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The Adventures of my 1942 Monarch 10EE.

Moddage

Aluminum
Joined
Jan 23, 2021
Last year my father and I acquired what is pretty much considered our "Holy Grail" lathe. As most of you know and love 10EEs, we too have come to love one of our own. I think sometimes I might love it more than he does. I've gone full 10EE Geek thanks to lurking on this forum and reading about the history of these lathes, and Monarch in general. Plus all the time spent familiarizing myself with this one while tinkering with it and slowly working on repairing it. It still needs some love for sure, but this lathe will not be for sale for as long as I'm alive. Considering I'm in my early 30s, that's probably going to be a long time. It lived a life with less than stellar care, some neglect, but thankfully only minimal abuse. Honestly it's really in pretty darn good shape.


This is a 1942 vintage Model EE, Serial number 14888. It was originally sold to General Electric corporation, and as such it appears to have gotten outfitted with a GE Motor-Generator and a GE DC Motor instead of the typical Reliance equipment, which I assume was pretty much because GE could, and they probably wanted it powered by their own parts. Actually my theory there is that they needed it ASAP for reasons related to the war efforts at the time and sent their own MG and DC Motors to Monarch to furnish it with to get production done sooner. I've seen another member on here post a while ago(can't remember the thread or name) and they had a serial number numerically lower than this one, that was delivered much later than this one was.

As far as I can tell, I think all the original accessories, or most of them, are present, but I haven't looked extremely close to determine what's missing yet. I have the matching early-style tool cabinet and collet board as well. This lathe has a taper attachment, which may be missing some pieces, but I have a box of random stuff that looks like it might go to that so hopefully it's all in there.


It has been outfitted with a DRO and a safety guard over the chuck at some point, both of which are mounted in places and manners that are mildly irritating, and I intend to change at some point. The DRO is an older(I assume it wasn't at the time) Acu-Rite unit, and both scales and the head unit itself appear to be in fully working order, but I haven't gone to the extremes of both axes to check yet. I assume the DRO was installed because of the significant backlash present in both axes. Annoyingly it's set up to read radially instead of diametrically like the scale on the cross slide, I haven't looked up how to change that yet, or if it even can be.

The lathe appears it may have been sold to GE through Wigglesworth Machinery Co. who was a dealer for Monarch back in that era(that took a lot of digging to figure out), which explains the tag on the machine. Either that or they put their tag on when they installed the Pioneer MFG coolant pump in 1945. I have a hand written note with the pump information and Wigglesworth's information on it, dated 1945, seemingly a hand written record, sadly part of it is torn off and missing.

Monarch sent me the original order slip, as well as a much better copy of the electrical diagram, I am very grateful that they have these documents still and willingly send them to us enthusiasts.

It would appear the lathe was run hard and heavy and perhaps not well cared for in the early years, there is a record of the spindle bearings having been replaced in 1954, and something about a heavier preload set I think? I have to look at that again. I'm not sure how heavy or how much it's been run since then, but there is no significant noise from the headstock indicating the bearings are damaged, I have not yet checked how much runout/play is present, but from the few times I've gotten it running and turned something for a project it would seem they're in great shape still.

This lathe ended up in a state where it was no longer functional due to electrical problems, and had some mechanical issues with the threading gearbox among other things. It sat dormant for over a year and after new ownership took place, was deemed a financially poor investment to repair, and was destined to be scrapped. A series of events transpired, approval to purchase the machine was granted, and now it's in its "retirement home" where it will live an easy life and be cared for greatly. I still have some sorting out to do with the electrical problems, and I have yet to take the threading gearbox apart to find out what exactly went wrong in there, I'm presently in process of repairing the tailstock, and there are several oil leaks that need addressed as well. It's certainly a work in progress, and I can see why they didn't want to invest the resources to fix it, from a large corporation standpoint, it's financially better to find another lathe that's in good working order to replace it with rather than devote the time and money to fix all the little issues this one now has.

