1968 LeBlond Regal 15x30 - Weight and rigging?

Hi, new to the forum, long time lurker etc. Made this post bc I'm getting a lathe for my workshop.

Found it at a local machinery dealer in Sacramento, it's a clean looking lathe, 1968 LeBlond Regal 15x30, 3hp, and very heavily built by the looks of it, comes with tooling (3j,4j chucks, qctp, steady rest), decent price for Northern CA (quoted $4500), figure I'll go for it. I'm heading over to inspect under power on Monday.

What's weird is the shipping weight, quoted by the dealer and in the LeBlond catalogs I've found as 3500-4000 pounds, which seems unbelievable for a 15x30 lathe. But indeed, the dealer weighed the machine on the scale and it comes to an enormous 4200 pounds!

As I understand it, that kind of weight is in the territory of 15x50 or even larger lathes, and for the the measured weight to exceed even the manufacturer's listed shipping weight seems very strange.

Have any of you owned or moved this kind of machine or one like it? I was imagining this thing would be nearer 2500 pounds, but nearly a full ton more of weight will make moving this thing a real task. What do you think?

I have a bigger Regal, 19x80. Not sure of the weight, but I have no problem moving it with my forklift.

Is this for a business or a home shop?

If you don't have a forklift, I would consider either renting one or hiring a rigger.

Hi,

It's something in between. I have a side job doing engineering and fabrication independently, and I co-lease a shop space where I have all my machines.

It's an industrial building, floors and doors are easy to move machines through and there's a forklift available (moved a Bridgeport and other tools no problem) but the forklift is a little electric 3 wheel that caps out at 3500 pounds, so if this thing really weighs 4200 I'll have to come up with something else.

Loading onto the trailer will be done at the machinery dealer's so I'm not worried on that end.

For machinery of this size, I'm reading a lot of people will call a tow truck service and they'll sent a wrecker with a boom crane and that will get it off their trailer and into place. I'm thinking that will be my best option outside of hiring a rigger for the full journey.

I've found in the past that lathes that are quite heavily built but short between centres can be more tricky to rig safely than bigger lathes with a longer bed. They are headstock end heavy and you don't have the advantage of being able to balance up the lift by moving the saddle and tailstock to the far end of the bed.

Be careful lifting it.

Regards Tyrone.

maxnkap` said:

Hi, new to the forum, long time lurker etc. Made this post bc I'm getting a lathe for my workshop.

Found it at a local machinery dealer in Sacramento, it's a clean looking lathe, 1968 LeBlond Regal 15x30, 3hp, and very heavily built by the looks of it, comes with tooling (3j,4j chucks, qctp, steady rest), decent price for Northern CA (quoted $4500), figure I'll go for it. I'm heading over to inspect under power on Monday.

What's weird is the shipping weight, quoted by the dealer and in the LeBlond catalogs I've found as 3500-4000 pounds, which seems unbelievable for a 15x30 lathe. But indeed, the dealer weighed the machine on the scale and it comes to an enormous 4200 pounds!

As I understand it, that kind of weight is in the territory of 15x50 or even larger lathes, and for the the measured weight to exceed even the manufacturer's listed shipping weight seems very strange.

Have any of you owned or moved this kind of machine or one like it? I was imagining this thing would be nearer 2500 pounds, but nearly a full ton more of weight will make moving this thing a real task. What do you think?

Click to expand...

My 15 x 50 Servo Shift Regal weighs a bit less than 5000 lbs You are buying a real lathe not some lame ass south bend. it is heavy because it is fairly stiff. It is a very good machine and if it is in reasonable shape will last a lifetime in a home shop. All that said have you got any experience running a lathe? Do you know lathe safety? If you screw up and it catches hold of you it can maim or kill you. Treat it with respect. Just for perspective my Lodge & Shipley, just a bit larger weighs about 10,000 lbs

Post the serial number and we can give a better estimation on weight. 4200 is to heavy for a standard 15x30 Regal. Could be the toolmakers version with the heavy duty tailstock.

