MINI LATHE

[Mark Bullard]

Lohring, It still looks good for its age. A little cleanup and paint will make them look nice. And holding tolerance in 12" is as good as any. But $2500 may be high for scrap price. Scrap prices are only at about .10 cents a 100 pounds. The only problem with scraping a lathe the scrap yard will not take it. They can not tear it up into small pieces. Here are some pictures of lathes that I have bought at scrap prices and brought back to life.

Here is a Bullard VTL that I bought for scrap. Paid $10,000 and spend $15,000 to rebuild. First three pictures

Here is a Southbend That I bought for $1500 and spend about $2000 to rebuild. Other pictures.

 

[Tom Foley]

Monarch 10ee...

LATHE PORN !!!!

 

[Tom Foley]

Lohring, It still looks good for its age. A little cleanup and paint will make them look nice. And holding tolerance in 12" is as good as any. But $2500 may be high for scrap price. Scrap prices are only at about .10 cents a 100 pounds. The only problem with scraping a lathe the scrap yard will not take it. They can not tear it up into small pieces. Here are some pictures of lathes that I have bought at scrap prices and brought back to life.

Here is a Bullard VTL that I bought for scrap. Paid $10,000 and spend $15,000 to rebuild. First three pictures

Here is a Southbend That I bought for $1500 and spend about $2000 to rebuild. Other pictures.

MACHINE PORN FREAK !!!!!

 

[Robert Pickard]

I used that kind of Monarch at Ford Motor

 

[Brad Christy]

Guys,

I've got a Hardinge HLV-EM and wouldn't give it up for anything. I'd walk ten miles past a 10EE to make the same part on a Hardinge. I regularly hold +/- .0002" on mine on "productions" runs of 50-70pcs. the threading mechanics on the Hardinge is worth the price of the machine. The 10EE is mechanically a good machine, but electrical system is enough to scare anybody away if they know what they're looking at. If the DC exciter gives up on it (which was it's main Achilles heel), you've got a one ton boat anchor on your floor. Your only option is to find another one with a good DC exciter and cannibalize it. When I was looking for the Hardinge I ended up with, I was looking at buying two of the 10EEs (package deal) from a guy who bought them thinking he was going to use one as a parts machine. One wash worn out, but had a good DC exciter. The other was in relatively good shape, but the exciter was toast. There were other issues, but between the two, there was one usable machine. After consulting several machine repair operations in the greater Dayton area, I walked away. Every single one of them told me the DC exciter was a ticking timebomb, and without it, the lathe is junk.

If you can find an HLV-H or -EM, can justify the cost (I paid $11K for mine) and can shoehorn it into your available space, you'll never be without a good lathe.

Thanks. Brad.

Titan Racing Components

BlackJack Hydros

Model Machine And Precision LLC

 

[Terry Keeley]

Hardinge HLV-EM...

 

[Mark Bullard]

Hardinge are good lathes also. Most of these small lathes are what we call tool room lathes. They are good for small production runs or other small precision work.

 

[Brad Christy]

Terry,

Yup. That one is not an EM, unless what appears to be some kind of digital control for thread pitch selection. Mine has a selector knob that allows you to switch from English to metric threads with a twist of the wrist. Either way, that's a darn fine piece of machinery. Sadly, Hardinge is no longer building the HLV line, they will rebuild them, but no new machines are being built. The price tag on that puppy was around $50K, with no tooling. You were looking at over $70K for a new one, fully equipped. They were worth every penny if you could keep them spinning. With less than .00005" spindle run-out and ZERO travel deviation, they were as near to perfect as any mortal man had rights to.

I particularly like the way the headstock is mounted on the dovetail bed, ensuring dead true tracking of the saddle and tailstock. Most other lathes mount the ways on the front of the headstock and must be trued to the headstock once the machine is placed.

FWIW, I only got the EM model for the metric threading capacity only. These models also featured English/metric convertible dials that actually track both English and metric travels simultaneously

. I'm not really a big fan of these dials as they are held by friction only instead of the thumb screws that come on the HLV-H models. If it wouldn't cost so darn much, I'd swap them out in a heartbeat.

Thanks. Brad.

Titan Racing Components

BlackJack Hydros

Model Machine And Precision LLC

 

[Terry Keeley]

I'm not a toolmaker by any stretch but I've heard it said by some very experienced ones that's there's no finer toolroom lathes than Hardinge...

 

[Ray Sametz]

Mear bag of shells stating at 30,000.00

 

[John Beardslee]

I'm not a toolmaker by any stretch but I've heard it said by some very experienced ones that's there's no finer toolroom lathes than Hardinge...