I also have the original owners manual, albeit a bit tattered, aged, seemingly has absorbed some machine oil, and is a bit yellowed... My favorite part of that one is that is has the sweet Monarch logo with the lion on the cover. There is also a much newer replacement copy manual that is still in excellent shape and has a different Monarch logo on the cover.


I wish I could find the history of what this lathe was used to make in its early life, perhaps it was nothing particularly cool or special, but perhaps it was something really cool, top secret even, but I can only speculate as to what it may have been used for. It was purchased an installed around the time GE would have been messing with some high precision aviation equipment, so maybe that's what it was used for? If machines could talk, am I right?

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The gears are in great shape from what I've seen, there seems to be a significant oil leak that drains into an area below the threading gearbox and pools there. I haven't determined which oil reservoir it's coming from yet, but I think it might be the rear or center headstock reservoir.

Electrical compartment is all original as far as I can tell, minus the hot pink jumper wire I installed to make it run, and the entirely missing reverse contactor coil. Someone has been in there, probably more than once, and the ceramic arc guide/containment pieces on the reverse contactor are mostly broken.

GE DC motor is 230V on both the armature and field, and is rated at 13.4A. The hand written tag on the coolant pump is pretty neat, I'm surprised it's survived in as good of condition since 1945 when it was installed.

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The original Monarch tool cabinet is present albeit a bit banged up and no key, as is the collet board, some of the original collets, and "lighthouse" style tool post that I'm guessing is original as well. The rest of the stuff in the cabinet is mine and still needs to be organized.

The follow rest, steady rest, dog driver, and collet chuck have the machine serial number stamped in them and as far as I can tell are original and were on the order sheet.

The clamps I believe are a carriage stop, and I think the other one that's had the handle repaired is for the taper attachment? I'm not certain of that.

Both the 6" 3 Jaw and 8" 4 jaw cushman chucks originally ordered with it are present as well, despite some pretty significant wear. I haven't fully evaluated the 4 jaw yet, but the 3 jaw is badly worn and has been replaced as I can't count on it to reliably hold anything while cutting. I will probably repurpose it for a rotary weld positioner build.
 

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The taper attachment appears to be missing some things, but I'm not certain what yet. Both covers are present albeit a little damaged, one cover screw is missing, and it's all filthy and looks to be unused for a long time.

If anyone spots something I'm missing let me know. I do know I'm missing the idler for the belt drive, it was nowhere to be found and I'll be making one from scratch most likely.

I'm curious what clamped/bolted to that round multi-angle pivot point on the taper attachment, I haven't tried to figure that out yet, and I'm not sure the mating pieces are present, I don't recall seeing anything that would match up to that.


Edit: I'm not sure why the pictures are so small... they're quite large in resolution on my computer, but after uploading they're tiny. Only one of them seems to be a decent size, am I missing something during upload that controls the size they end up at?
 

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The original Monarch tool cabinet is present albeit a bit banged up and no key, as is the collet board, some of the original collets, and "lighthouse" style tool post that I'm guessing is original as well. The rest of the stuff in the cabinet is mine and still needs to be organized.

The follow rest, steady rest, dog driver, and collet chuck have the machine serial number stamped in them and as far as I can tell are original and were on the order sheet.

The clamps I believe are a carriage stop, and I think the other one that's had the handle repaired is for the taper attachment? I'm not certain of that.

Both the 6" 3 Jaw and 8" 4 jaw cushman chucks originally ordered with it are present as well, despite some pretty significant wear. I haven't fully evaluated the 4 jaw yet, but the 3 jaw is badly worn and has been replaced as I can't count on it to reliably hold anything while cutting. I will probably repurpose it for a rotary weld positioner build.

Very nice machine. Its unusual to find any 10EE with all its accessories intact, especially a 1942. The second jaw for the follower rest does not show up very often, even though it is original equipment. Neither does the Jarno taper MT2 adapter. The original tool cabinet is also quite hard to find.

