My 9" Monarch Lathe

Silverbullet said:
Nice lathe , you sure didn't get a bad deal. It's a beauty of a machine. The castings look to be done really well. One thing I never got into accept for another few tons of lead is casting iron or brass . I'm sure I could learn but not gonna. Ill be happy to get in the shop.
Nice machine I have a planer waiting to be fixed up and a little restoration to it. Overhead line shaft for her too. It's really in great shape just been dust collecting for twenty years.
Send more pictures of your builds of the steady rest and more. Nice lathe don't know of to many of them around.
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I have done considerable casting of aluminum, brass and bronze; the former two are pretty easy; best to buy a pyrometer to determine when pouring temp is reached; with aluminum, do not use old pistons for metal, they are cast in steel molds and have an iron content in the metal to prevent the pistons from sticking to the molds, this iron content narrows the solidification range of the metal, so if you pour it at a temp high enough to not freeze up in the gating or thin sections in the casting, the result is excessive shrink in heavier sections and possible cracking.
Casting in bronze takes a lot of care compared to brass, and alloy of copper and zinc; the zinc has vapor pressure that prevents furnace gasses form the melt, which would create porosity, this does happen in bronze, an alloy of copper and tin; the furnace gasses are absorbed by the melt, and the resulting porosity can be awful. This can be prevented by the use of the oxidizing/deoxidizing treatment, where an oxidizing flux scavenges the gasses out of the molten metal, and just before it is to be poured, a deoxidizer is plunged into the metal, removing the oxides.
If bronze is cast, after the degassing is done, and the slag is removed, the metal should be shiny bright, if not, don't pour it.
I like the looks of your planer, I used to have one that was 20 X 20 X about 4ft stroke. I like planers, when I was employed where I apprenticed, they had one 6ft X 6ft X 16ft, which I ran quite a lot, it was a Cincinnati, probably built rather near WW-1, driven by a 35 HP D.C. motor with variable speed in both directions. For the most part, a planer is a real "gravy" machine; lots of sit down time for most work performed.
Unfortunately, when I do projects like the lathe parts, I am more focused on getting the job done, and not taking pictures; at the same time I was doing a bunch of other pattern and machine work on a bunch of parts for a steam donkey at Sturgeon's Mill near here, where I volunteer; there were literally hundreds of lbs of iron castings.
 
toploader said:
Very early Monarch lathe around the same era as your lathe. Mines a 14" swing. Near the end of the bed is stamped the model number.
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Mine is stamped K595, my serial number book starts at 1410 for 1927 and does not indicate any prefix letters, it ends at 1961.
 
I really love the flat belt setup. I have several shafts and pulleys laying about this old farm I live on. Someday I want to utilize them again. Awesome job.
 
It was asked how rare they might be, I know of only one other in Berkley Ca., he lent me his steady rest and faceplate to copy, and the "lineshaft" and motor, I just winged the follow rest and the driving plate.
 
You have some very nice machines.
Your lathe reminds me of the one we had in the shop I worked at. The place was started in 1918 and in 1927 the owner bought a new Monarch lathe. It was somewhere in the 18 to 20" range. Belt driven of course. It was still in service when I was there although it had been fitted with an electric motor. The present owner still has the bill of sale and the shipping papers that came with it.
 
Monarch lathes were really pretty ordinary back in the day, it was not until later years that they were designed much more sophisticated as they have been known since perhaps the 1930s. In my shop that I retired, I had a 1943 vintage 12" model CK, a toolroom lathe, it was certainly the finest lathe that I have ever owned, a friend near her has something that I have always lusted after, a 1950s Pratt & Whitney toolroom lathe, just as nice or nicer than the Monarch, it had come from Schlage Lock Co. in San Francisco, one of a fleet of them.
 
jcp said:
You have some very nice machines.
Your lathe reminds me of the one we had in the shop I worked at. The place was started in 1918 and in 1927 the owner bought a new Monarch lathe. It was somewhere in the 18 to 20" range. Belt driven of course. It was still in service when I was there although it had been fitted with an electric motor. The present owner still has the bill of sale and the shipping papers that came with it.
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I have some nice machines because the guy that bought my business did not want all the machinery, so I had to take it home --- poor me!
 
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In those pictures up top, I couldn't help thinking, "Hey, if you replace one of those belts with a 2" x 72" sanding belt, it becomes even more versatile!"
 
kb58 said:
In those pictures up top, I couldn't help thinking, "Hey, if you replace one of those belts with a 2" x 72" sanding belt, it becomes even more versatile!"
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"They" say that at my age (76) that I should stay off ladders.
 
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