Anyone with experience with Tor/t.o.r./Doncel lathes?

Going to look at a TOR Doncel A180 lathe Monday morning. Lathes.co.uk has a mention of it as a keyword but no page dedicated to them from what I can tell. Its a 16x40 lathe, price is right and it looks like it will suite my needs, but if it isn't completely spelled out for me on the internal plates I'd like a manual, fluid specs and to know where I can get parts if ever the need should arise before I plunk down my hard earned cash for it.

Some googling shows that the lathe is probably made in spain but can't turn up a manufacturers website or anything of the like. No idea who would have imported or supported this lathe when it was brought here.

Any help is appreciated!

i thought they were east european , but never seen one in person .

different tor ...

Tor Johnson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yeah me, I worked on a TOR lathe once. Yes, they were or are Spanish. A DSG it wasn't. What do you want to know ? It had one good idea, the apron was open at the bottom so no coolant rot. Some fool decided to use it as a stretching lathe and ruined the bearings ( Gamet by the way ).

Regards Tyrone.

Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Yeah me, I worked on a TOR lathe once. Yes, they were or are Spanish. A DSG it wasn't. What do you want to know ? It had one good idea, the apron was open at the bottom so no coolant rot. Some fool decided to use it as a stretching lathe and ruined the bearings ( Gamet by the way ).

Regards Tyrone.

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Who can I get a manual from? Who supports them in the US? How do they compare to other mid-size lathes, assuming the previous owner didn't ruin the bearings?

What is a stretching lathe btw?

Hi Greenbuggy, I don't know if they are supported in the US, neither do I know where you can get a manual from. From what I remember the manual we had was extremely basic.
The machine we had was I would say a late 1960's TOR " Unitor " machine that had been bought brand new for a pretty cheap price. It was OK but no more than that. If my memory is correct it had a small flat belt drive to the headstock. One major failing was the indexing system for the tool post, it wasn't very good. Another thing the guys didn't like was the fact that it didn't have clutches for the spindle drive. You had a lever that switched the spindle motor on of off electrically.
The managing director at the time instructed me to get rid of it because he didn't like it so it ended up on the back of the car park in the rain.
What we call "stretching" in the UK you would call "straightening" in the US. Why it's called stretching I don't know.
This guy had a 4" shaft in the lathe and was trying to " stretch " it with an hydraulic jack. He managed to smash some of the rollers in the " Gamet " bearings on the spindle. If you don't know, " Gamet " taper roller
bearings have hollow rollers.

Sorry I can't be of more help. If you have any photos that would maybe jog my memory. Regards Tyrone.

microtor

I owned a MicroTor--the tool room offering made by Ico_Tor of
San Sebastian Spain
imported by Leuopold of Barcelona

Ico-Tor is now defunct

excellent quality--on par with Graziano

my machine had the german spindle nose configuration of 55oxx mounting
plate which made chuck interchangeability most difficult

also--it would not thread 13 tpi--even with change gears

here is thread from 2008

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/v...r-graziano-mori-seiki-lathes/microtor-159207/


jh

Here's a picture of it from the ad listing:

Hi Greenbuggy, the lathe I worked on had some similarities with the one in your photo. Our lathe was bigger, it was 1.5 metres between centres and had a bigger swing but some of the parts look interchangeable. My verdict was an ok lathe but nothing to write home about. How much do they want for it ? Regards Tyrone.

Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Hi Greenbuggy, the lathe I worked on had some similarities with the one in your photo. Our lathe was bigger, it was 1.5 metres between centres and had a bigger swing but some of the parts look interchangeable. My verdict was an ok lathe but nothing to write home about. How much do they want for it ? Regards Tyrone.

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He was asking $3450 USD and I've already beat him up over the phone to $3000 USD (1785.6 GBP). We'll see if I can get him down any farther in person tomorrow morning.

I ended up buying a different machine in the same building so anyone who might be interested in it the ebay listing is here: Doncel 16" x 40" Geared Head Lathe Meteric Modular Threading Southbend LeBlond | eBay

Had looked at the listings for that Doncel lathe, too. Owning a Bulgarian Lion lathe, I really did not want another oddball machine, but mine does have a few threading options.
I have been to that dealer (conglomeration of dealers) building to look at other machines, most I would not want if you paid for them; though, it is a very interesting place to visit.

I sure hope you inspected heavily and got a good machine. Let us know what you found.

Smoooth said:

Had looked at the listings for that Doncel lathe, too. Owning a Bulgarian Lion lathe, I really did not want another oddball machine, but mine does have a few threading options.
I have been to that dealer (conglomeration of dealers) building to look at other machines, most I would not want if you paid for them; though, it is a very interesting place to visit.

I sure hope you inspected heavily and got a good machine. Let us know what you found.

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There were two other lathes that caught my eye while I was there - a Mori Seiki and a Howa Strong 1000, I think both were being sold by different dealers than the one that had the Doncel. The Mori had a broken brake, was partly dismantled and had grease in the hydraulic system, I never did get them to put it under power but they wanted $6000+ for it "as is" which put it out of my price range before it got fixed and I think it was a bit too big for the space I have anyways.

The Howa they had just gotten in and hadn't cleaned up yet, they put power to it, shifted easily and ran quietly, took a test cut and ran thru the gear ranges. 17"x40", Taper attachment was complete, Acu-rite DROs worked as they should, ran thru the power feeds and threading settings and all engaged and it just felt like a much more solid machine. Included a 3-jaw chuck, chuck guard, steady rest, chip tray, coolant system, manual and some other misc. Only issue i've found is some rust making it difficult to engage the power crossfeed but I should be able to fix that up rather easily. That and it was dirty but the ride home in the rain took care of a lot of it. They wanted $5500 for it but I got it down to $4800 and had it loaded on my trailer. Cost more than I wanted to spend but I feel like its a much more solid machine than the Doncel, and I've got work waiting to go on it.

Tonight I modified the T-nut from my old lathe so I could mount my Dorian Quadra QCTP and wired up my new Parker 15 HP VFD and tested it out running on single phase. Going to need an enclosure for the VFD and to integrate it with the switches on the directional control and stomp brake but at least it spun it up as it should have.

Could use some help with this machine!

JHOLLAND1 said:

I owned a MicroTor--the tool room offering made by Ico_Tor of
San Sebastian Spain
imported by Leuopold of Barcelona

Ico-Tor is now defunct

excellent quality--on par with Graziano

my machine had the german spindle nose configuration of 55oxx mounting
plate which made chuck interchangeability most difficult

also--it would not thread 13 tpi--even with change gears

here is thread from 2008

Microtor


jh

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I just purchased this exact machine.

Can you recall the HP of the motor, it says no where on the tag. By chance, would you have any ideas on where to purchase the fuses?

Any information you might be able to recall would very helpful! Thanks! Matt