The bed stop is designed to take a stop rod that is used with the dial indicator that fits on the carriage dovetail. The stop rod could either be solid or a Lufkin 980 micrometer head with a special end that fits into the bed stop.

I am curious about the wrench. Later (square dial) parts diagrams show that wrench, but I am not sure round dials ever had a wrench like that as standard equipment. Would like to know. What size is the wrench end? Is it sized for the compound nuts or for the steady and follower rest nuts?
 
quote
The gears are in great shape from what I've seen, there seems to be a significant oil leak that drains into an area below the threading gearbox and pools there. I haven't determined which oil reservoir it's coming from yet, but I think it might be the rear or center headstock reservoir​
.





About that leak. I have read that there is a plate behind the quick change gear box that is a common source of leaks. Maybe a more experienced member will giude you better.
 
Last year my father and I acquired what is pretty much considered our "Holy Grail" lathe. As most of you know and love 10EEs, we too have come to love one of our own. I think sometimes I might love it more than he does. I've gone full 10EE Geek thanks to lurking on this forum and reading about the history of these lathes, and Monarch in general. Plus all the time spent familiarizing myself with this one while tinkering with it and slowly working on repairing it. It still needs some love for sure, but this lathe will not be for sale for as long as I'm alive. Considering I'm in my early 30s, that's probably going to be a long time. It lived a life with less than stellar care, some neglect, but thankfully only minimal abuse. Honestly it's really in pretty darn good shape.


This is a 1942 vintage Model EE, Serial number 14888. It was originally sold to General Electric corporation, and as such it appears to have gotten outfitted with a GE Motor-Generator and a GE DC Motor instead of the typical Reliance equipment, which I assume was pretty much because GE could, and they probably wanted it powered by their own parts. Actually my theory there is that they needed it ASAP for reasons related to the war efforts at the time and sent their own MG and DC Motors to Monarch to furnish it with to get production done sooner. I've seen another member on here post a while ago(can't remember the thread or name) and they had a serial number numerically lower than this one, that was delivered much later than this one was.

As far as I can tell, I think all the original accessories, or most of them, are present, but I haven't looked extremely close to determine what's missing yet. I have the matching early-style tool cabinet and collet board as well. This lathe has a taper attachment, which may be missing some pieces, but I have a box of random stuff that looks like it might go to that so hopefully it's all in there.


It has been outfitted with a DRO and a safety guard over the chuck at some point, both of which are mounted in places and manners that are mildly irritating, and I intend to change at some point. The DRO is an older(I assume it wasn't at the time) Acu-Rite unit, and both scales and the head unit itself appear to be in fully working order, but I haven't gone to the extremes of both axes to check yet. I assume the DRO was installed because of the significant backlash present in both axes. Annoyingly it's set up to read radially instead of diametrically like the scale on the cross slide, I haven't looked up how to change that yet, or if it even can be.

The lathe appears it may have been sold to GE through Wigglesworth Machinery Co. who was a dealer for Monarch back in that era(that took a lot of digging to figure out), which explains the tag on the machine. Either that or they put their tag on when they installed the Pioneer MFG coolant pump in 1945. I have a hand written note with the pump information and Wigglesworth's information on it, dated 1945, seemingly a hand written record, sadly part of it is torn off and missing.

Monarch sent me the original order slip, as well as a much better copy of the electrical diagram, I am very grateful that they have these documents still and willingly send them to us enthusiasts.

It would appear the lathe was run hard and heavy and perhaps not well cared for in the early years, there is a record of the spindle bearings having been replaced in 1954, and something about a heavier preload set I think? I have to look at that again. I'm not sure how heavy or how much it's been run since then, but there is no significant noise from the headstock indicating the bearings are damaged, I have not yet checked how much runout/play is present, but from the few times I've gotten it running and turned something for a project it would seem they're in great shape still.