The weight quoted probably includes the chucks and any extra gear included. Some companies quote shipping weight without the motor since there are motor options which may or may not be factory installed. My tablesaw would have been shipped with the motor on a seperate pallet in the 1950's.
Never heard of it but I suppose the tailstock could be crated separate. I suppose that would make sense because it might come with a turret and no tailstock. They would crate up the basic machine and store it in the warehouse until a order came in then include the motor and tailstock and/or turret as desired.
Bil lD

A tilt deck car hauler works great. Be very careful moving it. Lathes are very top heavy and will do a face plant in a heart beat. If it goes over you may as well haul it to the scrapyard.

Gonna ruffle some feathers here-

Put on a large face plate or chuck, then use a heavy strap to choke the spindle between that and the headstock casting. I know, this seems blasphemous, but it won't tip over and those bearings are well capable of the load. Balance it, if needed, with a chain fall from the main hook to the tail end. Load with crane, forklift, wrecker, etc.

I'll go don my asbestos suit now.

EDIT- I would not do this with a plain bearing lathe (SB Heavy 10), or one on a kinematic mount (HLV-H, I think?).

EDIT 2- This is based on personal experience with a lathe in your class, and anecdotes from a well respected member here.

EDIT 3- Because it's a good read- Lifting a lathe, by the chuck?

From a publication dated 3-63, a standard 15 x 30 weighs 2425#, domestic shipping weight 2725, export shipping weight 3225#. Add 125# for each 12" of bed.

The similarly sized 1610NE Heavy Duty weighed in at 7400#, and add 600# for each 2' of additional bed length. This according to a publication dated 8-61.

As for Cole's method, the front spindle bearing capacity is rated at 6484# radial load. But it is rated at 100 rpm, no rating is given for a static load. A somewhat safer method would be to use a sling through the webbing in the center of the bed. Use a steel bar or heavy timber through the loop of the sling to press against the sides of the bed. To insure against rolling, put a bar through the spindle also through the loop in the sling. An owner's manual does not fall to hand for factory rigging directions.

gbent said:

From a publication dated 3-63, a standard 15 x 30 weighs 2425#, domestic shipping weight 2725, export shipping weight 3225#. Add 125# for each 12" of bed.

The similarly sized 1610NE Heavy Duty weighed in at 7400#, and add 600# for each 2' of additional bed length. This according to a publication dated 8-61.

As for Cole's method, the front spindle bearing capacity is rated at 6484# radial load. But it is rated at 100 rpm, no rating is given for a static load. A somewhat safer method would be to use a sling through the webbing in the center of the bed. Use a steel bar or heavy timber through the loop of the sling to press against the sides of the bed. To insure against rolling, put a bar through the spindle also through the loop in the sling. An owner's manual does not fall to hand for factory rigging directions.

Click to expand...

Definitely a better method. ^^^

I never came across a lathe that had to be lifted by the spindle, there was always a better way. I've had a " balancer " line coming off the back of the spindle on a few occasions but the main lift was always taken from the bed in some way or other. If anybody can find me a manufacturers handbook that shows their lathe being rigged via the spindle at the chuck end I'd love to see it.

I once the job of installing a big " Poreba " lathe years ago. Maybe 16 feet between centres. The lathe was being delivered on a Friday to the customer by a sub contractor. Most engineering shops in the UK finished at 1-00pm on Friday. The guy who's delivering the lathe is running late so when he does turn up about 3-00pm nearly everybody has gone home. There's just me and the watchman waiting for him.

He finally arrives in a brand new van, beautifully sign written. The lathe is on the back of a brand new truck, also beautifully sign written. The shop crane driver has gone home by now so I go up the ladder to the cab,I drive the crane over the top of the lathe and wait to see what he intends to do regarding lifting the lathe.

