As a continuation to this thread http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/lathe-and-welder-wanted-in-ireland.51698/ I've started a post in the hope that someone can help me with more info on this lathe.
It is branded an Ace, I roughly measured it as 40" between centres, 16" dia over bed and 24" with the gap piece removed, so not a hobby lathe. It is very similiar to this lathe on Tony's lathes website.
I e-mailed Tony about it but got no reply. Just sent another e-mail with photos, hopefully I get a reply this time.
It has a flat belt drive headstock and the last owner had rigged up his own overhead belt drive using a 1.5kw 240v motor driving a gearbox from a ride-on lawnmower which gives you 5 fwd & 1 rev gears. That drives a piece of tubing mounted between 2 bearings, the flat belt runs on the tubing.
Simple engineering but it seemed to work very well. It gives you 20 fwd & 4 rev speeds, though I'm not sure how many are useful. I'll try to make it more compact by moving the motor alongside the tubing and mount it behind the lathe. Long term I'll probably go for a 3phase motor & vfd.
Here's the headstock.
It has a proper screwcutting gearbox, seems to be able to cut both metric & imperial threads without changing gears. All the levers are tight and move nicely into place. Problem is all the labels & plates are in German, which makes me think that it is german built.
Flat belt drive spindle but not a direct drive.
The belt drives the outer hollow shaft with the pulleys but the chuck is mounted on the inner shaft and is connected by either a locking gear or via a clever back gear system giving even more speeds.
Not sure what lurks behind this. It came with a few spare gears but they are all the same (28t) so I'm not sure they are even off this lathe.
The saddle had no toolpost.
Instead was fitted a toolpost grinder.
This looks like oe fitment, it was fitted when the previous owner bought it from an auction. He mounted cylinder mower blades between the chuck and tailstock and sharpened them with the toolpost grinder.
The bed shows some wear but it has a multiple vees and flat sections and I'm hoping that will mean it's still accurate. It was fit to precision grind cylinder mower blades so it should be ok. Seller said it made a better job of the blades than his new purpose built machine but the lathe was slower and took up too much room.
He found these behind the lathe and included them in the deal. They seem to be jigs for grinding very large drill bits. I don't think they fit on the lathe, probably for a pedastel grinder. Very similiar to those attachements you get for bench grinders only much heavier duty. The board they are on is 24" sq so they are large!
Any pointers towards sources of info for this machine would be very helpful. In particular I would like to source a top slide & toolpost for it. I could probably make or modify something, any suggestions of another lathe that uses a similiar mount?
Thanks for your help.
It is branded an Ace, I roughly measured it as 40" between centres, 16" dia over bed and 24" with the gap piece removed, so not a hobby lathe. It is very similiar to this lathe on Tony's lathes website.
I e-mailed Tony about it but got no reply. Just sent another e-mail with photos, hopefully I get a reply this time.
It has a flat belt drive headstock and the last owner had rigged up his own overhead belt drive using a 1.5kw 240v motor driving a gearbox from a ride-on lawnmower which gives you 5 fwd & 1 rev gears. That drives a piece of tubing mounted between 2 bearings, the flat belt runs on the tubing.
Simple engineering but it seemed to work very well. It gives you 20 fwd & 4 rev speeds, though I'm not sure how many are useful. I'll try to make it more compact by moving the motor alongside the tubing and mount it behind the lathe. Long term I'll probably go for a 3phase motor & vfd.
Here's the headstock.
It has a proper screwcutting gearbox, seems to be able to cut both metric & imperial threads without changing gears. All the levers are tight and move nicely into place. Problem is all the labels & plates are in German, which makes me think that it is german built.
Flat belt drive spindle but not a direct drive.
The belt drives the outer hollow shaft with the pulleys but the chuck is mounted on the inner shaft and is connected by either a locking gear or via a clever back gear system giving even more speeds.
Not sure what lurks behind this. It came with a few spare gears but they are all the same (28t) so I'm not sure they are even off this lathe.
The saddle had no toolpost.
Instead was fitted a toolpost grinder.
This looks like oe fitment, it was fitted when the previous owner bought it from an auction. He mounted cylinder mower blades between the chuck and tailstock and sharpened them with the toolpost grinder.
The bed shows some wear but it has a multiple vees and flat sections and I'm hoping that will mean it's still accurate. It was fit to precision grind cylinder mower blades so it should be ok. Seller said it made a better job of the blades than his new purpose built machine but the lathe was slower and took up too much room.
He found these behind the lathe and included them in the deal. They seem to be jigs for grinding very large drill bits. I don't think they fit on the lathe, probably for a pedastel grinder. Very similiar to those attachements you get for bench grinders only much heavier duty. The board they are on is 24" sq so they are large!
Any pointers towards sources of info for this machine would be very helpful. In particular I would like to source a top slide & toolpost for it. I could probably make or modify something, any suggestions of another lathe that uses a similiar mount?
Thanks for your help.
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