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hobby or full time, 10EE owners poll

pro or hobby? how do you run your 10EE

  • I fart around in my home shop, it sits for weeks

    Votes: 15 46.9%
  • I work every day in my home shop, it runs alot

    Votes: 6 18.8%
  • I have a small business and use it occasionally

    Votes: 8 25.0%
  • I have a small business and use it daily

    Votes: 1 3.1%
  • I have employees and multiple operators use it daily

    Votes: 1 3.1%
  • I have a museum and it never runs

    Votes: 1 3.1%

  • Total voters
    32

WILLEO6709

Diamond
Joined
Nov 6, 2001
Location
WAPELLO, IA USA
see poll questions

I voted " have employees and multiple operators use it daily". we are a job shop with some of our own product and usually more than one of uses one of the 4 10EE's every day at least for something.
 
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Well mine is not yet operational, but I chose option 3...

It is not an essential item nor are it's capabilities even fully required by me, my bigger 17" lathe can do everything my 10EE will do for me....... I wanted a 10EE simple as that as they are a very rare lathe in these parts of the woods..

If I was to require one for what it can really do and was designed for (turning parts to a very high degree of cylindricity), I would have to seriously look at it's capabilities and see whether a CNC would be a better and outperform it... How much would a comparable CNC machine cost? Would say a HAAS be capable or producing work to the same geometric tolerances as a 10EE?

We all know today precision and high tolerances has got cheaper and cheaper and cheaper to create over time...
 
I voted 'fart around' because I'm in no way a professional machinist nor do I use it to make money but the reality is that it will probably get used a good bit. All of our drilling stuff at work is BSP and UNF/UNC thread and I've been unable to machine any of that on my metric lathe. Got two jobs lined up already.

Even when making parts with metric threads I'll probably use the monarch to turn the parts then flick the chuck over to my metric machine for thread cutting since it's also D1-3 so i can just move the chuck and maintain concentricity. Bloody handy feature that.
 
I am sadly in the fart camp, but only due to work and family demands. There are times of the year, like around the holidays, when I run my machines like a real shop, but it's not often enough for my tastes.
 
The Monarch is running but being reconditioned. I do use lathes, mills, etc. every day for a living, such as it is. Most of the lathe work is on a Sheldon R15 with a 14 1/2" South Bend as a backup and second operation machine, usually for facing off the backside of a cut off part without disturbing the setup on the Sheldon. When I get done with the Monarch, I expect it to be a daily runner.

Bill
 
I am surprised at how few people have responded daily use in small business/ machine shops....makes me think either people are holding out or cnc has really overtaken small precision turning.
 
I'm not at all surprised. In the current market for machining work probably the best commercial match for the 10 EE capabilities are repair work on well crafted mechanisms or true one off prototypes done by a master. No one is going to use one for production now, that use became obsolete many decades ago. First line R&D use is in the 10 EE's past also. There are some universities which still keep one or two around but every student knows no part they ever design will be made in a factory on such a relic.

My response doesn't fit your poll. It's nostalgia for me. At NASA I was making a short run of PTFE sabots on a 10 EE for a hypervelocity light gas gun the day President Kennedy was killed. The next day working in a hypersonic wind tunnel installing parts on a model made on one.

My 10 EE is paying respect to a long line of brilliant scientists, engineers and master experimental machinists at NACA which became NASA in 1958.

It's also in deep appreciation for the designers and builders of the magnificent art deco influenced Monarch 10 EE. Drafting machines, scales, triangles, drafting boards, slide rules in the engineering department right next to the foundry raising parts from sand next to the machine shop next to the fitting shop. That was Monarch, a remarkable company.

The vertical organization of Monarch was unusual even in its heyday, it is impossible to make such a company profitable in the USA today.
 
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I don't fit into the poll options either. As DaveE907 relates my machines are being used exactly as mentioned, both to repair and prototype one offs. My shop is basically a small version of a tool room / research lab from the time before CNC. The machines are not necessarily that old most are from the 60's and 70's but they are all manual machines. Here is an older picture of the "shop"

SteveIMG_4001a.jpg
 








 
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