Can anybody identify this old engine lathe?

quote:

Originally posted by olcrip:
Can anybody identify this old engine lathe?

Not without pictures or at least a description.

I have pictures at Photobucket but don't have permission to post them yet. How do I get this permission or am I miossing something about posting them?

quote:

Originally posted by Fjold:

quote:

Originally posted by olcrip:
Can anybody identify this old engine lathe?

Not without pictures or at least a description.

Can I email the pictures to you if you think you can identify it? There are absolutely no markings on it.

here you go

http://forums.accuratereloadin...22101325/m/951100671

[QUOTE]Originally posted by olcrip:
Can anybody identify this old engine lathe?

olcrip, Hi, new member here from Scotland. When i started my apprenticeship (turner) back in 1963,this type of belt driven Lathe was being replaced by Lathes with their own motors. Cant help with the name but if you look on the right hand side of the Lathe bed there should be an i.d.number that you can google.Hope this helps and watch out for you zipper on the exposed gear train.jc

jc, where about's on the right hand side of the lathe bed? I've looked everywhere but found nothing. The machine has it's own motor mounted kind of high. About 1963 I was serving my tool and die apprenticeship.

Check out early day Sheldon. This appears to be one older than the one I worked on in 1963.

Lathe porn, gotta love it

Cheers, John

Olcrip,Nice to meet up with a fellow machinist.Toolmakers are a rare breed.
If the tailstock was all the way back,the no. should be below it, on the face of the slide its sitting on. Machine manufacturers are keen to display the names on as many of the castings as they can. I would guess by the lack of id on your fine Lathe, it could have been made during the war years, when things got done in a hurry.jc

Old South Bend is my guess. Perhaps an Atlas, but the carriage looks too heavy, although the cross slides are about the right size. Is it well tooled?

It has a bunch of tooling, even a milling vise for the compound.

Not a South Bend.

I posted the photos on Practical Machinist, they have a good antique machinery forum:

www.practicalmachinist.com scroll down to the Antique Machinery forum

WoodHunter,
What is the title to your thread. I'm stupid and can't find it.
Butch

Looks to be a Springfield. Earl.

I would guess it was manufactured about 1900.
It appears to have bronze spindle bearings with oil buckets. You can check to see if they have an adjusting nut. 25 cents says they are probably loose.
A shop I once worked in had a machine of this vintage. Because of the straight bevelled gears in the back gear system it was very noisy.
We used it mostly for a rotary chuck for welding since there were no roller bearings to be damaged by stray current.

You might look carefully at the brass nameplate with feed per revolution. They often stamped the company name there.

Typical top RPM for these guys should be 1500 to 1800 RPM.
Low End will be something like 40 to 60.

I would be surprised if it is rated over 750RPM.
Butch

Closer to 350 rmp and with babbit bearings, not bronze.

I once ran a 36" X 12 ft Pond engine lathe of a little later vintage. Even it would turn 300 RPM per the gear selections. It was awesome in triple back gear. I think it turned 3 or 4 RPM and sounded like massed tanks on the move. So many gears and so noisy. I did manage to burn out the thrust bearing. We turned the edges of Inconel and similar alloy discs just by squeezing between two face plates. That meant a lot of pressure on the thrust bearing and it was bronze.

I found some markings on the old relic. It's (are you ready for this) Pratt & Whitney engine lathe 14 inch swing.

I bought a South Bend Heavy 10 today. It's so sweet and I don't have to take my building apart to get it in the shop. The old P&W relic will have to wait til I get my overhead door in to move to it's next home.

Congrats on the South Bend.

olcrip,Well done, hope your South Bend has metric screw-cutting so you can get your mini Mauser threaded. Which part of the P&W did you find the I.D.jc

How old is that P&W ?

http://www.prattandwhitney.com...ey_history_book4.pdf

All the machines from this 1930 catalog show the P&W name promanently displayed so I would assume it's earlier than that.

Congratulations on the South Bend, they are good little lathes. I have owned eight or ten of them and never had a problem finding parts and tooling is cheap and readily available. I kept a little 16 inch for the new shop and love it for sensitive work. Earl.

quote:

Originally posted by John Chalmers:
olcrip,Well done, hope your South Bend has metric screw-cutting so you can get your mini Mauser threaded. Which part of the P&W did you find the I.D.jc

JC, the stamp was under the right rail at the tail stock. Numbers were gone but the name is still there under all the old paint.

No metric gearing yet for the SB but I will get it pretty quick.

Mete, I don't know how old it is, couldn't open the P&W link. It's in decent shape but needs a good cleaning and removal of the red patina on the unpainted parts.

Big Earl, I'm just so tickled to get this little jewel. It will only take up 2 x 4 feet in my tiny shop where the P&W took up 10 x 3 1/2 feet to the ceiling. I feel like I can breath again. Don't have to go outside to turn around anymore.