1945 TH54 Shed Find.

wheeliemammoth

wheeliemammoth

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Just before Thanksgiving I picked up a TH54 from my neighbor, drug it from the back of a dark, dirt-floored shed, absolutely filthy. No broken teeth, ways are not badly worn, a fair amount of tools/attachments included. Loads of old small and large diameter brass bar stock in the bottom drawer to practice on. The top drawer is still in limbo, it's a pretty messy hoarder situation next door and it's dark so I'm trying to dig for additional attachments and tools from time to time.

Pulled the spindle, cross slide, compound, and apron, everything looks to be well cared for, even after sitting in less-than-ideal conditions for over three decades.

Some before and after, still needs some cleaning up but it's running without issue and your hands don't get dirty by touching it anymore so I consider that progress. Still ironing out how I want everything laid out in the garage but it's coming together.

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Metal lathes are tough to come by in this area. When you do, even a shot-out short-bed hobbyist model is upwards of $1800, generally speaking. When we first moved into this house I'd seen this in his shed one day and asked about it, and got the standard "It was my grandfather's, I could never part with it, I'm going to fix it up, blah blah" so when he texted and asked if I was still interested, two years later, I said of course- but assumed it would be well beyond what I wanted to pay. When we were looking at it in the dark shed I asked what his knee-jerk was as far as price and he said "I don't know...200 dollars?"

Not a bad score.
 
wheeliemammoth said:
Metal lathes are tough to come by in this area. When you do, even a shot-out short-bed hobbyist model is upwards of $1800, generally speaking. When we first moved into this house I'd seen this in his shed one day and asked about it, and got the standard "It was my grandfather's, I could never part with it, I'm going to fix it up, blah blah" so when he texted and asked if I was still interested, two years later, I said of course- but assumed it would be well beyond what I wanted to pay. When we were looking at it in the dark shed I asked what his knee-jerk was as far as price and he said "I don't know...200 dollars?"

Not a bad score.
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Nice, looks like you have a nice little shop. Never seen a potted plant under a drill press before, does it thrive on metal chips and oil?

Oh, and $200. Let me be the first to say....

:you suck:

John
 
Welcome to the forum, and nice score on the machine. I have pretty much the same lathe, and it has done a lot of good work. At the going price for brass I would keep it for actual parts, and practice on some dumpster steel or even pvc. Mike
 
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I agree with FOMOGO's comment's WRT the brass.

And would also suggest that before any more oil gets dumped on the plywood floor, that you acquire a drip pan wide enough to set the entire lathe within and about as deep as the existing stand. Add a couple or three hold-down bolts in the middle (suggest that you use carriage bolts and that you replace the existing hex head bolts with carriage bolts in the interest of making cleanup easier). Be sure to add a drain fitting somewhere along the rear of the drip pan. You will probably have to modify the top of the drain fitting in order to keep it's top flush with the top surface of the drip pan but you have the lathe to do it with.
 
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