- Joined
- Mar 15, 2019
- Messages
- 708
Don't start hating me yet. Let me explain.
I had to travel to Wisconsin to visit a work location this past week. 4 hour drive up, 6 hours of work and 4 hour drive home. It just so happens my favorite metal supplier is in the same town so I hit it on the way before I head in to work. It is a cool place, kind of a cross between a junk yard, a metal shop, a manufacturer and the Bate's Motel. I go there every time I have to go to that location and pick up what I need from their racks of metal and then while they are cutting, looking in the scrap bins for anything I might be able to use. I think they mostly deal with manufacturing customers but they put up with me and sell me scrap at .25 a pound. I find a lot of "hobby sized" chunks of metal in them. I mean, I am at my best with pieces less than 6 inches long, it isn't the size that is important it is what you do with it.
Anyway, sitting outside the door of the sales area is some junk, it has all been there since this past summer. Some of it likely longer than that judging from the rust and detritus collected in them. But sitting there was an old lathe. Rusty cast iron. Neglected, and abused and home to all sorts of varmints. So after I placed my order and picked through the scrap bin and went to pay, I asked what the story was on the old lathe.
The old guy kind of laughed and said, "It has been sitting there for a year and a half at least. You are the first person to ask about it so if you want it you can have it, it will save me the work of having to scrap it." I asked him if he was serious and he said yes. So, I paid for my metal and started planning how I was going to load this thing into my car, alone, when it is 8 degrees outside and I have no tools with me and I am expected to work soon.
So I walked outside and picked it up along with my metal and carried it to the car. You see it is a small lathe, very small. It is only a metal lathe in the sense that it is all metal. It has taken me some time to even track down what it actually is. The only markings on it are 214-100 on the head stock and 214-200 on the tail stock.
What I have is an American Machine Tools 6" x 3' wood lathe. The bed is a 1.25" square tube of a rather thin gauge. It might weigh 10 pounds, but heck it was free. It looks like this.
Except mine is rust red over 90% of the surface. And mine had a faceplate of roughly 3 inches which was hanging on the tail stock. The tailstock quill has no center in it and is currently rusted tight to the tailstock body. I have soaked it in PB Blaster and it hasn't moved at all. I will likely have to drill it out and remake it. The handle on the tailstock is quite light weight. Foil thin really so I will have to make a replacement for that as well. The cast parts are in good shape except for the rust as is the spindle. But the bed? It is a basket case. Rusty inside and out. So, I soaked the parts in Metal Rescue. It cleared much of the rust off the cast parts and revealed a good amount of paint. Robin egg blue not that it matters.
I decided a full restoration is in order, maybe I can make some pens or something. If the rusty bed comes clean it will save me money. Seems that size is pretty pricey. But I guess I could make pens with less than 3 feet of bed.
I had to travel to Wisconsin to visit a work location this past week. 4 hour drive up, 6 hours of work and 4 hour drive home. It just so happens my favorite metal supplier is in the same town so I hit it on the way before I head in to work. It is a cool place, kind of a cross between a junk yard, a metal shop, a manufacturer and the Bate's Motel. I go there every time I have to go to that location and pick up what I need from their racks of metal and then while they are cutting, looking in the scrap bins for anything I might be able to use. I think they mostly deal with manufacturing customers but they put up with me and sell me scrap at .25 a pound. I find a lot of "hobby sized" chunks of metal in them. I mean, I am at my best with pieces less than 6 inches long, it isn't the size that is important it is what you do with it.
Anyway, sitting outside the door of the sales area is some junk, it has all been there since this past summer. Some of it likely longer than that judging from the rust and detritus collected in them. But sitting there was an old lathe. Rusty cast iron. Neglected, and abused and home to all sorts of varmints. So after I placed my order and picked through the scrap bin and went to pay, I asked what the story was on the old lathe.
The old guy kind of laughed and said, "It has been sitting there for a year and a half at least. You are the first person to ask about it so if you want it you can have it, it will save me the work of having to scrap it." I asked him if he was serious and he said yes. So, I paid for my metal and started planning how I was going to load this thing into my car, alone, when it is 8 degrees outside and I have no tools with me and I am expected to work soon.
So I walked outside and picked it up along with my metal and carried it to the car. You see it is a small lathe, very small. It is only a metal lathe in the sense that it is all metal. It has taken me some time to even track down what it actually is. The only markings on it are 214-100 on the head stock and 214-200 on the tail stock.
What I have is an American Machine Tools 6" x 3' wood lathe. The bed is a 1.25" square tube of a rather thin gauge. It might weigh 10 pounds, but heck it was free. It looks like this.
Except mine is rust red over 90% of the surface. And mine had a faceplate of roughly 3 inches which was hanging on the tail stock. The tailstock quill has no center in it and is currently rusted tight to the tailstock body. I have soaked it in PB Blaster and it hasn't moved at all. I will likely have to drill it out and remake it. The handle on the tailstock is quite light weight. Foil thin really so I will have to make a replacement for that as well. The cast parts are in good shape except for the rust as is the spindle. But the bed? It is a basket case. Rusty inside and out. So, I soaked the parts in Metal Rescue. It cleared much of the rust off the cast parts and revealed a good amount of paint. Robin egg blue not that it matters.
I decided a full restoration is in order, maybe I can make some pens or something. If the rusty bed comes clean it will save me money. Seems that size is pretty pricey. But I guess I could make pens with less than 3 feet of bed.