" Poreba's " have two big holes cast into the bed for rigging so I'm waiting for him to drag the lifting bars out from somewhere and slide them through the holes. Only he hasn't got any bars. He starts wrapping a soft sling around the spindle just behind the chuck. This lathe must weigh between 8 to 10 tons. I shout down to him " No way, get some bars or the lathe stays on the truck ". I'm up in the cab, the crane is well away from the ladder so I'm in charge !
Luckily for him the watchman at this place is also the guy who cuts the bar so he takes the guy off to the bar stores and eventually they come back with the right size of bars and the lathe gets lifted of the truck correctly.
Of course it's obvious to me that the lathe had been lifted on to the truck by the spindle so I passed this information on to the customer just in case there are subsequent issues with the lathe.

Regards Tyrone.

oh definitely, I'm not a professional machinist but run a prototyping shop in my day job as well, I've been machining for a long time, including on lathes as heavy as this, but never owned one, and the only lathe I ever had to install was new from the dealer and rigging was included.

I know enough that the first thing I out on this thing will be a lockout so any other denizen of the shop can't turn it on by accident.

I'll make sure that they were weighing it without the tooling, and see about removing the tailstock. I'll ask about serial too.

gbent said:

Post the serial number and we can give a better estimation on weight.

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Heard back from the dealer, the serial # is 6C1534. Crappy photo from the dealer's: https://www.scottmachinery.com/web/image/product.template/2978/image?unique=cbb39b4

The C means 15". Standard short bed, it will be very close to 2425# from the book.

maxnkap` said:

oh definitely, I'm not a professional machinist but run a prototyping shop in my day job as well, I've been machining for a long time, including on lathes as heavy as this, but never owned one, and the only lathe I ever had to install was new from the dealer and rigging was included.

I know enough that the first thing I out on this thing will be a lockout so any other denizen of the shop can't turn it on by accident.

I'll make sure that they were weighing it without the tooling, and see about removing the tailstock. I'll ask about serial too.

Click to expand...

Leave the tailstock on, 125 lbs for the tailstock is 5/8 of f*ck all in the big picture. And you need it and the carriage as far from the headstock as possible to counter balance the weight of the headstock. Lock the tailstock then run a motorcycle tie down around the tailstock and carriage just to make sure you don't loose it on the trip. Remember to put the T/S wrench in the chip pan so it does not end up on the road.

That weight for the Regal does not surprise me much. I have a 10-year old Chinese 16x40 of adequate construction, and it weighs slightly over 4000 pounds. I would be astonished if a classic iron Regal 15x30 did not weigh as much. Which is why I find the 2425 pound figure very surprising indeed! Looking at that photo, it doesn't appear to be the class of machine I expected.

I'm a little late to the party here, but hopefully my input will be helpful. I have a 15x30 Regal and can say that it is definitely under 3000 lbs. For reference, the hydraulics on our 82hp tractor will pick up that lathe, but would NOT pick up my approximately 3000lb mill. I would feel pretty confident in saying it is between 2500 and 2750.

I absolutely love this lathe. It is plenty rigid for its size, easy to run, and (since mine is in good shape) is very accurate. I paid 3500 for mine a couple of years ago with limited tooling. If you are wondering anything about the one you are looking at, Id be happy to try and provide an answer based on my experience.

Thank you jspivey! The dealer is swearing to me this thing hit the scale at 4200- I doubt this greatly, hearing everything from this thread and from LeBlond themselves (manual showing "net weight" much closer to the ~2700 people are saying in this thread).

Once I get to the dealer Monday, I'll take some good pics and post them in the thread. What's nice is there's two examples of this lathe at the dealer, at the same price. I'll poke at them and see which one is in better shape.

Not certain about this, but I think that the weight of the 15" Regal may have depended on the style of plinths that the lathe had - believe some had fabricated steel construction and some were cast. I have seen the 2430 lb. weight in the older manuals, but I have a pdf copy for the later Singapore version that shows a net weight of 3005 lb. for the 15" model, but it doesn't specify whether that weight is for the 30" or 54" cc. Would recommend that you insist on popping the headstock cover to inspect the spindle gearing before making a purchase.