This lathe ended up in a state where it was no longer functional due to electrical problems, and had some mechanical issues with the threading gearbox among other things. It sat dormant for over a year and after new ownership took place, was deemed a financially poor investment to repair, and was destined to be scrapped. A series of events transpired, approval to purchase the machine was granted, and now it's in its "retirement home" where it will live an easy life and be cared for greatly. I still have some sorting out to do with the electrical problems, and I have yet to take the threading gearbox apart to find out what exactly went wrong in there, I'm presently in process of repairing the tailstock, and there are several oil leaks that need addressed as well. It's certainly a work in progress, and I can see why they didn't want to invest the resources to fix it, from a large corporation standpoint, it's financially better to find another lathe that's in good working order to replace it with rather than devote the time and money to fix all the little issues this one now has.

I also have the original owners manual, albeit a bit tattered, aged, seemingly has absorbed some machine oil, and is a bit yellowed... My favorite part of that one is that is has the sweet Monarch logo with the lion on the cover. There is also a much newer replacement copy manual that is still in excellent shape and has a different Monarch logo on the cover.


I wish I could find the history of what this lathe was used to make in its early life, perhaps it was nothing particularly cool or special, but perhaps it was something really cool, top secret even, but I can only speculate as to what it may have been used for. It was purchased an installed around the time GE would have been messing with some high precision aviation equipment, so maybe that's what it was used for? If machines could talk, am I right?


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In photo #5 in post #4 in this thread below there is a square plate that I believe is often a source of leaks. (this is a square dial). Im not sure if the round dial has a similar design.
I remembered someone suggesting to reseal a plate while the gearbox was out.


This thread below is gearbox removal for the round dial. Note that the headstock does not need to be removed.
Your leak may or may not be related to the gearbox.
I could not find the information that I had previously read. I hope this helps if you remove the gearbox. Leaks are annoying.


10EE round dial gearbox removal instructions
 
The oil leak in my 1940 gearbox was from the drain pipe, which had a crack along the seam, hard to see. Another place that sometimes leaks is around the two input shaft flanges and shafts. There is also a packing gland nut that seals the shaft that selects fwd/reverse. If that leaks the oil drains out under the gearbox.
 
... I'm not sure why the pictures are so small... they're quite large in resolution on my computer, but after uploading they're tiny. Only one of them seems to be a decent size, am I missing something during upload that controls the size they end up at?
Check your original files. I bet you'll find that the have an extension of ".JPEG". Try changing the extension to ".JPG" and reposting. Files with an extension of ".JPEG" get reduced to about 19kb and have a maximum wide in pixels of about 320 (going from memory). ".JPG" files only get reduces to 97kb and should post pretty much full screen.

You can repost your photos to the end of this thread and I'll copy them into the right spots.

Cal
 
Check your original files. I bet you'll find that the have an extension of ".JPEG". Try changing the extension to ".JPG" and reposting. Files with an extension of ".JPEG" get reduced to about 19kb and have a maximum wide in pixels of about 320 (going from memory). ".JPG" files only get reduces to 97kb and should post pretty much full screen.

You can repost your photos to the end of this thread and I'll copy them into the right spots.

Cal


To save to jpg , save photos to a file
Then open them in paint.
Click file box in upper left corner and scroll down to ( save as )
Then click the jpg option.

That's probably a long way around but its the way I did it before my new phone.

Your phone camera or digital camera may have a way to save all photos jpg. I think ( I phones) have an issue. My android works better
 
Should be able to just go in with the file manager and change the file extension, just like renaming a file. On some Windows systems, the file extension is hidden and you need to use advanced options to show the extension. (I use Windows file manager to do this sort of thing.)

Cal
 
Very nice machine. Its unusual to find any 10EE with all its accessories intact, especially a 1942. The second jaw for the follower rest does not show up very often, even though it is original equipment. Neither does the Jarno taper MT2 adapter. The original tool cabinet is also quite hard to find.

