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High Precision Swiss Lathe – Reiden

Doug Neaves

Aluminum
Joined
Sep 18, 2002
Location
Northampton, England
I have recently taken an interest in lathes made by Reiden, this interest was spurred on by the fact that one was languishing at a dealer that was appearing in my Deckel searches.

r1.jpg


It is a medium sized lathe, swinging just over 16inches (425mm) with 18inches (470mm) in the semi-gap. The position of the carriage hand-wheel to the right of the carriage instead of the sometimes more convenient left, indicates that a full gap option was available. 27inches (700mm) swing.

Three centre distances were offered; 29inches (750mm), 39inches (1000mm) and 59inches (1500mm). This lathe has a centre distance of 750mm.

Mounted on the rear of the carriage and therefore, travelling with it, is; the Waldmann lamp, a manual pumped oil reservoir, and the clutch lever. On some machines the DRO is also carriage mounted.

The ways for the tailstock are at a completely different height from the main carriage ways giving the impression of that the lathe is smaller than it actually is. The main front way is protected by a substantial steel cover with a Deckel like ruler embedded in it. The rear way (in the words of the song) would take a coal miner to find it, so I bet a bed regrind is fun. The ways on this machine are in superb condition; if that had not been the case, no money would have changed hands.

The brown in the picture, taking inspiration from the most creative eBay listings, is not rust, it is oil staining. Ok there is a bit of rust on the chuck guard, which incidentally, looks as though it was made by a Swiss tractor cab manufacturer and welded by someone who learned his trade by correspondence course.

Overall the R 200 - 2 appears to be very well made, with a very good finish, and some nice details. I did get an English manual with the machine, but alas, page one is missing. :(

Best regards

Doug Neaves
 
My partner owns a much older Reiden tool room lathe 16 x 60 with a factory tracer, which I have run for hundreds & hundreds of hours..... very nice machine. Very much on a par with the model 62 Monarch.

Cyclotronguy
 
These are European work shop lathes in the class of the 18/21 RO series VDF machines. The bed way pattern is reminiscant of the Oerlikon and Graziano machines. The arrangement of the carriage reminds me of the Dean, Smith and Grace lathes.

Hopefully the spindle is to DIN 55 022 (standard bayonet lock, similar to the American D1).

Accuracy test is most likely DIN 8605 which corresponds to the "American Standard for Accuracy of Toolroom Lathes." I would not expect the high accuracy of the Monarch EE or the smaller Hardinge and Shaublin lathes.

Most of this class of lathe will cut English pitches as well as metric leads. Check this specific model, however, it is rare or non existant in the USA so it may cut metric only, even if one is in England.

I am very partial to this type of lathe even though I have not run the model you are looking at.
 
My preferred choice of larger lathe was a Holbrook H15, or Dean Smith and Grace. The huge weight of the Southern and Northern contenders was an issue, more than twice that of the Reiden. The problem of finding an unworn lathe was also time consuming, and quite important as DSG (bless their cotton socks), quoted 3500 GBP for a bed regrind.

The rational behind purchasing a larger lathe was to allow my “Holbrook Minor” (10 x 20, D1-4, 2MT tailstock, 3000 RPM variable speed. Electronic clutches & brake, electric feeds). To take over from my “Denford Syncro” (11 x 24, D1-3, 3MT tailstock, 1600 RPM, DC injection foot brake, chrome ways). The Denford was unused when I purchased it, a very good lathe, but with no pretensions to being “super” high precision. The Denford was not big enough for some jobs, not fast enough for others, and not ridged enough with the D1-3 for others.

The “Holbrook Minor” was the answer to the super high precision, the speed, and the spindle rigidity. My only concern was the MT2 tailstock, but I forgave Holbrook as they had actually oil filled the massive tailstock and fitted a natty little dipstick. Taken that with this class of lathe, accuracy and build quality is a given, the purchasing decision is one of personal taste and available money (price was not an issue, providing the lathe could be sold again without losing too much). The Holbrook was the front runner (for me) as I wanted electric feeds; Holbrook with their usual attention to detail, had designed the bed to accommodate the motor. I wanted a tight grouping of all the control elements, and I liked the electronic joystick. Holbrook had also indulged themselves with massively over engineering everything, the bed on the 10x 20 “Minor” is deeper than the 16 x 29 Reiden, and the Holbrook has a one piece cast base. In fact the Reiden is only slightly heavier than the Holbrook.

