Lathe purchase?

[RustyBus]

Before I go to look at this lathe please can I have some advice. Is the tool post broken or just loose?

 

[fizzy]

Bit hard to tell but I would say just loose - you can see the bolt holes clearly.

 

[Tinbasherdan]

I’d say loose.... however if it’s owt like mine, it’s loose because someone tried to tighten the compound up and sheared the bolts

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Is that welding at the headstock?

 

[frank horton]

the tool post sits in the hole and then two tapered plugs locate in the beval, under the tool post....these are then held in place with two bolts......never overtighten these 2 bolts, just a nip.........
not quite sure what that "V" thing is in the hole, that does look sheared...!!!!!!!!! might be just junk........ better photo's of the saddle would help a lot........
for referance look at MYFORD Super 7 on the tinternet u'll c something very similar........I'll post u photo's of mine if u want.......

it's a very basic lathe, I'm not to worried about the rust but check for bad grooves on the bed.......hope ur not planning to make clocks.....hahaha......
but would do for the odd job that always seem to turn up when u don't have a lathe......
good luck.......

 

[Seadog]

It looks as though the compound arrangement is the same as the Boxford and later Myfords. The pegs showing in the hole will have a tapered end which matches the taper on the dovetail at the bottom of the compound.

 

[Pete.]

Looks like a Denford plain-turning lathe. No power feeds, no screw cutting. The things poking in the hole are the wedges that secure the compound to the cross-slide. The assembly doesn't look busted but those wedges do get damaged/deformed easily which causes them to not clamp properly. Also the inverted cone on the bottom of the compound can bend slightly in a crash causing it to bind as it rotates and it also tries to tip the compound over slightly even though it's on a flat seat. To exacerbate all this the cross slide casting is very thin and tends to warp over time from cooling stresses. The whole reason that the compound is removed might well be a combination of all or any of these things but the result is that when it's done up 'tight' it still moves (i.e. rotates) under cutting forces. It's not difficult to fix with a little scraping but if you can't/don't scrape it'll make for a very unsatisfactory machine.

The best thing I can say for it is it would make a tidy base for a CNC conversion.

 

[ukracer]

Is that welding at the headstock?

Probably but i have seen welding on other machines hidden by filler. So it all looks neat until you strip it.

 

[RustyBus]

Thanks for all the comments. Yes I would only be using basic functions. Probably making plain bearings and using it to hold a die to push a thread on to the end of a shaft. The seller started at £400 but is down to £200 now. It looks like there’s no tooling with it so I think he may need to reduce the price a bit further for me to be interested.

 

[gaz1]

Looks like a Denford plain-turning lathe. No power feeds, no screw cutting.

spot on pete

denford educator

http://www.lathes.co.uk/viceroy/page4.html