Lathe legs, No loss or the beginning?

Tucson Craigs list:Craftsman / Atlas Lathe - tools - by owner - sale
No real loss except that if he gets even near that no lathe will be safe.

tdmidget said:

Tucson Craigs list:Craftsman / Atlas Lathe - tools - by owner - sale
No real loss except that if he gets even near that no lathe will be safe.

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I hope he gets a premium over that.

Darwin.

It should take at least one more G'Damned fool with more money than brains out of the market.

OTOH, where there are Drug-needy Copper thieves so stupid as to try to purloin Copper wire whilst it is carrying serious Voltage and Current?

Maybe Darwin's Ghost is off his feed, and needs the boost of a dose of vitamin Pb now and again.

Someone will buy those, fasten them to a nice piece of wood, and sell them to some loft dwelling IT nerd for a fortune.

Regards Tyrone.

Last year, my wife & I took a ride over to the antique flea market in Brimfield, Massachusetts. From all indications, the person selling those Atlas lathe legs is behind the curve. There were many acres of vendors/dealers selling all manner of stuff. Machinery legs from anything having had cast iron legs were being sold like hotcakes, generally as-removed so the IT nerd or yuppie or inferior decorator types could croon, swoon, and maybe climax over the "original patina". Some legs were clearly from textile or printing machinery, and some were from unknown machinery, and some were unfortunately amputated from machine tools. I am kind of reminded of a comedian's shtick years ago (George Carlin, possibly). He hit on the subject of frog legs as food, and asked: "What happens to all the frogs that get their legs chopped off for frog legs ? Are there frogs out there on little dollies making their way around ? (reference to how persons having both legs amputated used to get around on dollies similar to mechanic's creepers). Imagine all those frogs on dollies pulling their way around with their front legs." That, unfortunately, is the case with people like the ones who yank the legs out from under lathes and other old machine tools and "repurpose" them or sell them like this ad, or at places like Brimfield.
Old and beat up Fostoria machine tool work lights (the articulated arm type) were going for upwards of one hundred bucks apiece. Perfectly good steam gauges and lubricators and brass specialty fittings were worked into lamps with vapor-tight lighting from industrial plants and sold as expensive lamps. Gears, curved spoke pulleys and smaller flywheels, anything smacking of old machinery or old industrial settings was going for high prices, to be sold to people who would no more go near a working machine shop, let alone know and appreciate old machinery. Sad days for the rest of us who use, restore, and sometimes earn our livelihoods with old machinery.

Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Someone will buy those, fasten them to a nice piece of wood, and sell them to some loft dwelling IT nerd for a fortune.

Regards Tyrone.

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Only if that nice piece of wood is 'live edge', and simultaneously spalted.

But it beats the shabby-chic/distressed fad, which was 'take a perfectly good piece of furniture, fuck it up, paint it with bad paint, leave it outside until it peels/chips, then mark it up and sell it.'

And yeah, steampunks are indeed punks.

Chip

On second thought in this matter: Old cast iron tractor and farm machinery seats became quite collectable a few years before old machinery legs did. It got to the point where you could walk out into a field in the middle of nowhere, miles from any road, and if there was abandoned farm equipment, you could bet the seats were all long gone off it.

Some enterprising souls have used the more ornate of these seats as foundry patterns. There is no need to worry about the additional shrinkage (a master pattern used to me made with double shrinkage, allowing metal patterns to be cast from it). No dimensions on those reproduction implement seats are critical since the people buying the reproductions are more likely to hang the reproductions of the seats on their walls. No danger of them mounting them on anything like a tractor, buck rake or mower. The persons reproducing the old farm equipment seats are offering them cast in aluminum, and possibly in iron.

Some of us ought to get out the Bondo and sandpaper and doctor up some old machine tool leg castings to use as "master patterns". Pour a bunch of leg castings in iron (maybe get the castings poured in India or Pakistan or China by the lowest cost back alley foundries available), then "antique them" by painting them with black or gray paint in a couple of random layers, blasting them with birdshot, chipping at them by hitting them with a chain whipped against the castings to chip off little pieces. Rust patina them (you can buy chemicals to create different patinas). Get some grunge from an auto junkyard- the kind you scrape off with a putty knife, and collect it in coffee cans. Smear it on the castings liberally, and throw on some steel and brass swarf. Load the castings on a truck, dress in the rattiest bib overalls you have, and proceed to the nearest antique flea market near any large metropolitan area. A few days of this, and you will be able to buy loads of new toys or put your kids through graduate school. Turn the proceeds from said sales over to your better half or financial planner. Get yourself your favorite recreational beverage of choice, hang up your bibs and truck keys and partake of said beverage liberally as you will need it after dealing with the types who participate and frequent those antique mega flea markets.

