Show us your lathe

[Pete.]

Aah right - nope that swarf is no fire hazard.

 

[hareng]

As bad as me, light a fire under that aluminium swarf and it will shrink, had to do it a few times to get in wheely bin compressed. The arts keeping it in small manageable chunks that hasnt a lot of air space.

 

[plantlife]

Few of mine. It's a 1919/20 Drummond 'B'

It was given to me be a friend, came with the home made drive/countershaft arrangement, I made the bench/cupboard from scratch (all TIG welded).

Nice machines these old lathes, I've not made much yet with it, but glad to have it working and have made some swarf with it!

I also knocked up the toolpost for it, I've got some better packing now but need to sort out a better arrangement than the too long studding that pulls it down onto the compound slide...

I've just got one of these lathes, a few parts missing. What does the the threaded bar at the bottom of the lathe do? I haven't got the motor, but it attaches to it?
thanks

 

[Bsmith]

My Smart and Brown production lathe had been idle in my Orkney workshop for a year. I cleaned it, sprayed a coat of diesel and put a cover over it. Intend to move it down her next summer. Good old lathe but no screw cutting or feeds.

 

[awemawson]

My mainstay and most useful tool in the workshop is my Colchester 2500 manual lathe. I bought it as a bit of a wreck in that the main ways were quite worn near the headstock. Complete rebuild was called for - had all the ways re-ground and the carriage brought back up to height with Turcite. Also replaced all the bearings and seals in the saddle assembly. It's now a very nice lathe to use. Photo shows it in my last workshop as that was the only picture I had to hand

 

[awemawson]

Then I have my 'Toy'

I enjoy re-building things and this one has been my biggest challenge so far. It's a 1993 Traub TND350G CNC lathe weighing in at over four tons. It was destined for the scrap yard as the previous owner had blown up the controller and one of the axis servo drives, and the potential repair bill was more than a replacement machine. I've spent the last few months learning a lot about the machine and it's electronics and am pleased to say have got it fully working in all aspects.

It's main spindle motor (ie where chuck is on manual lathe) is 18.5kW (ie 25 HP), and its opposing spindle motor is 11kW. It has a twelve station tool turret, and the tools can themselves be powered by a 2Kw motor, so it can mill, drill, tap etc off the main axis.

Youtube video of some minor playing about testing here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Lx5ETYsBHg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cW5xb9LVlE8

 

[Shox Dr]

Impressive kit Andrew. Who did you get to refurb the Colchester, or did you do it yourself?

 

[awemawson]

Thanks Shox Dr. The Colchester Master grinding and scraping was done in 2001 by a little firm down in Poole - Machine Tool Services (Phill Goodall) I'm not sure that they are still in business. They had a very impressive gantry grinder.

 

[Shox Dr]

A while ago then. How's the Turcite holding up. I'm almost paranoid about swarf embedding in it and increasing wear. I keep meaning to make some bellows to cover the ways up, but as yet....

 

[awemawson]

Absolutely no issues whatsoever. With decent way wipes swarf theoretically shouldn't get near it, and if it can then it would also have mangled the cast iron.

 

[lchris21]

Nice Traub. What you made / making with it???

Brought back a few memories / nightmares when I was working on maintenance on similar stuff. Had quite a few of those turrets in pieces in the wee hours in the middle of a night-shift with the production manager breathing down my neck. He soon learned I had all the power and usually left me to it

Turcite.............we used to use Moglice on our refurbs, as you said as long as you kept the swarf out, happy days. Some of our stuff used to last years even running 24/7 machining cast iron.

 

[awemawson]

Still learning to program it

Don't want a crash - there's a bit too much power involved and the servo drives aren't half expense !

What lubricant did you use in the Sauter tool turrets and also in the powered tooling? I'm getting conflicting advice.

 

[lchris21]

Most of the turrets I worked on were hydraulically driven (Rexroth or Parker systems) and used the fluid as the lubricant. Can't remember the spec off hand, but by the time I was involved they were usually full of swarf or coolant. No lubricant in sight............... Changing the Glyd rings after a swarf attack could make a grown man cry

 

[plantlife]

Here's my scrapper drummond b type. Fixed a few issues on it, the on/off switch. Cleaned it up a little, needs a proper resto, but it works as it is.

 

[Big Mick]

Here's my Harrison L6, 1964 actually a few months older than me!!
Saw it when I went to view a Bridgeport mill. The motor ran but the clutch wouldn't drive. £150.
Converted to 2hp single phase so runs off the mains now.



Quite a bit of wear in the cross slide and a bit in the bed, but it all works. I fancy giving it a proper refurb, but I just know I can't do without it for any length of time!!

Cheers, Mick.

 

[waddycall]

Here's mine - I think it's a very old brittania bed with bits of other lathes bolted on along with someone's homemade top slide. No countershaft so spends a lot of time in back gear. Surprising how useful (if not accurate) it is really! This was an enthusiastic attempt to make a motorbike steering stem. It ended up being several smaller things instead!

 

[Windy Miller]

Is the motor bolted to the wall or does it just float in mid air? I can't see any bracket for it!

 

[Robotstar5]

Is the motor bolted to the wall or does it just float in mid air? I can't see any bracket for it!

It generates a magnetic field that repels it from the lathe bed keeping correct tension on belt

 

[Windy Miller]

It generates a magnetic field that repels it from the lathe bed keeping correct tension on belt

Ah Ha I should have known that. Just shows how little I know about lathes!

 

[zx9]

It generates a magnetic field that repels it from the lathe bed keeping correct tension on belt

Jedi motor it is, the force is strong