The bed stop is designed to take a stop rod that is used with the dial indicator that fits on the carriage dovetail. The stop rod could either be solid or a Lufkin 980 micrometer head with a special end that fits into the bed stop.

I am curious about the wrench. Later (square dial) parts diagrams show that wrench, but I am not sure round dials ever had a wrench like that as standard equipment. Would like to know. What size is the wrench end? Is it sized for the compound nuts or for the steady and follower rest nuts?


I believe the machine never left where it was originally delivered in 1943, until we acquired it last year. That would explain why it seems to have all of the originally ordered accessories and the cabinet. As for the wrench, I will check it out tomorrow and let you know what I find out, it's been broken and welded back together on the open end. Surprisingly, I haven't really messed with that little guy yet.




Check your original files. I bet you'll find that the have an extension of ".JPEG". Try changing the extension to ".JPG" and reposting. Files with an extension of ".JPEG" get reduced to about 19kb and have a maximum wide in pixels of about 320 (going from memory). ".JPG" files only get reduces to 97kb and should post pretty much full screen.

You can repost your photos to the end of this thread and I'll copy them into the right spots.

Cal

That would explain it. My phone automatically appends a ".jpeg" file type for some reason. I'll look into that. Thanks Cal.


Update time:

I fiddled with the lathe today and also took the time to clean up and oil down all the accessories so they don't rust(I don't have a climate controlled garage yet, that's on the ever growing list of projects for the future) and put them away in the cabinet. I also cleaned all the nasty decades of grime, oil, grease, chips, etc from the tailstock clamp pieces that go under the bed and prepared them for reinstallation once the clamp lever is properly mated to the eccentric shaft, which should be in the next couple days. I already cleaned up the tailstock base and the tailstock where they mate to each other and also where it rides on the ways and I oiled everything and set it back on the machine for safety until the lock assembly is repaired.

I got curious about wear, so I got out an indicator(thousandths, didn't have a tenths indicator handy at that moment) and mag base and started checking things. I stuck a ground rod in the 3 jaw chuck that's on it now, sticking out about 5.5" from the edge of the jaws. I measured around 0.0005" runout at the chuck backing plate, a bit away from the 40 millionths I've seen touted that these were when new, but I'm plenty happy with that and it may be partly the backing plate itself. If I push/pull on the rod in the axis of the indicator (horizontal front-back) I measure around the same amount of movement(0.0005-ish), which I assume is from some play/wear in the spindle bearings. Everything was cold at this time and later testing after warming the spindle bearings up at low speeds for 15-20 minutes or so seemed to indicate less runout, which I assume is normal/typical?


I describe my setup/methodology for the next part so if there's any feedback or a better way to measure things, you guys can suggest them, I'm no tool and die maker(that would be my father), but I showed dad what and how I did things and he seemed to be in agreement, but perhaps there's something specific about the EE I'm missing or overlooking and should check.


I indicated the chuck in to where the needle on my thousandths indicator was barely flickering, a couple "tenths" or less, and checked the ground rod at both extremes to verify it was running true and wasn't bent, also flipped the rod end for end and checked again. Once happy with the setup I proceeded to run the carriage back and forth. During the measuring I moved the indicator to the left-right extremes on the "leg" of the carriage that is on the chuck side of the cross slide, which got me some extra distance to sweep despite only having 5.5" of stickout to measure. Roughly 8" of carriage travel accounted for this way. I measured just under 0.001" change from one end of the rod to the other, the amount it moved didn't seem to change despite the indicator changing position on the carriage by a few inches to get some more travel out of it. I was pretty happy with that measurement, not nearly as much movement as I anticipated. After I was all done playing with my measurements and checking them again for repeatability, I remembered something important... I haven't leveled the machine yet, so some of the thou I measured might be in twist of the machine and not the bed at all, but I haven't gotten my hopes up just yet, I assume these are pretty rigid machines based on the base it's on.

