engine lathe personality

All discussion about lathes including but not limited to: South Bend, Hardinge, Logan, Monarch, Clausing and other HSM lathes, including imports

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spro
Posts: 8016
Joined: Mon Feb 20, 2006 11:04 pm
Location: mid atlantic

engine lathe personality

Post by spro »

Turning the handles and controls of ancient machinery is some contact to worlds before. Sure there is wear and we overcome it like forty years ago. Fifty years ago it was shot and all we do is improve it's personality. We know a lot about these machines by evidence of the wear they had during stressful times. We can almost determine those decades. A teardrop knob is so polished by fine ridge detail ( fingerprints), beyond buffing, that microscopically we connect to the machinists before.
spro
Posts: 8016
Joined: Mon Feb 20, 2006 11:04 pm
Location: mid atlantic

Re: engine lathe personality

Post by spro »

I connect to my South Bend 9A in a way. Turns out, it was made the same year I was born. Tale of two lathes; my Taiwan 12 X 36 is agnostic. Well, less agnostic than it was but not much personality. That will be determined by someone else. It just sits there waiting for me to break it. Smokin blue chips crawling across the floor - before knowing about- chip breakers.
spro
Posts: 8016
Joined: Mon Feb 20, 2006 11:04 pm
Location: mid atlantic

Re: engine lathe personality

Post by spro »

It does come back to a certain time when I needed metric. Sure I spent for that. Lathe had issues and some were by me. Don't think you have it down and know everything. The Taiwan lathe with a remarkable Polish chuck- (later called Bison) is a beast. I couldn't find another lathe of this capacity to bring into my basement. I had to support the stairway and navigate by rolling bench, to place it upon the bench where once stood a 1933 South Bend 11". That one had personality to bring tears to eyes. Still have it. It was flat worn out.
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