I manage the Machine Shop museum at Tuckahoe Steam and Gas Association and we get lots of donations of old machinery. I have trouble selling some of these old machines for between $300 and $600. So I wouldn't pay any more than that. But I see lots of ads on Facebook Marketplace for outrageous amounts of money. Just because it's old doesn't mean it's worth anything.
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Any recognize this lathe?
- Thread starter tk1971
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that is an old girl! Doesn't look terrible and I'm sure with a bit of TLC would be just fine. The only issue I'd point out is lack of tooling - you'll probably need a new chuck as that one looks pretty beat, then all of the rest. So it depends on price - if it's a couple of hundred and there aren't many machine tools for sale in your area, go for it. If it's a couple of thousand and you trip over pristine 10EEs when you go out the door, keep looking 
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One feature I like about that lathe is the 'fore and aft' extensions of the carriage have T-slots. The T-slots would make mounting milling slides and vice much nicer than mounting on top of the cross slide.
I don't know your experience/skills/preferences, however that lathe is a substantial project. Not ready to run.
I don't know your experience/skills/preferences, however that lathe is a substantial project. Not ready to run.
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I paid $300 for my Seneca Falls Star and it's served me well. I would have a hard time looking at this for a primary lathe because of the "modifications" on the ways near the chuck.
If the OP has plenty of space and can get it for short money it might be a good buy and useful for things like toolpost grinding and cleaning up engine parts for rebuilds (that's what I used my Star for the first 10 years I owned it).
JMHO,
John
If the OP has plenty of space and can get it for short money it might be a good buy and useful for things like toolpost grinding and cleaning up engine parts for rebuilds (that's what I used my Star for the first 10 years I owned it).
JMHO,
John
My personal opinion (and outlook) is this. If you NEED a lathe, this isn't it. If you WANT a lathe... Well, maybe it is. What I see there is a very old and dated machine. It would be a project. I am kind of new to machine shop tools, but some of my favorite woodworking machines are stuff that I literally brought back from the dead. (And of course some I paid good money for good stuff as well....). But for me the process of bringing back an old war horse is just as enjoyable as running the machine. If you "like" a machine enough, sometimes old and slow is a bonus. It's just that much more play time. Of couse it's that much longer to drag a finished workpiece out of it too, so your opinion on that matter is kinda what matters here....
It looks like it could be a useful machine, (again, pending inspection), but it'll never be modern. It'll be very slow, it'll need the change gears sorted, hopefully the bracketry is there. eBay might choke up a used part here and there, maybe, if you can get a maker's name from it, but Ebaychina isn't making any new parts for it...... Not necessarily, but "probably", somebody gave up on it a long time ago judging by the overall capacity adjustment. Although that lathe lived through some hard times. Maybe the angle grinder incident was done carefully and with some forethought, in an effort to get by when there wasn't much to go around? It appears that the grinding happened on the tailstock ways, not the main carriage ways. That could (after inspection) become part of the lathes story, without affecting normal operation.
If the price is good, and I found the idea of a project entertaining at this point in time, I'd happily give scrap or maybe above. If the price exceeds that, the parts alone (particularly the lets) would probably fetch more loose than the whole assembly when it's bolted together. Check that where you are, because you're a lot closer to "machine rich" areas, maybe the legs aren't worth so much as they always are around here. So I'd judge the things I could judge, estimate the things I couldn't judge, and see if the seller and I could agree. All that said, I'm not saying, suggesting, or implying that I'd give a mortgage payment for it. Maybe closer to a well used car payment...
Or, if I had projects for a lathe to do that needed done..... Maybe those projects don't want to wait on that, and I'd move on..... Really, it depends on what you're looking for, because that lathe is a project. I suspect it's a doable project, but it will unfold on it's own time frame. Not yours.
.02
It looks like it could be a useful machine, (again, pending inspection), but it'll never be modern. It'll be very slow, it'll need the change gears sorted, hopefully the bracketry is there. eBay might choke up a used part here and there, maybe, if you can get a maker's name from it, but Ebaychina isn't making any new parts for it...... Not necessarily, but "probably", somebody gave up on it a long time ago judging by the overall capacity adjustment. Although that lathe lived through some hard times. Maybe the angle grinder incident was done carefully and with some forethought, in an effort to get by when there wasn't much to go around? It appears that the grinding happened on the tailstock ways, not the main carriage ways. That could (after inspection) become part of the lathes story, without affecting normal operation.
