Liang Dei Ld 1216gh, Picked It Up Yesterday

I am pretty tight for space as well and have thought about building a gantry crane that I can take apart and tuck away somewhere. Just wide enough to straddle the lathe.
 
I am pretty tight for space as well and have thought about building a gantry crane that I can take apart and tuck away somewhere. Just wide enough to straddle the lathe.


Good idea, I'll post some pics as I get into making mine, I've got a few bits made, but nothing much to show yet.
 
Good looking lathe, I like the hand wheel on the right , I've been burnt and cut to many times by them chips that jump in my hand when I'm not looking. All the other handles and levers are on the right. Good luck

Thanks, I've never understood why they put it all on the left, unless some one in the early days was a left hander and then everyone copied.
 
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Thanks, I've never understood why they put it all on teh left, unless some one in the early days was a left hander and then everyone copied.

Cut and welded some steel today, making some parts for the small jib crane that will fit on the outboard end of the headstock. Went to take some pics, but the battery in my camera was flat, have to charge it up.
 
Thanks, I've never understood why they put it all on teh left, unless some one in the early days was a left hander and then everyone copied.
I think there is some sort of relationship between it and the English driving on the left side of the road? Just saying, please , no offense to anyone.

Dean, Smith & Grace were known of manufacturing some nice cutting lathes in their time and still do if you can afford to buy one. And on most of their lathes, the carriage handwheel is on the right side. Not sure about the operation of the half nuts and the cross slide and carriage handwheel, sounds confusing to me. My brothers have operated them back in their machining careers and swear by them!
 
I think there is some sort of relationship between it and the English driving on the left side of the road? Just saying, please , no offense to anyone.

Dean, Smith & Grace were known of manufacturing some nice cutting lathes in their time and still do if you can afford to buy one. And on most of their lathes, the carriage handwheel is on the right side. Not sure about the operation of the half nuts and the cross slide and carriage handwheel, sounds confusing to me. My brothers have operated them back in their machining careers and swear by them!
It is my understanding that back in the old days when men fought with swords from horseback, that it was customary to ride on the left side of the road, path track. This made it easier, as most men were right handed, to wield ones sword against an oncoming opponent.

Somewhere down the track, after the American war of independence, American teamsters decided to change to right side of the road, probably in an effort to throw off any ideas that were British. and probably because they were friends with the French at that time, the French picked up the idea. The as Napoleon started conquering parts of Europe he made it compulsory to drive on teh right, and thus it spread.

However today, most countries that were former colonies of Britain still drive on the left. The odd one out is Japan, never a colony, but for their own reasons continue to drive on the left

The result is some 35% drive on the left and 65% on the right.

By the way the Dean Smith and Grace lathes are somewhat legendary. During may apprenticeship years there were a few around my home town Adelaide, and although I never had the privilege. a couple of the guys I knew in trade school, had them in the factories they worked in. Rumor had it, that a good operator could reliably turn to 1/10th of a thou. that is 0.0001" Pretty impressive.
 
My only wish is that I had the room for a longer machine 16" between centers is fairly short.

Although the 40mm spindle thru hole should ease much of that.

you could always turn your tool upside down, start from your undercut and run the spindle reverse with feed direction to your tailstock.

He's in Australia, so isn't his tool already upside down? ;)

-brino
 
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Although the 40mm spindle thru hole should ease much of that.



He's in Australia, so isn't his tool already upside down? ;)

-brino
No wonder there pictures are upside down , there on the bottom of the earth. Not tapatalk it's yeng+ yang flip and look.
 
Although the 40mm spindle thru hole should ease much of that.



He's in Australia, so isn't his tool already upside down? ;)

-brino
Yes the 40 mm bore is a great bonus, one of the many features that said this is the lathe for you.

That's why we are called the men from downunder,

But think about it It's all a matter of perspective It's only that the first map makers happened to come from Europe, so they put the northern hemisphere on top and the southern on the bottom. From out in space their is no concept of top or bottom..
 
Hi Bob,

I have a similar machine, it's a HAFCO AL350B from 1988, also Taiwanese. I have the original manual that came with the machine which points towards it being a rebranded Liang Dei although there are no markings on the machine to confirm that. Mine is a belt drive. Currently getting it cleaned up and operational.
I too am in Adelaide :)

PXL_20210712_075012188_small.jpg
 
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