A new lathe
So, I have a another lathe. This one is to tide me over until I can get my ML7 back from the wilds of my younger brother's garage (which is, in turn, pending finishing the Defender engine replacement...). About all I can say about this one is "it's old". It has a gap bed, a headstock that bolts to the bed behind the gap, taper bushes on the headstock - and is about 3' long overall, with a centre height of about 3 1/2". No manufacturers plate or anything; there's holes where one might have been mounted, but if it was, it's long gone now. I'm told that when asked, the guy from lathes.co.uk suggested it was American, possibly from lend-lease.
These photos are a bit old, the thing is considerably browner now than shown:
Spindle runout is impressive at about 0.01mm TIR, chuck runout slightly less so - still trying to assess why there's the best part of 1mm runout on chunks of silver steel (with different high points according to diameter, but I'm not sure that the chuck jaws are true yet). The only other issue it seems to have is that the topslide screw seems to bind; need to check how straight it is.
It's on a bench, with the first pass of levelling done - didn't have time to bolt everything down & test last night. I need to fab a couple of small C spanners for the nuts on it to adjust the spindle too; not yet decided if I'll drill some plate & fit pins or just saw out the profile.
Still, it'll do for a few things until I get the Myford back & installed; then I have to grudgingly accept that I really don't have the room for more than one lathe along with everything else.
These photos are a bit old, the thing is considerably browner now than shown:
Spindle runout is impressive at about 0.01mm TIR, chuck runout slightly less so - still trying to assess why there's the best part of 1mm runout on chunks of silver steel (with different high points according to diameter, but I'm not sure that the chuck jaws are true yet). The only other issue it seems to have is that the topslide screw seems to bind; need to check how straight it is.
It's on a bench, with the first pass of levelling done - didn't have time to bolt everything down & test last night. I need to fab a couple of small C spanners for the nuts on it to adjust the spindle too; not yet decided if I'll drill some plate & fit pins or just saw out the profile.
Still, it'll do for a few things until I get the Myford back & installed; then I have to grudgingly accept that I really don't have the room for more than one lathe along with everything else.