If the price is good, and I found the idea of a project entertaining at this point in time, I'd happily give scrap or maybe above. If the price exceeds that, the parts alone (particularly the lets) would probably fetch more loose than the whole assembly when it's bolted together. Check that where you are, because you're a lot closer to "machine rich" areas, maybe the legs aren't worth so much as they always are around here. So I'd judge the things I could judge, estimate the things I couldn't judge, and see if the seller and I could agree. All that said, I'm not saying, suggesting, or implying that I'd give a mortgage payment for it. Maybe closer to a well used car payment...
Or, if I had projects for a lathe to do that needed done..... Maybe those projects don't want to wait on that, and I'd move on..... Really, it depends on what you're looking for, because that lathe is a project. I suspect it's a doable project, but it will unfold on it's own time frame. Not yours.
.02
While it is unsightly, that "mod" only affects the tailstock ways.
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Which means that 'mod' is insignificant... because the tailstock will never be used that close to the headstock. It is just 'unsightly'...
-Bear
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It would bug me every time I looked at it.
Unless I needed to turn some large thing
John
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Ah, I missed the “chuck bites” on the ways by the headstock.
That would make me give it a “pass”. Damage like that can’t be repaired without some serious work. It may not effect how the lathe works, but I wouldn’t want to deal with it (ie: see it) every time I used the lathe.
That would make me give it a “pass”. Damage like that can’t be repaired without some serious work. It may not effect how the lathe works, but I wouldn’t want to deal with it (ie: see it) every time I used the lathe.
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The modification may be unsightly to some but has no effect on the functionality of the machine. As mentioned, it was probably done when the operator needed to turn a part slightly larger than the lathe was designed to handle. While this modification is a bit crude but can be dressed to look as though it was an integral part of the machine when it was built.
Over the years I've seen a number of smaller machines with the same modification. My Seneca Falls lathe has a similar although much smaller modification. Originally my machine was sold as a 9" even though in reality it had a throw of 10 1/4". Sometime in its professional life the modification was made to allow the chuck jaws to swing at 11". I say in its professional life because I know the history of the machine. It was run for nearly 40 years in a prototype shop by my wife's grandfather. When he retired, it was given to him as a retirement present. When he passed it went to my wife's father. When he passed, I became the custodian. It's been nearly 60 years since the modification was made, and in all that time it's never interfered with fabricating a single part.
If you're primarily interested in the cosmetics of a machine this may not be the one for you. If you're primarily interested in functionality, it's still worth looking at. As an FYI none of the machines in my shop are beauty queens. They all came from industrial and commercial shops and show some signs of the years of service they've put in. I look at them as battle scared veterans. Maybe not the beauty queens they once were, but still perfectly capable of turning out quality parts.
Here's a picture of the modification on my Seneca Falls machine.
Over the years I've seen a number of smaller machines with the same modification. My Seneca Falls lathe has a similar although much smaller modification. Originally my machine was sold as a 9" even though in reality it had a throw of 10 1/4". Sometime in its professional life the modification was made to allow the chuck jaws to swing at 11". I say in its professional life because I know the history of the machine. It was run for nearly 40 years in a prototype shop by my wife's grandfather. When he retired, it was given to him as a retirement present. When he passed it went to my wife's father. When he passed, I became the custodian. It's been nearly 60 years since the modification was made, and in all that time it's never interfered with fabricating a single part.
If you're primarily interested in the cosmetics of a machine this may not be the one for you. If you're primarily interested in functionality, it's still worth looking at. As an FYI none of the machines in my shop are beauty queens. They all came from industrial and commercial shops and show some signs of the years of service they've put in. I look at them as battle scared veterans. Maybe not the beauty queens they once were, but still perfectly capable of turning out quality parts.
Here's a picture of the modification on my Seneca Falls machine.
