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New to me: 1940 Monarch 18-BB or CBB

Will McRay

Aluminum
Joined
Dec 31, 2017
I came across a Monarch 18-CBB manufactured in 1940 about 5 hours away from and could not pass on the deal. This was purchase by the New York Ship Building Corporation in Camden, NJ in Jan 16, 1940. This has a20.5 Swing and 48 inches between centers. Motor is 7.5 hp and dual voltage, currently wired for 440v 3ph, but I will rewire for 220v. Some time in the mid 40's the lathe was sold to a paper mill in PA and was rail transported to that mill. The mill was placed in the shop and there it served it life for light use I am told. After the mill closed, the lathe was auctioned off and bought by a local business man who was not a machinist and never used not knew anything about it.

Beyond being really dirty from many years of sitting and dust collection, I brought it home and degreased and pressure washed it before bringing it in the shop. The ways look awesome. No ridges on the ways. Need to drain, flush and fill the head stock and apron and check the oil flows. Change sight glasses and way wipers.

A long with the lathe came a very heavy pallet of tooling. I have not gone through it all yet, but quick observations are a very large and heavy 4 jaw chuck, 5C Hardridge speed collet chuck and collets, 3J Hardridge speed chuck and collets, 18N jacobs drill chuck on MT4 taper, and miscellaneous never used horizontal milling cutters, drills bits, reamers and some never use small Morse Counter-bore drills. There is a lot on the pallet so I am sure there will some new findings forthcoming.

Lastly, the overall condition is great. A little TLC is needed. I am debating either painting the machine or leaving it alone and retain the patina and history of the machine. What are your thoughts?

Can't wait to get this up and going, but no rush.....

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Lightly rub down the rusty spots with oil and call it good. The paint on that is excellent condition. Unless you strip down, clean it and spray paint it as done at the factory, it will never come out as good as it is.

Tom
 
I agree with leaving the stock paint alone. The only reason I repainted my 10EE was it came thru an auction house in the 90's, and you guessed it; Blue Porch paint, two tone no less. Yuk.
 
Wonderful Machine !

You have a wonderful machine. I certainly would NOT paint it.. If you want to improve it's [wonderful patina ] appearance I'd follow Thermite's suggestion.. Even if the paint match is 'off' by a slight amount.. few people will notice or care..


WHAT DOES concern me is in your first post: you mentioned degreasing and POWER-WASHING the machine before bringing it in your shop..
Generally power washing a precision machine is a serious 'no-no'. The pressure of the water will push dirt, grime, [read: Abrasives! ] into places that no other force could do. So your normal seals, and 'almost-seals' [labyrinth-seals] would have been overwhelmed by the onslaught of high pressure water, grime and degreasing solutions.

So: while you have mentioned changing lubricants, and going over the machine, I'll highly recommend figuring out where you power-washed diligently enough that it is likely that water has infiltrated into places it should never be, and will cause serious issued if allowed to stay there..

Such locations come to mind:
Tailstock sleeve/oil reservoir
Threading gearbox
Power-feed gearbox
Front spindle bearing. [has only a labyrinth-seal] IIRC
Apron gearbox and back of Apron
Crossfeed and compound dials and feed screws/bearings

I do not know if it is possible or practical to warm the machine to say? 120* to promote more rapid than normal evaporation of trapped water? Maybe this is NOT a good idea, since if you find water in some unfortunate location it might be a good 'tattle-tale' that if water has made it to this location, then added dirt and grime have also likely been forced in with the water? Not sure, just a thought..

Anyway: A really nice machine, and a big pile of tooling and accessories for the machine.. Congratulations!!

DualValve
 








 
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