new to me American Pacemaker 16x54 Lathe

Upgraded my phase converter with a friends help,rewired motor and replaced starter to go from 440 to 220 volt and now have the new lathe operational. This machine is a huge upgrade to my shop and far exceeds my skill level.
Planning to take the night machining class at the local community college. Need to find a four jaw chuck and more tooling.
Any good beginner level books on machining out there? I also have an old WWII era Kearney&Treker Vertical mill.

Remember to learn going quick to between centers.. That can make little-off 3 jaw no problem.
i had a time that most every close job had to go between centers and got so good at it that I still made good time..
You don't even need centers on the part because one can center on most any bore just as well.. Yes make up some big cone centers.
Practice thread cutting to make that simple.. learn to figure you own thread numbers..

Even invent a thread and make a good screw and nut for it..Or make a standard thread with not looking at the chart.
Get a decent bench grinder and grind some HSS tool bits.

Might be helpful, though it is for the later version (we don't know yet what you have)

http://pounceatron.dreamhosters.com/docs/atw/atw-pacemaker-general.pdf

http://pounceatron.dreamhosters.com/docs/atw/atw-pacemaker-general-army-manual.pdf

Thanks to Greg Menke for making these available

ralph.meyer said:

Upgraded my phase converter with a friends help,rewired motor and replaced starter to go from 440 to 220 volt and now have the new lathe operational. This machine is a huge upgrade to my shop and far exceeds my skill level.
Planning to take the night machining class at the local community college. Need to find a four jaw chuck and more tooling.
Any good beginner level books on machining out there? I also have an old WWII era Kearney&Treker Vertical mill.

Click to expand...

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Kearney & Trecker Co. - History | VintageMachinery.org
Scroll down and find your mill in the link below. .
Kearney & Trecker Co. - Publication Reprints | VintageMachinery.org

South Bend Lathe Works - Publication Reprints - How To Run A Lathe 55th Edition | VintageMachinery.org. This was written by south bend and is helpful to read.

Thanks for Vintage Machinery and those who contribute publications.
[

QT Op:[Any good beginner level books on machining out there?]

Agree How to run a Lathe the first read.. and know that book cover to cover .

Next:
Perhaps one of the best lathe instructional sources.. but may not be up to speed for some modern cutting tools. And turning hard materials. long time since I read it all.

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/34030/34030-h/34030-h.htm

Still it is lacking on cutting tool tool geometry. Such as clearances and rake attitude for different materials.
And this basically an apprentice level as there is much more to learn with years in any trade.
Very little in lathe milling, key ways. offset turning,line boring. and other subjects.

Good to save the whole thing to your computer.and keep the web address handy.
Along with a good drill and tap chart. (Imperial and Metric)
Speeds and feeds for HSS,carbide,ceramic and diamond tooling.
Plus pick up a machinists handbook, an older version is OK.

Also, coming to thought. I'm not a fan of many u tube video's but I will recommend watching [Abom79]. I learned a lot about chip control ,tool sharpening and cutting speeds watching his video's. Put your video speed at about 115 running speed.
I dont think there is a better lathe machinest on utube.

Need pictures of lathe...

I ran an American Pacemaker for 40yrs. Built in 1963 and had rapid traverse on cross feed and carriage feed. You could do work very fast on this machine especially threading. One heck of a machine, it was a 16 as well.

Well, you can quit looking for lathes on a permanent basis. You have the best they ever made of that type machine. Basically a 10,000lb toolroom machine. Agree on Abom79. Adam is a good guy and a very good teacher.