My theory for how a 1942 machine that I know for sure had to be run a ton has seemingly so little wear, all comes back to the Wigglesworth Machinery tag on the machine, the document explaining the spindle bearing replacement in 1954, and the hand written repair tag I found today on the DC motor... Wigglesworth was not just a dealer for Monarch, but they also specialized in hand scraping and refurbishing machinery and selling it second hand(they still might, I'm not sure). I think this little EE got run so much from 1943-1954 that they wore it out, and when they had the spindle bearings redone, they may have had Wigglesworth hand scrape the ways back in at the same time, and then from 1954 on it may not have gotten used much, and was always kept well oiled. That's just a theory, I don't have any kind of records showing the ways were scraped in or repaired at all, but I don't really have an explanation other than that for how a machine that needed new spindle bearings and the DC motor repaired could have so little wear on the ways, especially closer toward the chuck where I assume it spent most of its time during use. That being said, the steady rest shows some wear on the brass pieces, and appears to have been used a lot, so perhaps the majority of the wear is actually at the tailstock end.

I didn't think to set the indicator up on the top of the rod and see if the carriage changes in elevation, so I will do that next.


I plan on going over pretty much every square inch of this thing in time, probably in small stages so I don't get in too deep too quickly, but I have read through at least part of quite a number of the threads on here from those of you who have made some repairs as well as some upgrades, like grease fittings for the bearings at the end of the bed that the power feed and threading lead screw axles ride in, checking the grease and repacking all the bearings for the carriage, taper attachment, etc. I also plan to drain and clean the oil pan/coolant pump sump tank, as I'm sure it's a disaster in there and looks to be seeping out the fitting for the coolant pump as well. It certainly needs some love in a lot of little areas, but I'm pretty much the perfect person for the job, sometimes I'm too meticulous for my own good I think. :D


Thanks all for the replies, I am going to check out that gearbox removal thread for sure, that's high on the list to tear down and evaluate why the threading clutch/dog ring? doesn't stay engaged properly, after all, what good is a precision lathe if you can't cut threads with it on occasion too?
 
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New pics for post 4

Edit: Added a photo of the broken upper cover latch knob, yet another little annoyance I get to fix.
 
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Surely! Decent measuring of bearing run-out and precession is a multi-day task. We can go over it some other time if you want to get ahold of a 10 millionths DI in good condition as I use, (Hamilton) or at LEAST a 20 Millionths (Mahr millimess) as I cross-check with.

Maybe someday. I'm plenty happy for the time being with what I measured today.

Not likely. There would be the tell-tale marks of hand scraping and/or or flaking. What IS likely is a bed regrind. No marks at all.

Even if there was some use/wear that occurred from 1954-2019ish? wouldn't running the carriage over the surface wear away at the telltale marks and basically blend it all together?

Also is there a telltale way to determine if it was reground? I need to wipe all the schmoo I covered the ways in to keep rust at bay and have a look again, but I do recall them looking pretty uniform in appearance over the whole length.


- The '44 must have been used as a general-purpose lathe, as the far WORSE wear is actually easier to compensate for. It is so evenly distributed across the ENTIRE span of travel that I could just leave it alone EXCEPT that it is dragging significantly on the leadscrew and surfacing power shaft.

Yikes, that's some significant wear, that poor thing must have churned out a lot of parts in its lifetime.

Typically, the soft CI of the underside of the carriage - that you cannot see - wears at 4, 5, or more faster rate than the flame hardened inverted vee ways that you CAN see.

Read: You MAY have a lot more wear that you have yet quantified.

Yeah, that's definitely a concern, I will go over the whole thing more thoroughly another day, today was mostly just fiddling around in the garage.
 
Perhaps it lived an easier life than I assumed, I'll inspect the away side of the front vee closer and see what I come up with. I want to put a longer precision ground rod in it, between centers, and check as much of the length as I can. I just didn't have any random stock/drops on hand longer than the piece I had nearby today so I started there.
 








 
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