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UCIMU Summit-16 lathe question

DBcooper

Aluminum
Joined
Jul 7, 2017
Location
Kaufman
im looking into an old summit-16 lathe. cant seem to find a lot of info on it, which makes me somewhat nervous. im on a tight budget and the price is right, but i dont want a perpetual project. the only identifiers on the machine are the UCIMU badge, with the first four digits, the last digit is half hidden under a rivet on the badge.

is this a machine i should be afraid of? dont want to keep throwing money at something. its not much to look at, but if would fill an empty spot in my shop nicely.
summit lathe.jpg
 

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You may want to check that it has an Inch leadscew, and if the machine was made to sell in the US it probably does, so the inch/metric info should all be on the feedbox.
The other night when I looked at it it looked pretty rough, but that's superficial. There is lots of info in the internet about what to look for in a used lathe.
I bought a French lathe 30 years ago, probably made in the early fifties. There really was no question about parts availability, they just aren't! Knowing that I bought it, and it has been a great earner over all those years and extremely reliable, the only parts I had to make were gone when I bought it, simple stuff.
 
You may want to check that it has an Inch leadscew, and if the machine was made to sell in the US it probably does, so the inch/metric info should all be on the feedbox.
The other night when I looked at it it looked pretty rough, but that's superficial. There is lots of info in the internet about what to look for in a used lathe.
I bought a French lathe 30 years ago, probably made in the early fifties. There really was no question about parts availability, they just aren't! Knowing that I bought it, and it has been a great earner over all those years and extremely reliable, the only parts I had to make were gone when I bought it, simple stuff.

thanks for the input. i have confirmed it does have both imperial and metric threading capabilities, provided the change gears are somewhere in the same hemisphere. i know its not much to look at, but as long it runs halfway decent, that can be addressed at a later time.
 
im looking into an old summit-16 lathe. cant seem to find a lot of info on it, which makes me somewhat nervous. im on a tight budget and the price is right, but i dont want a perpetual project. the only identifiers on the machine are the UCIMU badge, with the first four digits, the last digit is half hidden under a rivet on the badge.

is this a machine i should be afraid of? dont want to keep throwing money at something. its not much to look at, but if would fill an empty spot in my shop nicely.
View attachment 332596
New here, did you ever find out any more info on this lathe?
 
negative... i called summit.. they told me all their prints and specs got lost in a fire or something for everything before a certain year and they were totally useless. haven't tried anything in the past couple years. i just use it for simple stuff that doesn't need threads or any semblance of accuracy. that bein said, summit lathe for sale lol

the cherry on top was the change gears aren't original to the machine, so not knowing what pitch/dia gears go in it threading is out of the question, so that's neat.
 
I bought the same lathe about 3 weeks ago. Doing a full restore and need the wiring diagram. I'm currently talking with the folks at Summit. (I guess that's going to be a dead end). Mine was particularly disassembled when I got it and I also need to know how the gears are set up. The next the time you have an extra second could you snap a couple pictures of the change gear setup and the back side of the electric panel?

Thank for any help
 
I hadn't seen this thread until today, but I recognise that lathe. It might be better to ask questions in the European lathe forum.

It looks exactly like the Merli Clover or Clovis made by Merli-Voghera in Italy. I have seen a couple for sale here in NZ and "oxtoolco" on YouTube has one too.

I have photos showing both 'Clover' and 'Clovis', not sure what's going on there with the name.

I don't have photos of a model 16, but you can see the likeness in the 14-20 lathe. The larger 17-25 & 18 are a bit different. I have some other photos if required.

Tony has several pages on Merli, but I can't see the 14-20 lathe.



summit 16 lathe, Italian 01.jpg Merli Clover 14-20 made by Merli-Voghera, Italy.jpg Merli Clover 17-25 made by Merli-Voghera, Italy 01.jpg Merli Clover 17-25 made by Merli-Voghera, Italy 02.jpg Merli Clovis 18 lathe 01.jpg Merli Clovis 18 lathe 02.jpg
 
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