The Reiden purchasing decision, considering that I can have what I want, within the bounds of sanity. Was based on a relatively tight grouping of controls, build quality, D1-6, 40 English threads, 40 Metric threads, 40 Diametric threads, 22 Module threads straight from the box. The neat unencumbered headstock, trigger release 4MT tailstock, the incredibly well protected ways, the telltale controls, and a whole host of other fine details were the deciding factors.

The “Holbrook Minor” decision in retrospect, was no contest, I am not going to purchase a machine with an exposed feed motor, or controls that look “tacked on”. The Reiden on the other hand was a very tough decision; the Holbrook H15 is almost unsurpassed in the “if you can chuck it you can cut it” class, massive, massive machine, the DSG is massive with a build quality approaching Holbrook. The Cazeneuve tailstock is “jean creamingly good”, but the spindle nose is odd, Schaublins are superb, but not my “cup of tea” the “round the corner” threading dials are off-putting, as I like to squint along a chucked part.

The thing that swung it? The Reiden came with its original tool cabinet, with masses of used soft jaws. The cabinet also contained some very intricate turned parts that fitted the machined soft jaws. Usually, I see something and I think? I can make that better. In this case, the best I could think was; I can learn to machine as well as that. :eek: Game set and match, the Reiden had won! The ultimate ego deflator, each part was marked “scrap” (the machine came from a defence contractor).


The following links are for Holbrook and Denford, the Holbrook pictures are from a catalogue / catalog and do not show the “Pit bullterrier aspects”). No Denford picture is available, and as it is lathes.co.uk some information though useful is “clouded”.

Holbrook

Denford

Best regards

Doug Neaves

[ 10-13-2005, 10:25 PM: Message edited by: Doug Neaves ]
 
Hi Doug,
Yes, the Reiden is a nice lathe indeed, Especially the T200 :D . I will replaced my weiler if I can get hold on the T200 someday :rolleyes: .
Alpha1
 
I may be wrong, but it appears that Schaublin made the smaller slightly higher volume machines and Reiden made the “bigger stuff”. My R200 is the smallest Reiden lathe that I could find. If I had the space I would, like “Alpha1”, be considering a T200, they are truly awesome.

A small part of my daily routine involves viewing the results of some automated web searches. Reiden, naturally enough is one of the search terms, (the others, I will not divulge, but no doubt can be deduced). The Reiden milling machines are the predominant machines sown in the searches, closely followed by the current production machining centres.

If only I had the space! Strangely, I have seen several Reiden lathes in the UK, but never one of their equally superb milling machines. A situation that in retrospect is somewhat fortunate. ;)

I have always considered myself to be “normal”; I have a milling machine and lathe, plus the usual associated tooling in one garage. The other garage contains the equipment purchased to upgrade my existing machinery. The “back flip” Holbrook Minor that caused the “log jam”; has been joined by a replacement Holbrook Minor, the Deckel FP2 has been joined by a late model FP1 and an Alexander (purchased for the table). In the “General” section of the forum I noted a discussion on the various merits of flat lathe ways and “V” lathe ways, as I am now forced to traverse the garage by walking on the machinery, I would, in this peculiar circumstance, opt for flat ways every time, merely as they offer the best foothold. :(

Yes, if I came across a Reiden Mill, I would purchase it - if only my spare garage was not full.



Best regards

Doug Neaves
 
For you Reiden lovers.

Neat Reiden with gobs of tooling/collets/arbors on German Ebay.Normally I wouldn't post an ongoing auction but seeing as waht the price is, figured it would do no harm.

reiden mill

Its even got what looks like tuning forks.
The Swiss known for their perfection and precision, in the case of Reiden decided to go 1 better than their compatriots and allowed for the checking of spindle proper operation by means of checking with a tuning fork :D

Technically this would be in Deckel/Schaublin mills forum but...I didn't want to clutter forum with a post just for this.
 








 
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