An Old Friend Returns

wrmiller

wrmiller

Chief Tinkerer
H-M Supporter Gold Member
Joined
Mar 21, 2013
Messages
4,063
This SB1001, along with my early PM25 (Weiss) went to a good friend back in '16 when I bought my PM935 and PM1340GT. He got them set up in his little shop, but never used them. Then, he got laid off by the same company that threw me out the back door. The machines got packed up and moved to TN (from Longmont CO) and were never taken out of their wrappings of moving mats, plastic, and tape.

Talking with him a couple of months ago, and he was telling me that he's coming out this way to pick up his brother in CA and take him back to TN. He then asked me if I would like to have the machines back, as I had sold my mill and lathe back in early '22 when I had some serious health issues. I didn't meet Joe Black, but I spent the better part of two years getting myself back together. And I missed my mill and lathe.

Now this little SB is just a good sized modelers lathe, but I previously had cut pretty much anything wanted, including Titanium (carefully) so I knew it could handle the small stuff I wanted to do. For those who don't know this lathe, it's not bad for a hobby/bench lathe, it's 8"x18", weighs about 300 lbs, has a 6" wide bed, variable speed, and a D1-3 chuck mount. I put a 5" BTC set-tru chuck and a Aloris AXA tool post on it as well.

1AEE0D4A-65CC-4D15-BABF-AEB25AB4822D_1_105_c.jpeg


This was the easier of the two to clean up, with relatively mild rust here and there. The PM25 is gonna be next and I'm hoping that I can get a one-shot oiler setup on the thing and re-do the mounts for the DRO's glass scales, assuming that system still functions of course.

But hey, I have machines again. :D
 
Last edited:
mksj said:
Hi Bill,
Good to see you back on the saddle, it's been a long time and wondered how you were doing. Glad you made it through the dark times.
Mark
Click to expand...
It's good to be back Sir. It's not like old times (physically), but it's a start. I gave the buyer of my machines pretty much everything, so it's going to take a while getting things like metrology/measuring tools, end mills, lathe bits, setup tools/fixtures, etc., etc.. (living on SS sucks....but hey, I'm still vertical)

But now I have something to look forward to. :)

Good to hear from you Mark. Hope things are going well for you.
 
toprecyler said:
That lathe looks sharp and clean. It was taken care of!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
It spent most of the last 7 years wrapped in plastic and tape. It looked like hell when I received it, but I tore it down so I could inspect and remove the rust here and there and give it fresh grease and oil. it has cleaned up really well. Looking forward to using it, but the teardown of the PM25 is next. :)
 
Those 1001s look like they were a nice small lathe. Probably a big step up from the usual 8x16 / 9x20 options. I've seen one or two on CL, but Grizzly no longer offers them. Kind of a shame as it seems like a nice option vs the usual small lathes without going to the size / weight of a 10x22. I'm guessing the price was a big factor in discontinuing them.
 
Aaron_W said:
Those 1001s look like they were a nice small lathe. Probably a big step up from the usual 8x16 / 9x20 options. I've seen one or two on CL, but Grizzly no longer offers them. Kind of a shame as it seems like a nice option vs the usual small lathes without going to the size / weight of a 10x22. I'm guessing the price was a big factor in discontinuing them.
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure that price was a large part of them being discontinued. It's weird, but people clamor for better quality and better options in small machine tools, but when they are offered a choice they scream that it's too costly and go buy a cheap 7x/9x lathe. People are just weird. ;)

This is indeed a rather stout little lathe, with the wide bed and pretty heavy headstock. IIRC, when I first bought it I was getting about 0.0003" of taper across a 8 or 9" piece of round stock. And repeatable. Not bad for a modelers lathe. :)

Now on to the PM/Weiss bench mill. I was out in the garage this morning and unwrapped the DroPros DRO. This thing is at least 10 years old, and has a funky green case on the display head. But...I powered it up and gently turned the x, y, and z axis handwheels.

The good news? The display registered the movements on all three axis. The bad news? They didn't move very far.

This little mill is going to be 2-3 times the work the lathe was. But like I said, it's good to have machines again. Even small ones. :cool:

Edit: Oh and you mentioned weight: I find that this lathe and mill is about all this Old Fart (pushing 70) can handle by myself and not owning any lifting equipment. Getting old sucks....
 
Last edited:
Good to see you back too Bill, glad you made it through to the other side.

What are you after in terms of tooling and the like? I have a new to me and random collection of auction goodies that might have something you would find useful.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top