New to me vintage Taiwan lathe

[thebeebe5]

Greetings all. Yesterday I came home with a vintage "Vico" Vital Corporation lathe. I've been using a ROMI 13-5 at my pal's engine machine shop almost every weekend for the past 6 years and I'm quite used to it. This new to me Vico is quite different. I can find no information on it but was told (on a site I definitely didn't belong) that it was a "standard bench top Taiwanese lathe". No search results for JK-350, Vital etc. return information. I have a manual for a Jet lathe that has similar controls, but it's still not quite the same. There are knobs on mine that don't match what I see in that manual. It's currently at my friend's shop while I clean it up and make a space for it in the garage. I'm afraid I'm going to have hundreds of questions for you folks here in regard to running the lathe (do I really manually move the belt to different beltways for different speeds) cleaning (the gears are covered with heavy grease. How do I get them cleaned/lubricated efficiently/effectively) and usage of the controls (cross feed doesn't seem to work; hope it's not serious).

This thing was surprisingly heavy. I don't have measurements yet but can add them today. I'm guessing it weighs 450-500 pounds. The two of us could barely budge it. Had to use an engine hoist to get it out of the truck once home. I disassembled the chuck and cleaned out the chips/dried grease and reassembled it. MUCH smoother now. Probably everything needs a good cleaning. It's been repainted at least twice before that I can tell. Once yellow, now blue and may have been a grey underneath.

If anyone has or can direct me to a manual for lathes with similar controls I'd be grateful. I'll add the info on the manual I do have and note the obvious differences. I'll also add more detailed photos as I get them later today.

Would love to hear thoughts on this item and can't wait to start using my "own" lathe.

 

[benmychree]

One easy answer; yes you do manually move the belt to change speeds.

 

[thebeebe5]

One easy answer; yes you do manually move the belt to change speeds.

Oh, my God, all that work!!

Definitely used to flipping a lever on the other.

 

[Aukai]

Is that the special lathe that will turn those cams into 3/4 race cams?

 

[thebeebe5]

Is that the special lathe that will turn those cams into 3/4 race cams?

That is SO funny. Me and my buddy have had some good laughs about 3/4 race cams and the “full f_#%*¥<# race cams” quote from the Boogie Nights Movie.

 

[markba633csi]

Looks like an interesting variation on the Taiwan lathe theme, does it have a camlock spindle?
If the bedways are good I would wager you could do some pretty accurate work on it- a variable speed motor would be a nice conversion
-Mark

 

[Ulma Doctor]

i have a manual for a 1236 LAM lathe, also very similar.
if you email me i can share it with you.
ulmadoc@gmail.com
(the file is too large to attach here )

 

[middle.road]

Manual OCR'd and reduced a bit.

LAM 1236 Manual

Manual for LAM-1236. Optimized and OCR'd Original scanned copy provided by @Ulma Doctor

www.hobby-machinist.com

 

[thebeebe5]

Looks like an interesting variation on the Taiwan lathe theme, does it have a camlock spindle?
If the bedways are good I would wager you could do some pretty accurate work on it- a variable speed motor would be a nice conversion
-Mark

Mark... I'm too new to know what a "camlock spindle" is. I have additional pictures I'll add here in the next post. The reason I bought it was because the ways looked well cared for. There appears to have been some surface rust way up near the headstock, and I'm not sure it will really be a factor. I can barely feel a little txture there, but no dips where the ways are worn. A friend tried to sell me an old Atlas that had well worn ways, sot it was something I was looking to avoid. The motor may have been replaced at one point. The wiring looks amature to me. I'll probably redo that at some point IF I can get the crossfeed working.

I.D. plate says DOM May 10, 1980 as far as I can tell. It's not that old, but certainly seems well made.

 

[thebeebe5]

i have a manual for a 1236 LAM lathe, also very similar.
if you email me i can share it with you.
ulmadoc@gmail.com
(the file is too large to attach here )

Thanks, Doc. Looks like middle.road attached a copy. I'll check it out. Would love to find out it was a common lathe built under other names as well so I might have some parts availability.