Darren Thomas
Plastic
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2020
Hi everyone,
Just wanted to say hi and introduce myself and my new lathe I purchased Saturday. My name is Darren and I've been woodworking all my life and have used those tools to do limited metal working projects. Severely limited. I have always wanted to venture into metal working but it was never the right time to make the investment. Well, I'm 50 now so screw it. It is the right time. My family has many machinists, I'm one of the few that chose software but always had the itch. My first metal working machine is a Rockwell 25-209 14x30 lathe. It is in amazing shape, the gear box is pristine, gears are perfect. I measured about 1.5-2 thousandths of wear on the ways near the head stock. The cross slide and compound ways need cleaning and gib adjustment but they seem consistently snug in travel... no apparent slack in the center of the ways but when I have cleaned it all up that will tell the tale. It has a single phase 5hp motor... kinda big but I know about it so can keep that in mind. I earned a wealth of information breaking the lathe down for loading into my trailer. It rotated in the strap...TWICE. Each time taking a lot of work to right it. No damage, just stupidity. I had a helper loading it but when I got home, it was all me. I took my new found knowledge and applied it for a 2 hour unload/assembly without incident. Helped to have my tractor to steady it but it couldn't lift it as the loader only has a 500 pound capacity. It could barely lift the stand with the rear wheels off the ground.
I'm trying to find the year it was manufactured... I heard somewhere there may be a reference by serial number but can't seem to locate it.
I also received a ton of tooling and equipment with it. Below is most of what came with.
Follow rest
6" 3 jaw chuck - looking for a good 4 jaw now (L00)
live center
two jacobs drill chucks
Quick change tool post and 5 tool holders
Knurling tool
Starrett mag base indicator
Starrett micrometers x 3 (various sizes)
Starrett test indicators x 4 (some need service)
Precision levels x 2
Precision corner levels x 2
Depth indicator
Starrett adjustable square with compass and 45
Mitutoyo 8" digital caliper
Face plate
Two 10 pound boxes of HSS cutters
New set of carbide tools and inserts
about 20 pounds of tapered drills
Some more Starrett calibration tools
A bunch of other miscellaneous stuff like rules, compasses etc...
Still have to put the doors and covers back on after adding the belts back but below are a few pics before cleaning it up.
Just wanted to say hi and introduce myself and my new lathe I purchased Saturday. My name is Darren and I've been woodworking all my life and have used those tools to do limited metal working projects. Severely limited. I have always wanted to venture into metal working but it was never the right time to make the investment. Well, I'm 50 now so screw it. It is the right time. My family has many machinists, I'm one of the few that chose software but always had the itch. My first metal working machine is a Rockwell 25-209 14x30 lathe. It is in amazing shape, the gear box is pristine, gears are perfect. I measured about 1.5-2 thousandths of wear on the ways near the head stock. The cross slide and compound ways need cleaning and gib adjustment but they seem consistently snug in travel... no apparent slack in the center of the ways but when I have cleaned it all up that will tell the tale. It has a single phase 5hp motor... kinda big but I know about it so can keep that in mind. I earned a wealth of information breaking the lathe down for loading into my trailer. It rotated in the strap...TWICE. Each time taking a lot of work to right it. No damage, just stupidity. I had a helper loading it but when I got home, it was all me. I took my new found knowledge and applied it for a 2 hour unload/assembly without incident. Helped to have my tractor to steady it but it couldn't lift it as the loader only has a 500 pound capacity. It could barely lift the stand with the rear wheels off the ground.
I'm trying to find the year it was manufactured... I heard somewhere there may be a reference by serial number but can't seem to locate it.
I also received a ton of tooling and equipment with it. Below is most of what came with.
Follow rest
6" 3 jaw chuck - looking for a good 4 jaw now (L00)
live center
two jacobs drill chucks
Quick change tool post and 5 tool holders
Knurling tool
Starrett mag base indicator
Starrett micrometers x 3 (various sizes)
Starrett test indicators x 4 (some need service)
Precision levels x 2
Precision corner levels x 2
Depth indicator
Starrett adjustable square with compass and 45
Mitutoyo 8" digital caliper
Face plate
Two 10 pound boxes of HSS cutters
New set of carbide tools and inserts
about 20 pounds of tapered drills
Some more Starrett calibration tools
A bunch of other miscellaneous stuff like rules, compasses etc...
Still have to put the doors and covers back on after adding the belts back but below are a few pics before cleaning it up.
I don't get in over my head easily. Reverse engineering isn't terribly difficult on a simple machine.