Yup, I believe China saw the market and started pouring them (the Farmall seats)

Much like the old metal signs, I can see them starting to make them
in the very near future.

And as far as I'm concerned, the sooner the better.

I bought a Barnes Velocipede Lathe seat (and underarm) from a gentleman "seat collector" near Keene, NH.

He was gleaning out his collection - and I became the beneficiary. His seat and underarm were 1/4 the price for new reproductions.

Funny how you can get an eye.

As they used to say of John Clement of New Hampshire "He could tell an injector from a pile of rusted pipe fittings at a distance of 50 paces."



Joe in NH

After reading Joe M's first post I simply could not resist posting a scan of a cartoon I received by fax many years ago and uncovered during a recent office clean up .
I don’t know who the artist or source was to give them credit
Regards,
Jim

Back in 1965, I reversed the process of removing cast iron lathe legs. I had bought my first "big" used lathe (12 x 36) and it was on a non-original welded steel bench too wide to go down the basement stairs. I left the bench in the garage and put the lathe in the basement, on the floor. Not very handy to use, so I had to build a new bench. I went to an auction of some sort and got a pair of old iron lathe legs for $10 (this was pre-yuppy). I added some casters and heavy wood stretchers and made a top of two layers of 3/4 plywood. I put a stainless steel sheet on the top and edged it with extruded aluminum channel. The bench was a lot nicer than the lathe, but I did not sell it and buy a new lathe until 1974.

Larry

Lee Valley is already pouring cast bench legs.

Lee Valley is already pouring cast bench legs !

http://www.leevalley.com/us/wood/page.aspx?p=40575&cat=3,43586

IIRC, I first learned of this in a discussion on this forum !

Then there's Drake Casting Co.:

Amazon.com: Designer Industrial Cast Iron Coffee/ Bench Table Legs Drake Casting Co: Kitchen & Dining

One of the famous early machine tool companies, either Brown & Sharpe or Pratt & Whitney IIRC, had an outstanding design for a cast bench leg that fastened to the wall on one side, with plenty of knee room on the other side. (This is another thing that I've heard on this forum but not seen in person.) That design might sell like hotcakes today.

The ideal business plan would be to tap both the Yuppie market and the market of practical people looking for sturdy bench legs.

John Ruth

Jim Christie --

I'm pretty sure that the guy who drew your cartoon was Gahan Wilson, probably in the mid-to-late 1960s.

John

Thanks John Garner ,
I did a quick search on Gahan Wilson since I was not familiar with his work.
Gahan Wilson - Wikipedia
I didn’t see the photo I posted right off the top but might dig a little deeper later.
I don’t want to run this tread too far off topic.
Regards,
Jim

Sam Gross, National Lampoon cover, Dec 1970

John Garner said:

I'm pretty sure that the guy who drew your cartoon was Gahan Wilson, probably in the mid-to-late 1960s.

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-I don't know who drew the picture Jim posted, but it wasn't Gahan Wilson. Wilson has always had a distinct art style, and almost always included watercolor or ink-wash shading.

[/comic nerd]



Doc.

tdmidget and DocsMachine --

You gentlemen are correct; thanks for correcting me.

John

Thanks ,
I didn’t find the one I posted but here is another Similar one by Sam Gross
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/5e/13/e6/...82--new-yorker-cartoons-national-lampoons.jpg

national lampoon dec 197 frogs legs Cartoon - Google Search

Back to legs...

These VERY similar to SC Wright - but made new in China.

Pair of Heart Industrial Machine Cast Iron Table Legs NEW LOW PRICE & FREE SHIP | eBay



And their descriptive

Condition:
New: A brand-new, unused, unopened, undamaged item in its original packaging (where packaging is ... Read more
about the condition
Brand:
Olde Good Things
Style: Industrial Country/Region of Manufacture: China
inventory number: M201303 Room: Dining Room
Type: Table Legs Color: Black

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Curious that assignment to "dining room." What if I want to use these under a lathe?

Joe in NH

Looks like I was pre-empted in the idea of having reproduction cast iron machinery legs cast in China. As I wrote, however, it looks like a bad job of casting, unless I am seeing something that isn't there: it looks like shrinkage defects on the top/mounting pads on the castings shown. Having reproductions of old machinery legs cast in China was bound to happen, and poor quality castings are almost a given.

Joe Michaels said:

Looks like I was pre-empted in the idea of having reproduction cast iron machinery legs cast in China. As I wrote, however, it looks like a bad job of casting, unless I am seeing something that isn't there: it looks like shrinkage defects on the top/mounting pads on the castings shown. Having reproductions of old machinery legs cast in China was bound to happen, and poor quality castings are almost a given.

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Hi Joe, I'd buy the legs in the original photo, a very clean and elegant pair of castings. I wouldn't touch the " Chinese " castings with a barge pole, a pretty ugly and crude casting.

Regards Tyrone.