Lathe Advice

[KaneH]

I guess that’s what is appealing with the Drummond. Relatively cheap at £400, could possibly knock a bit more off that. Local to me as well which makes transporting easier. Only issue the ****** size! Might have a drop in to look it over and see if anything obvious is wrong with it. Will keep you posted.

 

[addjunkie]

I guess that’s what is appealing with the Drummond. Relatively cheap at £400, could possibly knock a bit more off that. Local to me as well which makes transporting easier. Only issue the ****** size! Might have a drop in to look it over and see if anything obvious is wrong with it. Will keep you posted.

Your hooked I forsee a future first mill post and an empty bank account

 

[Pete.]

I guess that’s what is appealing with the Drummond. Relatively cheap at £400, could possibly knock a bit more off that. Local to me as well which makes transporting easier. Only issue the ****** size! Might have a drop in to look it over and see if anything obvious is wrong with it. Will keep you posted.

£400 is NOT cheap for that machine. It would be cheap for a Bantam or Chippy but I call that £400 a speculative price.

 

[KaneH]

It may well be a speculative price but that could be beneficial if I was to make an offer on it. In your opinion what would you say it’s worth Pete, if I found that it was in reasonable condition?

I’ve been having a look online and struggling to find much about the larger machines from Drummond. Does anyone on here have experience with them? @MattF i see from other posts that you’ve had a few in the past. Any of them similar size to this?

 

[MattF]

My largest machines are the 5" dual beds. The 6" upwards ones aren't overly common.

When you look at what £400 can get you in relation to other machines, for a machine of that size & quality, that's not a vast amount. I do think it'll be too large for the available space you describe though. This site'll give you info regarding the various Drummonds, along with pretty much every other make & model of lathe.

http://lathes.co.uk/drummond/

 

[waddycall]

Bear in mind that fewer people are in the market for a large old lathe than a small old lathe. Could be tricky to move on.

 

[God mode restorations]

If it's a six or above you can move it on in my direction

 

[KaneH]

Off to take a look at this Drummond on Saturday. Seller has confirmed that it’s not setup (remote wall mounted motor) so won’t be able to see it running. Have compiled a list of things to check for play, as below, but would appreciate any input on other things to check, methods etc.

Bed wear - straight edge and feeler gauge suffice?
Rack teeth condition
Lead screw
Tail stock condition generally
Cross slide
Chuck, spindle, pulleys - runout and bearing wear.

Also how much wear is too much? Bit of a tricky one to answer I’m sure but any pointers would be great.

It’s up for £400 but I’m hoping for less. After speaking with the seller it appears he wants rid sooner rather than later as it’s been taking up space for a while. Fingers crossed that’s good for me. Anybody suggest a ball park figure if it is found to have reasonable wear?

Alternative is a Stanley he’s also trying to shift should this one be shagged. It’s certainly more modern which is appealing but possibly a bit rich for me just now.

 

[gaz1]

its saturday im curious now

 

[KaneH]

Success! Well almost.. bit of a failure getting it off the trailer at my end

Looks like I’ll be needing to strip it on the back of the trailer or rope in the local Geoff Capes!

 

[God mode restorations]

We need more pictures Kane. More pictures.

 

[gaz1]

id probably leave that lathe all connected up and try to take it off easily

you have osb boards and you would need something like a bar to roll under one end

therefore either building something up by using other pallets or concrete blocks you need a longish ramp sort of thing if you had 16ft scaffolding planks that would be better

supported up and then lathe fastened to the pallet and the pallet fastened to the board then use roll bars to roll down the long planks slowly

 

[KaneH]

Only other one I got was a rather cheery looking father standing beside the new purchase.

You can see the motor and frame behind on the trailer. Tailstocks in the van.

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

id probably leave that lathe all connected up and try to take it off easily

you have osb boards and you would need something like a bar to roll under one end

therefore either building something up by using other pallets or concrete blocks you need a longish ramp sort of thing if you had 16ft scaffolding planks that would be better

supported up and then lathe fastened to the pallet and the pallet fastened to the board then use roll bars to roll down the long planks slowly

Yes but take some weight off the top if poss. Tailstock compound counter pulleys etc. leave the motor low if its a bottom mount to help get the cog down.

 

[MattF]

You'll not be disappointed with that. Their cast quality, workmanship & finish were top notch.

 

[KaneH]

Lifting it off in a one’er would be preferable. We didn’t have and scaffold stuff at mine, sure my old man has planks up at his so could well be the way to go when a little more weight is off the top.

Tried to take at least the bed away from the legs but as always there was a couple of stubborn bolts or we couldn’t get access..

 

[MattF]

If you remove the headstock, note you'll likely have some grubscrews going through the sides of the casting to the headbolts. They need loosening off a gnats before you lift the headstock assembly off.

 

[KaneH]

I’ll have a go one night next week to see what I can get off. Going to strip it down for a spruce up before setting it up so killing two birds and all. Will try and log some updates as I go