Would a Series 50 be a good choice?

I mentioned earlier that I was looking at a L&S to use while searching for my long coveted 10EE; I've since found a Monarch Series 50, I believe it's 16x54...if not, it's close to that...that I really like.

Would a couple of you guys that are familiar with 'em tell me what the relative pros and cons of this machine are, and what to look for, ie options, common failures, etc?

Thanks,

Travis

The drive on a 50 can be big trouble its DC with a rectifier. Have you seen the lathe run?

Does it run?

Hi Travis,
I have a 50 series lathe with a 10 Hp DC motor. It's completely original and runs great. However, if the electrical system started acting up, I'd have to consider an upgrade vs. repair cost. Another member here, Jeff King, also has a Series 50 lathe and he did a very nice job on his electrical upgrade. Search this forum for Jeff's posts.

My lathe has three gear ranges. Within each range, you control the spindle rpm by adjusting the dc motor rpm, on the fly. This is a nice feature for facing.

I can't swear to this, but it is my impression that Monarch built their very best lathes with the various 60 series lathes. Later, when the 50 series lathes came out in the late 60's to early 70's, Monarch was looking for opportunities to cut some costs. They are still very nice lathes, however.

Good luck,
John

The Series 50 is a sound little lathe. It was built from 1965 to around 1980 as Monarch's answer to Lodge and Shipley's AVS lathes. Monarch built a couple hundred or so Series 50's. It has all the features found in other Monarchs. The bed is a little lighter, but nothing that is noticable in performace.

John

I have one and as John said I changed the drive to a vfd because the motor was 460 only.The only thing I can say I dont like is the lack of a feed direction change on the apron.Every time you need to change the cross feed or carriage direction you need to shift the tumbler on the headstock.Not a BIG deal but an inconvenience.Just slow spindle down and shift then speed back up.One other dislike is the qc gear box change lever.It is a poor setup.Hard to shift at times.
I do like the vari speed control.