at all that rust that formed in just a week.
Filthy! Seized oiler pump piston in the 2nd pic. There was oil in the apron, bottom was sludge. I wish I had pics of the junk I fished out of the flood coolant reservoir.
Missing carriage oiler port. This is an important main junction. 3 of 4 way oilers and the cross-slide never got auto-oil during its life. Yikes. Lathe also has manual oil ports and thankfully it looks like they were used.
Feed trip lever was just a broken spring. Original spring eyes were bolted directly which caused premature failure. I machined the hat washers and found an off-the-shelf spring which worked. Properly machined the tailstock quill lock - the manufacturer just formed the cutout with an angle grinder. There were some other minor machining clean-ups I made, but unfortunately didn't take pictures of.
(note: if you buy a used lathe, make sure you have another lathe to fix it
).Some Cleaned-Up Pics
As she sits - still some work needed but its getting there. Fun fact: there's not a SINGLE hit for Enco Lathe on the H-M forum!
Last edited:
