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Carl Benzinger ring lathe

ZMAN92020

Aluminum
Joined
Aug 12, 2002
Location
El Cajon, Calif
Here is a specality German lathe, used to make wedding rings . . Just finished the rebuild on
this machine . . don't see many of these anymore . .
carl001.jpg
 
Do you know the process of making rings? Did they use blanks on an expanding arbor or part off from long stock or some other way altogether?
Bob
 
Apparently, ring blanks were cut off a tube of
precious metal . . the lathe has a lever operated
holder which has an expanding collet . . the blanks were placed on the collet , , , the lathe has 2
compounds . . . . one is a lever operated sliding with a toolholder . . there is also a radis cutting compound for forming the curves at the edges of each ring . . .
I purchased this lathe at auction last year, looking for a small 'hobby' lathe and not knowing anything about its true purpose, I rebuilt it for my own use . . . When I found out that these 'speciality' jewelery lathe sell for THOUSANDS If and when you can find one, and I didn't want to destroy it . . . So it found it's way to a Machinery Broker for the jewelery industry . .
 
I have just acquired one of these for my garage, just to make simple bushes and spacers for my old cars. I will post a picture of it next week. I bought it because it is small but robust - I do not have enough space for anything larger. Not sure mine is for ring making, but I'm sure there is someone who can advise me. I would like to have a tailstock, or is there some adaptor for the toolholder which can carry a drill chuck? Any help would be appreciated.
 
I don't believe a tailstock was available, I had a copy of the original owners manual and it wasn't mentioned in there . . these were ring manufacturing specific purpose machines . . I was going to use mine for small intricate parts, but hated to take such a valuable machine and use it for something it wasn't designed for . .I ended up selling it to a U.S. company who deals in jewelery manufacturing equipment . .
 
I'm just wondering, has anyone here ever tried to machine gold, or any other precious metals? What precautions must be taken to make sure one doesn't loose eccessive amounts of swarf? Just looking at this lathe, I can picture it at the end of the day possibly covered in tons of valuable gold dust. Do they commonly machine gold? Also Zman, if you don't mind me wondering, what is something like this worth? Sure as heck is beautiful. I'd take it over a gold ring any day but that's just me.

Adam
 
Anyone have user manual for the Benzinger lathe?
I just bought a nice machine but didnt found any info about it :/
 








 
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