Monarch 10EE Tool Room Lathe - $10500 (South Lake Tahoe, CA)

[Dabbler]

-- my new lathe is a LeBlond Regal Servo 15". Love it.

 

[Winegrower]

I have to find one of these EE lathes and try it. If it’s smoother than the Takisawa, that’s one fine machine.
The feel of the Tak is what sold me.

 

[bakrch]

Agreed. The two best lathes in our shop are a 1954 Monarch Series 60 and 1959 15" Leblond Regal. Our larger manual lathes (16,18,22,42) are newer Taiwan and Bulgarian made Summit machines that just feel awful in comparison. Things are breaking on the new lathes, but the old ones just keep going.

My favorite is the Leblond, but the Monarch is close.

To be fair, the Bulgarian 16" Summit is really nice as well. Still not in the same universe as the older machines.

 

[Karl_T]

I have the exact same issue, a monarch 10EE and a Leblond 15" servo shift. (plus an antique 16x120 leblond, a Mazak M4 cnc, and a hardinge CHNC)

I prefer the 10EE for small work and go to the Leblond for larger stuff. Any other lathe is just painful to run after this. Now it took nearly a lifetime to get the lathes I wanted, just got the servo shift last year after longing for one over 20 years.

 

[Winegrower]

What is the function of Servo Shift?

 

[Dabbler]

The gear change lever isn't connected directly to the gear train, but to contacts. When you stop the lathe with the brake, a servo motor moves the yokes to the appropriate position as indicated by the gear lever. Sounds complicated, but it makes things operate very nicely!