Machine Tools

[Wallace]

Owning an older lathe is akin to older cars, you get used to their quirks and features vary between machines. You have to plan jobs around your machine and remember to change things on the fly such as the feed direction as you have a screw cutting lead screw that doubles as a feed drive. My Raglan has a threaded lead screw and a feed screw which is a straight shaft with a keyway cut along its length that drives a sliding worm gear. That has a particular quirk in that you can engage the feed and screw cutting feeds at the same time and I did that the expensive way breaking a couple of gears, later machines have an interlock to prevent this and make the operator look smarter.

Once you really get into using the machine and used to it you will find shortcuts on jobs and find ways around the features.

[Grant]

Owning an older lathe is akin to older cars, you get used to their quirks and features vary between machines. You have to plan jobs around your machine and remember to change things on the fly such as the feed direction as you have a screw cutting lead screw that doubles as a feed drive. My Raglan has a threaded lead screw and a feed screw which is a straight shaft with a keyway cut along its length that drives a sliding worm gear. That has a particular quirk in that you can engage the feed and screw cutting feeds at the same time and I did that the expensive way breaking a couple of gears, later machines have an interlock to prevent this and make the operator look smarter.

Once you really get into using the machine and used to it you will find shortcuts on jobs and find ways around the features.

Nice one Mike.. I know your point..Time and experience sorts it all .. Many thanks for your advice Mike

[Kevin Birch]

These old lathes are great, would love one but just haven't got the room. I had a tour of the engine shed of the Severn Valley railway last year, and they have some massive machinery in there. One story the tour guide told us, they have a huge lathe that is very old, that had a problem. They contacted a company that apparently could repair , and had spares for all sorts of old equipment, even dating back to the 1890's, so should be able to do the repair. An engineer duly turned up, and promptly told them it dated back to about 1870, and spares are unavailable, but told them what was wrong, and they made the part on another old lathe. Needless to say it is now up and running and has been for a good number of years

[Grant]

I have some other stuff that I use from time to time and other stuff that I haven't used but wanted it because I am a hoarder who loves old stuff
When we 1st bought this house 20years ago I wanted an old tractor, there was one in a field up the road, so, I jumped the fence and walked over to investigate, then an strong accented oldish Irish chap shouted at me .. Anyway he was alright in the end and I asked about buying the Tractor.. he asked who I was and where I was from, when I told him he said "Oh, small world, I bought this old tractor years ago from your house when there was just a barn there!!" .. I ended up buying it and I have had it ever since, I only use it once a year to cut all the grass on the land because the couple of old sheep we have can't keep up with trimming the grass mid- summer, I leave it sitting like this every year and when I put a battery on it it fires up everytime and yet it looks like it doesn't even work >>>
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This is another one I bought years later from the same Chap when he moved back to Ireland, but I have never used it >>>
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This here is a wood cutter that is driven by a leather belt and a PTO take off from the Furgy Tractors, but I have never used it as I feel safer with a chainsaw!! >>
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Then here is my little old dumper truck, it is an oldish Spanish machine, only 2 wheel drive which is a bit of a pain, typically old and hard work,.. When I needed a dumper the guy had a green ex-council one there, the normal Thyfords type.. bloody horriblefor me.. I saw this laying in the corner and couldn't resist it.. needed quite a bit of time to get it sorted and it does what I need it to do

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>> We have a fair bit of land here and so you couldn't really be without a digger, One of the things I do with it apart from digging and moving soil etc is turn the bucket at the front around the otherway and get Lara to put me in the bucket with a chainsaw and drive me around the perimeter of the land cutting back all the tree branches.. fairly dangerous but I like it >>
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I need to give up sleeping as there is not enough time to do all I want to do, but when you try not to sleep you fall asleep

[johnw]

Some nice toys there Grant. My favorite is the digger! I could use something like that, even a smaller one would do. The tractors are nice too. They look to have all their original tinware on them too.

I have quite a few things that are driven by leather belts, really useful aren't they! This includes a large wooden version of that saw you have, which is driven by a portable 3 phase motor, which somes with a 3 phase extension lead! This motor also has a reduction pulley/axle, which is not on the picture. The motor must be at least 100 years old, as is the saw. I don't have a picture of the saw though. This motor is very useful, being on wheels that fold up to stop it moving when you let go of the handles.

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[DPP]

Grant that tractor with the topper has the perfect patina, I would love that sat on my lawn.

Lots of other nice toys too.

