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New to me Monarch 60 Engine Lathe

beckerkumm

Hot Rolled
Joined
Aug 5, 2014
Location
Wisconsin Rapids WI
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I'm new here and fairly clueless about metal working so bear with me. I started out with woodworking as a hobby which morphed into buying and rehabbing old WW machines, Oliver, Yates, Wadkin, Robinson etc. My friend is a machinist who makes parts for me as needed ( I have about 50 machines ) and I've gotten interested in metal work.

Even though it doesn't make sense to start out near the top end, a 1954 Monarch 16x54 lathe came up close to home. Quiet through all the gears, ways look good to my eye and enough KDK tooling and a Mitutoyo DRO to make the lathe pretty cheap. No lead screw reverse and a top rpm of 700. I haven't gotten it yet but believe the motor to be 10 hp 1200 rpm.

I've read other threads about speeding up the machine but hoping someone here has info regarding the tapered bearings. A high precision bearing bathed in oil generally has a pretty high speed rating in comparison to a standard although load can screw that up. The manual says the machine could be ordered with top speeds of 1500. It would seem to my uninformed mind that monarch would not have loaded bearings for a slow speed machine differently than a high speed which would eliminate bearing issues from the decision. If anyone knows better, I'd appreciate it. I can figure out the change as I have vfds and motors to swap, probably would just do sheaves, and usage would be low but want to do it right.

Thanks for the help. Dave
 
Dave, if you want to do it right, please use the machine as it was designed. It will serve you very well, and you're not going to be disappointed.
 
I may not but since it is my only lathe, I was reading that higher speeds might be needed for turning small diameters with carbide insert tools. I got a box of carbide insert tooling but certainly could add some HSS. The series 60 could be ordered with a 1200,1800,or 3600 rpm motor and pulley sizes to run top speed from 600 to 1500. If there is a benefit a pulley swap would be easy as long as there are no bearing issues. Doesn't seem like 1500 rpm could cause that but would like to have smarter people than me give advice. Dave
 
I may not but since it is my only lathe, I was reading that higher speeds might be needed for turning small diameters with carbide insert tools. I got a box of carbide insert tooling but certainly could add some HSS. The series 60 could be ordered with a 1200,1800,or 3600 rpm motor and pulley sizes to run top speed from 600 to 1500. If there is a benefit a pulley swap would be easy as long as there are no bearing issues. Doesn't seem like 1500 rpm could cause that but would like to have smarter people than me give advice. Dave

I can't answer your question specifically, but What is smaller diameters(how small)? 700 rpm should work just fine for just about anything you will come across. Faster is nice for aluminum, but 700 will still work. Otherwise, yeah just get some HSS. I don't see it being totally advantageous to use carbide on something small enough to require higher speeds than 700 rpm. Anything that small is probably going to be short anyways. Turning a two foot 1/2" Diane between centers isn't going to happen. Maybe if you have a follow rest so time isn't a huge issue I would think.

I have often wondered what is the difference between a 1200 rpm series 60 and a 700 rpm one. I can't imagine that they changed the gears and bearings to obtain the higher rpm's so my assumption would be that it was just a pully change. I'd hate to chance it though and cook some bearings or cause other damage. Don't forget it's not only the headstock components turning faster, it's the whole gear train including the lead screw. It's not a chance I'd like to take. I also talked to Steve at Monarch and he couldn't give me a definitive answer either. Sorry I couldn't answer your question, but maybe I helped a e.
 
You have helped a lot. My manual says the lathe came standard with an 1800 rpm motor and 19-800 speed. Options with that motor were 21-900 and 24-1000.

3600 motor and choices of 28-1200 and 36-1500

1200 rpm had 14-600 and 17-700.

The pulley changes must have been slight. As to bearings, I know little about the characteristics of tapered Timken type. Monarch used high precision. My WW machines use mainly deep groove radial. Those bearings in phenolic cage precision have about 3x the speed rating of a sealed or even shielded stamped steel cage so it seems reasonable that they shouldn't be an issue.

At the end of the day I'll likely throw that mod into the " too hard " pile and maybe look at the HSS inserts to go with some carbide and just learn what works for a given application. Dave
 
I think the point you were making in your first post still holds: the spindle bearings are the same through all the models, so it should be ok to change the top end with pulley changes. I recall Harry did that with his CY after confirming the bearing issue with Monarch and never saw a problem.
 
I think the point you were making in your first post still holds: the spindle bearings are the same through all the models, so it should be ok to change the top end with pulley changes. I recall Harry did that with his CY after confirming the bearing issue with Monarch and never saw a problem.

Thanks. Not sure I'll change anything but is there a preference ( other than clearance ) in swapping the motor vs the head pulley? Dave
 
I think the point you were making in your first post still holds: the spindle bearings are the same through all the models, so it should be ok to change the top end with pulley changes. I recall Harry did that with his CY after confirming the bearing issue with Monarch and never saw a problem.

I have Harry's 12CK. It runs at 2X the listed speed chart. It is fairly quiet compared to my 14C which is setup from the factory for the higher RPM range (same as the 12CK as modified).
I know he changed the motor but I don't know if it was a different speed than original. The simplest way to change the OP machine is the motor pulley and maybe new belts followed by over speeding the motor via VFD.

 
I need to re-read Harry's posts (wish he was still here). I was warned by many here that increasing spindle RPM on my Series 60 was a BAD thing. I remember Harry talking about his 60 as getting too hot at the 1,000 max RPM, and avoiding that speed except for short time use.

I was warned about the Timken bearings in the 60/61 not being able to handle a speed increase.

I also didn't know Monarch offered a 60 with 1500 RPM...:scratchchin:
 
There were posts here about change gears from Boston gear. Can anyone tell me how those 1/2" thick .75" bore gears work on the Series 60 The 75 tooth gear has a 6206 bearing in the bore and the others have what looks to be 1 1/8" bore. Dave
 
I have a series 60/61 in 13x30 that's used for all sorts of small parts (motorcycle mostly) down to about 1/4" OD. I almost never run up to 1000rpm (max on my machine). Finishes are usually very good/excellent. Just an observation.
 
Manual is on the way and turns out the Monarch is a 61. Motor is 1800 rpm with 12" head pulley and 5.25" motor pulley. I might change the motor one to a 7.5" and put the rpms at 1.5X original. If I do that ( not saying I will ) are there opinions as to whether changing to BX belts would be worthwhile considering the size of the pulleys? Dave
 
Manual is on the way and turns out the Monarch is a 61. Motor is 1800 rpm with 12" head pulley and 5.25" motor pulley. I might change the motor one to a 7.5" and put the rpms at 1.5X original. If I do that ( not saying I will ) are there opinions as to whether changing to BX belts would be worthwhile considering the size of the pulleys? Dave

Congrats Dave!

When you get a chance could you please post pictures of how the DRO scales are mounted?
How did you determine it was a Series 61 and not a 60?
 








 
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