karsthuntr
Plastic
- Joined
- Dec 5, 2017
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Frasse survived until recently (and may still exist) as a supplier of metals in the NYC area. By the 1960's, Frasse was a jobber supplying metals and plastics to machine shops and manufacturers. I do not know if they are still in existence or have been gobbled up by another larger firm. This is a first for me, seeing Frasse's name on a lathe. As Joe in NH notes, Frasse was the dealer. On a larger scale, Joseph Ryerson, of Chicago was a metals jobber who also sold machine tools. Ryerson was large enough to have machine tools made with their own name on the castings- by machine tool builders in their plants, not Ryerson's.
The lathe you have is old, no question about it. Even the conversion to electric motor drive is old, judging by the appearance of the motor. It does not look a hard-used, neglected, or abused lathe. The tooling with the lathe- chucks, faceplates, steady rest and follower rest are what can drive the value up. Common stock items like toolholders, toolbits, lathe centers, lathe dogs, drill chucks with arbors are all good to have, but not hard to come by nor expensive. It is the tooling unique to the lathe- the steady and follower rests, and to a lesser extent the chucks and faceplates (which require a back plate bored and threaded to fit the spindle nose on this type of lathe) which can drive the value of a lathe like this up. The fact the lathe is clean, has a patina of old oil, has all its original crank handles and levers- nothing busted and brazed back together, nothing replaced with something handy (like a small lathe dog for a crank handle), also increases the value.
The other item that is critical if you want to cut screw threads with this lathe are the change gears. This lathe had a set of loose gears which were made up according to the brass "chart" to enable different pitches of threads to be cut. If the change gears are on hand, this will also drive up the value. Missing change gears drives the value down.
The important thing is this little lathe is mainly intact. It needs to be kept out of the clutches of the types who would take its legs for an "industrial table" in some yuppie loft housing and junk the lathe. Hopefully, it will go to a good home. Value depends on what you are looking for in the way of a lathe and what you intend to use the lathe for. If you intend to make small parts on a hobby basis, and are not looking to work to tenths of thousandths, this little lathe is fine. It will require the use of high speed steel toolbits rather than carbide tooling. It is a simple, classic, and slow turning little lathe built in an era when lathe cutting tools were forged from high carbon tool steel. This type of cutting tool required low cutting speeds.
The other determining factor for value with used/older machine tools is your geographic location. Some parts of the USA are fairly plentiful in terms of finding good used machine tools for home shop use at reasonable prices. Other parts of the USA are almost deserts in this regard, so prices of used machine tools are higher in those areas.
Price alone should not be the deciding factor as to whether you buy this lathe. You need to ask yourself what kind of jobs you want to do with it, and whether you want a classic antique to have the experience of using such a lathe vs something more modern with more versatility (and readily available parts and tooling) like a Logan or South Bend.
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