Looking for a used lathe with a 3"+ spindle bore not more than 500 miles from chicago

Looking for a used lathe with a 3"+ spindle bore not more than 500 miles from chicago

I am looking for a lathe with a spindle bore more than 3"

Does not need a long bed (3' between centers is fine)

Under $2500.00

Must be in good condition.

Chucks and steady rest/follow rest are a plus.

I can pick it up and load if necessary. It would be great if the seller and load it on my trailer.

You can call or text at 847-417-0437 or PM me.

Thanks.

Why not look at Surplusrecord.com one of PM's advertisers and write a "wanted" ad. For that price you will probably get an old worn out beater with 500 RPM spindle. Surplus Record emails all the dealers in North America. Plus it's free :-)

Thanks to everyone for the replies. I ended up purchasing a Warner Swasey 1A turret lathe. I am in the process of adapting an electric lead screw to thread with and will probably start a thread on that soon.

What is wrong with the W&S attachment for threading ?

This unit does not have one and buying a gearbox and lead-screw would be more than double what I paid for the lathe. If you can find one I would be very interested but they are rare. Even rarer without roughly 10,000# of other iron bolted on.

Mike Gre said:

This unit does not have one and buying a gearbox and lead-screw would be more than double what I paid for the lathe. If you can find one I would be very interested but they are rare. Even rarer without roughly 10,000# of other iron bolted on.

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Have you called GAHR in Cleveland ?

IIRC there are 2 styles.

Yes there is a style that attaches to feed drive shaft

Ken hosford said:

Yes there is a style that attaches to feed drive shaft

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Do you have any idea what they want for one?

Mike Gre said:

Do you have any idea what they want for one?

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If you would ring up GAHR they will tell you...…

I will call them Monday. Thanks.

What about buying a geometric die head? Cheap, common, easy to use

Mebfab said:

What about buying a geometric die head? Cheap, common, easy to use

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I agree, but it depends on how cheap the lathe was.

digger doug said:

I agree, but it depends on how cheap the lathe was.

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Eh?

He needed a large spindle-bore. That's solved. Sort-of. Presuming it runs and he gets usable workholding onto it.

Seems to me the die-head option NOW depends on what the JOB is worth. Not the lathe.

Lathe and its fetch-home is already a "sunk cost", Day One onward, and whether it ever makes a single chip, or no.

/beancounter-hat OFF

thermite said:

Eh?

He needed a large spindle-bore. That's solved. Sort-of. Presuming it runs and he gets usable workholding onto it.

Seems to me the die-head option NOW depends on what the JOB is worth. Not the lathe.

Lathe and its fetch-home is already a "sunk cost", Day One onward, and whether it ever makes a single chip, or no.

/beancounter-hat OFF

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Please Reference post #5.....
"This unit does not have one and buying a gearbox and lead-screw would be more than double what I paid for the lathe. If you can find one I would be very interested but they are rare. Even rarer without roughly 10,000# of other iron bolted on."

digger doug said:

Please Reference post #5.....
"This unit does not have one and buying a gearbox and lead-screw would be more than double what I paid for the lathe. If you can find one I would be very interested but they are rare. Even rarer without roughly 10,000# of other iron bolted on."

Click to expand...

Surely sounds like a good reason to consider a geometric die head to me.

Mind - they do have some limitations, and we know not (yet) the details of the need, so..

Sorry been busy at work. So I contacted Gahr, they told me they make a threading attachment that comes with different threaded leaders for each thread you want to make. I asked the cost: $800 for the attachment and $175 for a leader and follower for each thread pitch you want to make. I am looking for something versatile as I will be making many different pitch threads on this machine. I was hoping they had a standard gearbox, leadscrew, halfnuts, and thread dial. He told me the only way to get that is to find an original set-up which is almost impossible.

As for the types of threads I plan to make, it will vary. Most will be too large for a geometric die head. I am a directional drilling contractor and need to thread drill pipes, reamers, etc... Most of our drill rods are over 2-1/2" OD.

I made the half nuts already and re-purposed some 3/4-6 acme rod that I had laying around to use as the leadscrew. My plan is to put a digital encoder on the end of the feed shaft that is geared to the spindle. Run this encoder through an Arduino and based on thread pitch rotate the leadscrew accordingly. As there is no place to install a leadscrew under the apron I opted to have the leadscrew end attached to the apron and have the halfnuts on the machine. I will then machine a keyway into the acme rod for roughly 30" and drive it with a gear that will slide along the rod as it moves along the machine. A closed loop stepper will then drive this gear (roughly 10:1) at the speed needed for a particular pitch.

This is not the first time I have done this so I know what I am getting myself into. Last winter I finished a gear hobber that used a similar encoder on the spindle of my K&T to drive a dividing head through an Arduino as well. You simply enter a number of teeth and the stepper rotates the part a tooth per rev on the spindle. Most of my software should work for this project as well. I will post pics. If anyone has a better idea or any insight please let me know.

Thanks.

P.S. If I don't get too tired of this, next up is a taper attachment........

Also the machine works great. Very little wear that I can see and makes a nice chip. I got 2, 16" chucks (1-3 jaw and 1-4 jaw) for $150 each and it really runs beautifully. Its a big step from my 16" South bend and a beautiful piece of american engineering.

3/4" dia. acme leadscrew trying to shove that cross slide sounds a bit "light".

"When in doubt, make it stout".

or make it again when it fails.

I know. I was going to go bigger but its what I had. Would have been nice to have more threads per inch as well to make it easier on everything.

If this all works out I might decide to upgrade later. It will just mean boring out the drive gear and the half nuts and making a new gear for the thread dial. I'll see if I can make this all work first.

I'm looking at my 15" R series Sheldon, a much smaller cross slide to be draggin along,
and it's got an 1 1/2" (or so) lead screw.