I'm one plus a teacher from the old trade technical school days and I will agree - no finer!!!

 

[steve wood]

Monarch lathes are the best ever made by any company . Period. Just my experience from 50 years running them all, Harding included

 

[dwilfong]

What about my old South Bend 9".........it wants some love too..................LOL

 

[John Beardslee]

What about my old South Bend 9".........it wants some love too..................LOL

That's what I have, my father in law went to Southbend and picked it up in 1934. Steve, nothing wrong with Monarchs, I repaired/rebuilt many but in the tool room my preference is the Hardinge for the smaller precision workThanks John

 

[dwilfong]

Mines a 1952 by the ser # it cane off a Navy Destroyer......

Love it you can get any thing you want for it on Ebay................even have clubs for owners with tons of rebuild info.

That is how I found out where it was sold and used originally.

Rebuilding the old girl was half the fun....................then using it was the icing on the cake.....................

For most hobbies it is all you will ever need.

Now you aint going to make pistons on it.............LOL

But how many are going to tackle that in all reality.........................

Not many things you need to skim .0001 off of now is there?

Here is what you can do with a cheep Harbor Fright mill.....................

Should hear all the clatter on Scream and Fly when I showed them this deal...........LOL

Would be amazed what you can do if you just do it.................................

 

[Tom Foley]

I've got a 20 year old Enco Rockcrusher works for what I do but I would love to have a nice lathe !

 

[John Beardslee]

Slightly off topic but I worked at Clarage Fan Corp. while going to college, (Western Michigan University) Clarage had the contract to build the induced draft fans for the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), we had a lathe that was so large that the operator sat in a chair on the carriage next to the cutting tool and moved along with the feed. Some cuts took a full shift to complete. If I remember the shafts were 22 inches in dia. and 36 ft long on the duel stage fans, I don't the diameter of the fan itself but the operating RPM was something like 400 and the tip velocity was really high. The housings were 43 ft high. Big stuff!!

Thanks, John

 

[lohring]

The Monarch is replacing my South Bend 9". It came out of the local community college and reminded me of my high school years where they had a machine shop with around 6 of them. It was a great lathe for the smaller engine and boat parts. It is light on power and rigidity when you start turning steel in larger sizes. I'm still getting familiar with the Monarch, but I think it will be a good replacement. There are a lot of old manual machines out there in great shape for our light use.

Mark, did you work at a company that rebuilds those machines? Seeing that vertical boring mill reminded me of my days in the machine tool industry. I designed a turret for Farrel in the early 1970s. They made really big machine tools but didn't survive the 1980s along with a lot of other US manufacturing companies. The family company I worked for, McCroskey Tool Company, was sold after 99 years in business. The small family owned company across the street is still around and in the 5th generation of the DeArment family. You may have heard of it. It started as the Champion-DeArment tool company but changed its name to Channellock in the 1960s. It's my favorite American manufacturing success story. All their tools are still made in the same small town where I grew up.

Lohring Miller

 

[Mark Bullard]

Lohring, I rebuilt those machines myself. I am in the electric motor business. We repair and sell all types of electric motors. Big and small plus servos. But over the years I have worked on a lot of different machines. Mostly the electrical and control side of it. Have done a lot of PLC and Drive work. This has lead to work on CNC machines. Don't know much about the programing of CNC but with a good operator I can get around the unit to read the logic trace down what is wrong with the machine. Also do a lot of upgrade on older machines. I have some companies that are rebuilding the old machines and I have been upgrading the electrical. The new machines do not have the weight that the old machines have. And there is a lot of companies looking for old machines. They are buying them and paying for the upgrade. My VTL is used for what we call endbell repair. We bore the bearing fit that is bad and sleeve it. Then bore it to tolerance. The Southbend does the same with a little shaft work. I have three more lathes in house. A 17" Clausing, 13" Clausing, and a 44" Niles. I will be doing a full rebuild on the two Clausing's in the next year. Will be pulling them down and have the bed waves and carriage ground to new tolerance and then repair what else is needed. Will also install DRO on these two machines. I have run machines for years without DRO's but after you start using them they will spoil you.

I have heard of these companies and I have used "Channellock" tools for years.

 

[dwilfong]

I still have nightmares of the old Lodge & Shipley with a 4 speed Muncie trans running the old belt drive.

We called it large and shapely.......LOL

1902 I think was the year it was built. Had to turn down the lobes tips on roots blowers after thy where spray welded.

Cringed every time I had to do that job........................