I recently found a lathe for sale locally and decided to buy it for my garage. I initially wasn't sure I wanted such a large machine in my garage but I have spent a few days thinking it over and decided to pursue the beauty. These things are so rare out here in Hawaii. I made an initial post in the General Forum.
https://www.practicalmachinist.com/...-lathe-than-i-originally-wanted-intro-359958/
Now that I have a deal with the previous owner it makes more sense to post in here. What a nice place you guys have here. I am looking forward to becoming familiar with the machine and trying to learn how to best utilize it. I have had a 24" Micro Mark lathe for 15 years or so but I outgrew it a long time ago and it gets used for polishing jobs. I sort of shelved the idea of ever getting a real machine until recently when one just fell into my lap! The money changes hands tomorrow so I hope I am not jinxing the deal by talking about it before but I can't contain the excitement!
Oh what's that? Stop gabbing and talk about the machine...As best as I can tell it's a 40's era 16" Toolroom Precision Lathe Model 8117C. It was a military surplus machine that the owners father bought in the 70's. He said that at the time the Navy converted the entire shop where it was into a more modern one with modern machines and that they just sold them all to clear out the shop. The lore is that it looked almost new at the time.
I just returned from having the owner run me through it and it seems like a good machine. Not that I would be able to say for certain. I have been around a lot of machine tools in my life (retired from Aerospace) and it passed the smell test and condition appears that it has been well cared for. I didn't do any measurements for wear but did check for any spindle slop (couldn't detect any) and extended the tailstock spindle all the way and gave it a wigggle. Some small amount of play at full extension but I expected some of that. I looked at the ways for any obvious sign of wear and didn't see any.
As far as I can tell it has every piece that it should have come with and a ton more of extras that I cant wait to go through. I was too excited to notice that my camera dial had changed and it was in some type of artistic interpretation mode when I snapped a few pics. I am very disappointed with that but I did get one of the serial number and some markings. I want to learn the full story of my machine and I have seen some references in here of delivery cards with specs and details.
Perhaps someone can point me in the right direction after looking at the picture of the markings. Of course in the dim light I totally missed the stamp below the serial that I partially exposed of a wing or a torch or ??
As found...
https://www.practicalmachinist.com/...-lathe-than-i-originally-wanted-intro-359958/
Now that I have a deal with the previous owner it makes more sense to post in here. What a nice place you guys have here. I am looking forward to becoming familiar with the machine and trying to learn how to best utilize it. I have had a 24" Micro Mark lathe for 15 years or so but I outgrew it a long time ago and it gets used for polishing jobs. I sort of shelved the idea of ever getting a real machine until recently when one just fell into my lap! The money changes hands tomorrow so I hope I am not jinxing the deal by talking about it before but I can't contain the excitement!
Oh what's that? Stop gabbing and talk about the machine...As best as I can tell it's a 40's era 16" Toolroom Precision Lathe Model 8117C. It was a military surplus machine that the owners father bought in the 70's. He said that at the time the Navy converted the entire shop where it was into a more modern one with modern machines and that they just sold them all to clear out the shop. The lore is that it looked almost new at the time.
I just returned from having the owner run me through it and it seems like a good machine. Not that I would be able to say for certain. I have been around a lot of machine tools in my life (retired from Aerospace) and it passed the smell test and condition appears that it has been well cared for. I didn't do any measurements for wear but did check for any spindle slop (couldn't detect any) and extended the tailstock spindle all the way and gave it a wigggle. Some small amount of play at full extension but I expected some of that. I looked at the ways for any obvious sign of wear and didn't see any.
As far as I can tell it has every piece that it should have come with and a ton more of extras that I cant wait to go through. I was too excited to notice that my camera dial had changed and it was in some type of artistic interpretation mode when I snapped a few pics. I am very disappointed with that but I did get one of the serial number and some markings. I want to learn the full story of my machine and I have seen some references in here of delivery cards with specs and details.
Perhaps someone can point me in the right direction after looking at the picture of the markings. Of course in the dim light I totally missed the stamp below the serial that I partially exposed of a wing or a torch or ??
As found...
