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Another eBay funny

Joe Michaels

Diamond
Joined
Apr 3, 2004
Location
Shandaken, NY, USA
I was browsing fleabay for LeBlond 13" Roundhead Regal parts, and came upon this listing. It is laughable. Reference: Listing number 333244473166

The seller has listed an old "Lumphead" 13" Regal lathe. He describes it as "rare", and goes on to say that it was made by a well-known FRENCH manufacturer. Aside from a coat of gloss grey enamel and some shining up, things go downhill from there. The seller shows the headstock opened up, and it is clear most of the gears for speed selection are not there. The seller states as much, saying the lathe has only two spindle speeds. Other than that, the chart on the quick change box giving the threads/feeds is missing, and the lathe looks well used. There are some chucks included with the lathe, and the seller, showing his superior knowledge of good shop practice, has photo'd the lathe with the key in the chuck at the 12:00 position. Maybe if the seller throws on the power, the chuck key will fly out and knock some sense into his skull.

The seller goes on about how the lathe is not a Colchester or Harrison, and how he made a project of restoring it. "Restoring" is one of those terms where a high degree of latitude or interpretation seems to apply.

The seller and the lathe are in Worcester, in the UK. With the wonderful thing we call the "internet" and "Google", I am surprised the seller did not avail himself of it to find out that LeBlond was a US lathe builder. It would likely be asking too much of the seller to expect that he had stumbled upon this 'board and read up on older LeBlond lathes, let alone availed himself of Tony Griffith's excellent "Machine Tool Archive". There is someone actually bidding on that lathe, which means one of several things:
-the bidder knows less than the seller
-P.T. Barnum was right (there's a sucker born every minute)
-lumphead Regal lathes, even missing some of the headstock guts, are rarer and more desirable (particularly in the UK) than any of us would have imagined

I have no personal stake in this, and if I did, I'd deny it. Just good for a laugh to see what's on fleabay.
 
"...the chart on the quick change box giving the threads/feeds is missing..."

Well, at least the "original brass plaques" are polished up and laid on the table by the other loose bits, so maybe not missing.

Larry
 
I love it Joe. But hang on, if it's French-made, shouldn't it be spelt "LeBlonde" ?? And maybe it comes with a couple of left hand spanners! And you're quite correct about P. T. Barnum.

Here's a Leblond search tip. When browsing online classifieds for Leblond Lathes. Type Lablonde Lablond Leblonde Le blond Loblond Lublond etc etc etc. About 6 months ago I found a face plate from a "La Blonde" lathe that fit onto the spindle my Leblond lathe perfectly!

Martin
 
If you were in the area, and only needed a crank handle and a cross feed dial. the offering might be just the thing. The accuracy of the description doesn't mean a thing to the salvage operation.
The machine is only a parts source at this point.
 
On the optimistic side, the expensive helical gears are still there, the four-speed gears are cheaper, smaller spur gears. If someone had far more time than money and more money than sense, it could be a candidate for a complete rebuild. Having spent most of four years rebuilding a 1952 Hardinge HLV I won't be volunteering though...
 
Shipping to the US for less than 40 dollars ?! Maybe he has found a rust bucket of a ship that needs ballast weight.

As a sidenote:

Spur gears on a one-off basis for applications like quadrant (pick-off) gears on older lathes are made by CNC Wire EDM quite handily. This allows the use of pre-hardened stock. But, it is the age old question: is this lathe worth going to that effort & expense ? It is an old, worn lathe with a plain bearing headstock. Not too common, but not entirely rare. A tugboat skipper I met years ago used say: "Old worn-out man with a new suit of clothes". In this case, the new suit of clothes is the paint job and the polishing up of the machined surfaces (steel wool ? Scotchbrite ? abrasive cloth or paper ?).
 
There is a 240v, single phase, 1425rpm motor attached but not connected to the input shaft of the gear head, a pulley arrangement would have to be constructed before the lathe could be used.

If only he had a working lathe to make the pulleys with...

So many things so wrong with this listing...
 
2 Bidders! If you just needed parts, or broke it down for parts, I'm thinking $400 would be pretty easy to recover, and when done stripping it, you still have the bed and legs, throw a glass top on it and call it a desk:sulk:
 








 
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