[Grant]

Grant that tractor with the topper has the perfect patina, I would love that sat on my lawn.
Lots of other nice toys too.

Yes..many thanks Dave.. it is so cool that old red one, my fave and I love it, it just suits the place sitting there and looks unused and left, but it works perfectly everytime

[Grant]

I have quite a few things that are driven by leather belts, really useful aren't they! This includes a large wooden version of that saw you have, which is driven by a portable 3 phase motor, which somes with a 3 phase extension lead! This motor also has a reduction pulley/axle, which is not on the picture. The motor must be at least 100 years old, as is the saw. I don't have a picture of the saw though. This motor is very useful, being on wheels that fold up to stop it moving when you let go of the handles.

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That's really cool John.. I love the trolley it's on.. beautiful old stuff

[JENHART]

Great to see so many others into machining.
Here are my two below witch I have owned for 5years + and have come in very handy, as you can see with drilling a snapped stud on the 383 head and a new bolt for the cv8 oil filter housing on the lathe.
And while we’re on about tractors here’s mine.

[Grant]

Great to see so many others into machining.
Here are my two below witch I have owned for 5years + and have come in very handy, as you can see with drilling a snapped stud on the 383 head and a new bolt for the cv8 oil filter housing on the lathe.
And while we’re on about tractors here’s mine.

WOW.. what a brilliant post Mr Hart .. Proper man cave.. keep em coming chaps , what a lovely tractor you have there.. Great stuff.. I should imagine that was an expensive piece of kit being a Lamborghini
Great thread this

[jglarkin]

Love this thread

I can’t imagine having a garage without a lathe hidden somewhere, it’s surprising how often you need to make a tool of some description to make another job possible.

About 10 years ago I saw this lathe standing, in the pouring rain, outside, in a fabricators yard -next to the metal scrap skip! I asked why was it in the yard, he said he didn’t need it and he was waiting for it to be taken away. I offered to take it away

While I was loading it in a trailer a chap came over to tell me there were loads and loads of tooling in a nice steel cabinet, different chucks, tool holders, specialist attachments of every kind befitting a cherished toolroom machine. I asked him ‘where is it.’ Oh that went in the last skip when this was dumped outside a couple of weeks ago!! I still suffer mixed emotions about that day, both delight and horror......


I wish I had a milling machine but it would take up more space than I’m willing to give up, I have a nice drilling machine instead.

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The lathe is an Okuma LK from the 1960s, spectacularly well engineered and incredibly solid, metric and imperial dials, nice compact size for its capacity, rare as hens teeth......just like a Jensen C-V8. I love it

When you have toys like that you can tinker with stuff like this :-

[Grant]

Wow JohnBoy .. What a lovely Lathe that is!!.. Seems to have a lot of handles and levers.. hope you know which one to turn .. It's surprising how people just scrap these beautiful beautiful pieces of equipment isn't it.. but that's life nowadays
Good to see that EFI coming on well John.. You make good use of this fee time John as I am sure you will .. I had another great day outside today doing stuff that I needed to get to.. but.. I got sidetracked and ended up entertaining the grandkids for a bit!!.. At one point I had one of them at the helm of the ride on lawnmower and the other on my knee whilst I was actuating the throttle and the 3 of us were wizzing along in 5th gear doing about 25mph.. or that's what it felt like Sadly the pics I just uploaded of it are Iphone Sideways so It's just this pic I have>>
Then we tried the same thing in the Ole Dumper.. and I wonder why my back is hurting now!! >>>

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Have fun everyone

[jglarkin]

Looks like jolly good fun Grant. I wish I had digging machine and dumper to play with.
I actually had a digger on hire last week when the hire shop rang and said they were shutting down the office so they were calling in all the hired plant that day! I wouldn’t normally have minded but I hadn’t quite finished the trench!

That EFI is nearly a year old so it’s pretty handy that I am ‘trapped’ at home and am being ‘forced’ to get on with putting petrol back on the car.

That manifold was all machined at home, I chose to let someone else to do the welding though.

[DPP]

Some amazing kit amongst our members, loving the Lamborghini tractor, amazed there are so many large millers and lathes as well.

Grant im coming over for a ride in your dumper once im allowed out again

[Grant]

Grant im coming over for a ride in your dumper once im allowed out again

You'd always be made welcome DaveMan.. I know we sing from the same Hymn sheet!! ..But as for going for a ride on the dumper truck is obviously completely out of the question!!
You stay safe you two down there and kiss that lovely Dog for me Dave