New Lathe Thursday and Mov'in in Monday

[valleyboy101]

I posted some pictures of the lathe last Thursday under the title "New Lathe Thursday" - it is a Cromwell S800 Mk. 3
The new lathe which arrived last Thursday is now in the basement. As usual I moved the lathe and the base/cabinet in separately. The cabinet went first, and with great care, as with a cast iron chip tray and base it is very heavy. I spent much longer rigging it than I did moving it - pretty much the norm. as if I feel confident in the rigging, the lowering into the basement stairwell is almost no sweat. Almost!
When I built the house I put a stairwell from the garage into the basement, so today it paid for itself once again. My wife is the tractor operator because she is good at it and she prefers to keep her distance from heavy iron hanging on a chain.
Below are some pictures of the lowering and moving.
Michael

 

[Brain Coral]

Hello Michael,

Congrats on your "new" lathe... :drinkingbeer:

I just finished reading up on your lathe at Tony Lathes UK and I am very impressed... You've got yourself one fine machine. How is the condition of the ways, etc., as far as you know ? You'll have to post more pics when you get it back together.

Best regards...

Brian

 

[toag]

Nice work! looks like a good "new" lathe. Nice tractor too and your wife seems to be a good sport for hbelping albeit from a distance. when I got my trailer stuck swmbo came out once to ask when it will be out of the way so she could get to work.

 

[valleyboy101]

Hi Brian,
The ways have a few minor dings at the headstock end but appear to have very little wear. It was a NRC lathe so I don't think it was ever used for production. There are several things about it that I don't understand - like grease style fittings in places which would normally be oiled. So that will take some investigation.
Thanks for the reply,Michael

 

[SEK_22Hornet]

Wow! nice looking lathe! Congrats! The pressure fittings may be for a special oiler rather than a grease gun - I have run across this on my Harrison L6. I had to dig a bit in the HarrisonLathe Yahoo group, but there have been some links to this type of oiler poster on it in the past. From the name Cromwell, I'm guessing that your lather is also UK built, like my Harrison (I didn't take time to look it up right now). Some talk about converting a standard grease gun using better seals, and this is one type mentioned on that group. http://www.mcmaster.com/#1811k1/=prgqe3

 

[valleyboy101]

Thanks Dan,
No doubt you're right. It even has these "grease" fittings on the top of the headstock above the gears, where you would add only oil. I'm going to order a copy of the owners manual which will hopefully shed some light on the matter.
Below is a link to the Cromwell in the UK lathe site.
Michael


http://www.lathes.co.uk/cromwell/

 

[core-oil]

Michael,

you have one very awesome &precise British lathe, I have in the past came across two Cromwell lathes in my part of the world, one was in a university workshop, the other lathe owned by a private owner Does your lathe have down in its cabinet a variable speed drive to the headstock, which is a little motor generator, & controls the headstock drive motor with a direct current system using the British Ward Leonard drive system, which is extremely smooth, controllable, a stepless speed range?

 

[valleyboy101]

Hi core-oil,
Thanks. Yes it does have the original cabinet including the original motor - generator, and DC drive motor. On the UK lathe site it lists its speed range as from 3 to 2000 rpm between back gear and normal drive. Yes, it should be extremely smooth running but as the original motor driving the gen. was 3 ph 550V and I don't have anything better than single phase 220 V available. I do however have a 3400 rpm/220 V Brooks motor which I intend to use to drive the generator.
Today I gave the inside and out of the cabinet a scrub down with Scotchbrite and mineral spirits. This evening I got some sanding done, as I intend to repaint it.
Besides the clipboard and light the only parts missing are most of the change gears and the dial at the outboard end of the lead screw. The dial was graduated 1 to 240 so I will be able to replicate it although etching the numbers will be a problem
Below is a picture of the cleaned and partially sanded cabinet.
Michael
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