Large Lodge and Shipley at Auction

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vocatexas

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Don't know if anybody in my neck of the woods is interested, but there is a large Lodge and Shipley lathe in an auction this Saturday in Llano, Texas. The serial number dates it to 1917. It has been converted to electric drive and has a two speed gear box driving the lathe. I didn't have a tape measure with me, but I'm guessing the 4 jaw chuck is about 24 inches across. Looks to be between five and six feet between centers. The tailstock is MASSIVE and it still has the steady rest and most of the taper attachment on it.

It's been sitting outside for a while; the ways have rust on them, but where I cleaned them to read the serial number they look smooth underneath. Carriage will move, but the cross-slide is stuck. It does have a quick change gear box, but it only has one shaft driving the apron, so I'm not sure it could cut threads. On the plus, the ways show no obvious damage and the threads visible on the lead screw look the same from one end to the other.

Auctioneer's site on Auction Peek: http://www.angelfire.com/pq/obars/www.duncanauctionprev.com.html

Pic of the lathe here: http://www.angelfire.com/pq/obars/d...views_page_one/index.album/1002mlath?i=12&s=1
 
Nice lathe. Hope someone takes the old gal home to save from the scrap dealers.
Cheers
Martin
 
Well, I'm kind of hoping that somebody else will show up that wants to actually clean it up and put it to work instead of me. I'm probably moving in the next three or four months and I've already got tons of stuff to move (not to mention a 6500 lb. 16x54 Lodge and Shipley). This thing weighs somewhere north of 8,000 lbs. I just hate to think about loading and unloading it twice.

One thing I had thought about, though...does anybody know if the spindle taper on this lathe is the same as on a L&S Model A? I didn't measure that chuck the other day to see if it would fit my lathe or not. If it did it would be tight.
 
Thanks! I feel certain I could get my money back by selling the chuck if I wanted to. I think I got a screaming deal.

I talked to the owner before the auction. Turns out to be a guy I know, just didn't know he had any machine tools. The story he gave me on the lathe's history was almost unbelievable, but I have no reason to doubt what he told me. He's a business man in the town where he lives and is known for being honest.

According to him, the lathe was bought new by a fellow in a fairly large town in our region for use in his machine shop. Two weeks after he got the machine, he had a stroke and the lathe was never touched. It sat in his building THIRTY-FIVE YEARS until his widow died and the lathe was sold at an auction. This would put us into the 1950s. The guy that bought the lathe put it in his farm shop to use repairing his equipment. According to his son, who is the person my acquaintance bought the lathe from, he never used the lathe either!. Apparently, they had no access to three phase power, and his dad never got around to changing the electric motor. Then, about ten years ago, the previous owner bought the lathe at an estate sale to use in his business. Because it needed a tear-down and complete cleaning, he set it in the back of his shop planning to get it going, but never got around to it either. He decided a few months ago that it was time to sell it since he'd never used it. Now I have it.

I'm not going to sign a legal affidavit to the truth of all this, but I feel certain that if he told me this, he believes it to be true. If it is, this is a 100 year old machine that has possibly never turned a piece of stock. It's an amazing story, I just hope there's some truth in it. I'll find out when I start taking it apart, I guess.
 
Did you ever get the lathe set up?
I would love to see it, you tease.
 
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