Emergency Help Smart & Brown 1024 VSL ...

I was offered to buy a lathe in excellent condition. Year 1983 was very little in operation from outside just refreshed with new paint. Does not have much equipment with him.

The price is 10.000 euro.

My question is is this maschine worth this money and what aboute a spare parts etc.

Thanks

Top quality lathe ,that is a lot of money but would be worth it if you have the work to justify that expense.

Spares were available from Bracehand Ltd it would be a good idea to check they are still going.

Have to say it sounds very noisy in the video.

sable said:

Top quality lathe ,that is a lot of money but would be worth it if you have the work to justify that expense.

Spares were available from Bracehand Ltd it would be a good idea to check they are still going.

Have to say it sounds very noisy in the video.

Click to expand...

I sent a email to Bracehand LTD.
[email protected]
The recipient's mailbox is full and can't accept messages now

Lot of money,what is the range od price for this lathe etc
Some owner reply maybe.

Smart looking machine. Price looks on the high side but I don't know what the machine tool market is like in Croatia. By my maths 10,000 euros comes out at about £7300 which is maybe double UK dealer prices. But probably not as nice looking.

Limited spares support from Bracehand 1�24 Lathe - Smart and Brown Machine Tools, Bedfordshire is their specific lathe site.

OK I'm biased because a 1024 VSL is my daily driver. Not as smart, rode hard and put away wet too often in its past life but still tenths thou accurate. A toolroom lathe of the very highest quality. I rate it above Monarch, CVA et al because its much simpler machine so less to go wrong and less to wear out. That said not having a spindle clutch may drive you nuts as may the single apron clutch system serving both longitudinal and cross power feeds. Still sometimes forget to turn the knob! Vastly stronger and more durable than a Hardinge of course. The one major omission is an automatic threading / feed stop. Almost a deal breaker for me until I finally accepted that a Holbrook was too heavy to shift. One day I shall sort out an electrical substitute.

That is an imperial machine. No issues for normal work with dual reading dials and a DRO but you will need to arrange a conversion set-up for metric threading. Looks like you have most of the gears but I don't see the special intermediate gear stud officially needed to carry the conversion gears. Not a deal breaker. I can do you drawing if you want to make your own. But its complete pain to use. I figured out a much easier, permanently mounted, substitute for my metric machine. So far as I can see it would work on an imperial one too. My version looses a couple of BA and module threads from the official list though.

Also appear to be missing the headstock centre. Mine came with an un-split 5C collet with MT 3 bore for the usual MT shank centre.

Headstock "taper" is 5C female so collet work is easy and accurate. For that price I'd expect a full set of 5C collets thrown in, imperial by 1/64 th and metric by 0.5 mm which I have.

I don't like the cross-slide DRO installation as it seriously reduces effective tailstock barrel travel on short and especially collet work. There is about 4 1/2", 110 mm of well supported travel available and I've used most of it at times.

Just listened to the video and compared sound with mine. I think the audio gain on the video is set very high. Same sort of sound as mine but much, much louder so I don't think there is anything mechanically wrong.

Clive

Beautiful piece of kit!

What Clive said.

One of your advantages here is that this S&B has simply not been on the planet as long as potential alternatives. My 10EE's are FORTY YEARS older, both run hard through two major wars. Or more than two. My "new" HBX-360-BC easily ten years older.

If you wanted a 10EE in comparable condition it would have to be an "official" Monarch Lathe rebuild. Stick a "one" in front of the price, left side, after conversion to US$, and you might still not have enough money.

If you wanted an HBX? New one. Cazeneuve "Optica". The Siemens controls on it alone would break the bank!

As to inch/metric? Single-pointing threads may or may not be needed very often, any measurement basis.

If there are other shops near you, odds-are they are metric-based. Having the ability to "trade" doing the odd Inch-based thread for them in exchange for the reverse may be all you need whilst gathering-up the transposition goods to do either system on your own.

Don't move too slowly.

We've have seen this before. Once a really nice machine - and this one seems to be - is made known to the search engines of the world on PM?

Some OTHER seeker might buy it fast and first while the agonizer is still pondering a decision.

I called the seller for Smart and Brown. He bought a lathe at the English University of Youth Mechanical Engineers. The machine was used for demonstration actions. he take apart the machine and changed all the bearings and new oils. He says gears in the norton box and everyone else as well as transmission as new without any traces of use. he offers me to break everything up and see all the gears and the rest.

So it sounds like a new but the videos sound very very loud, which could be a reason.???

Hmmn. Assuming seller bought it in England, very likely as its an imperial machine, English University of Youth Mechanical Engineers doesn't make sense. Nearest would be University of York which doesn't have a proper Mechanical Engineering Department although they do do some post graduate courses so probably have a workshop.

University shop lathes generally do very little work by industrial standards. If it really is ex-University no way would it have needed new bearings anywhere. Looking at the pictures the fixed steady has very poor paintwork. Coolant is what takes the paint off. The paint on that fixed steady is worse than on mine and mine has done a lot of work. But bearings are all still fine.

Think the microphone was very close to the machine with the audio gain turned well up when the video was made. So right sound but far too loud.

Looks as if the seller is trying to charge you a lot of money for a nice paint job.

This e-bay listing is more typical of UK market prices :- Smart & Brown 124 VSL Mk 2 Metal Lathe | eBay , or item number 132752321720 on E-Bay UK if the link doesn't work. Probably go for around £1,200 (€1,350 ). Wonder how much it would cost to get it shipped?

Paintwork and cosmetics on that one are better than mine. I had the slipping out of gear issue too. Basically its the ball, spring and latch assembly on the high speed - low speed selector lever. Latch parts are outside the headstock under the round boss of the lever. You need to push the lever straight down against a spring to release the latch before moving. Over the years oil, shop dust and so on builds up and things get sticky so it stays in the unlatched position allowing you to move the lever without unlatching it. Without the latch working its easy to not engage the drive properly so it slips out. Mine just needed a good clean out along with a new ball and spring. Latch parts had been worn a little but not enough to stop it working. A replacement for the worn part would not have been expensive. Fitting and aligning so the neutral is central and the dogs engage fully for high and low speeds is tricky if you haven't done it a couple of times before as the obvious method looses the timing of the two way dog clutch. Getting it re-timed with the neutral central and both sets of dogs fully engaged when latched is tricky as there is little clearance in neutral. I imagine the original assembly was done with a suitable setting device keeping things in place whilst tightening the fasters.

Clive