New Lathe Thursday

[valleyboy101]

Hi All,
I've got it all set up. Meeting the boom truck in freezing rain at the site at 10:00 tomorrow. The new (to me) lathe is a Cromwell 3 1/2" (7") precision lathe. It comes from the Canadian, National Research Counsel and is younger than I am - just not sure hot much. It is a high precision lathe manufactured in England - I only pray that after all these years it is still high precision. Picture to follow tomorrow.
Michael

 

[Hawkeye]

Congratulations, Michael. I just got my new 70 year old lathe into the shop today. Feels pretty good. Better when it's running.

 

[itsme_Bernie]

Congrats Michael! I look forward to seeing it and hearing more about it!

What kind of 7 inch lathe needs a boom truck? Hah hah


Bernie

 

[itsme_Bernie]

Holy crow... Now I see! I just looked it up on Tony Griffith's site... Wow, that is some beautiful, substantial piece of machinery!



Bernie

 

[valleyboy101]

Well its here.
Re: the question of what kind of 7" lathe needs a boom truck - a heavy one! The weight of the machine is somewhat in question, but the forklift operator figured 2,500 lb. The chip tray and bottom of the base are both thick cat iron and as well it has a huge 3 phase motor as well as a dc generator and a dc motor.
I bought it from govt. surplus and they won't load anything. So it was either hire a rigger at $200 + per hour with a 4 hr. min. or a boom truck at $115. per with a 3 hour min. 3 hours was about what I needed with the 50 mile drive so I went for the boom truck for $345 and had it delivered to my door.
The freezing rain didn't happen so no problem there. The only problem was that the truck arrived before I did and they loaded a +- 14" LeBlond.
Here are some picture of the lathe - I took off the tailstock for the pics and also a picture of the fairly impressive collection of accessories.
What I didn't get is some of the change gears, so they will be a project or purchase in the future. However the first priority is to move it into the basement shop and change the the 3 phase motor to a single phase.
Thanks all,
Michael
edit sorry about the 2 pics at the bottom, but I can't delete them.

 

[valleyboy101]

Thanks Bernie,
When I saw the add for it I went to the same lathes/uk sight and after some study I decided that this is one that I gotta have. I already have a Colchester 13 " Student so this will compliment it nicely. But the chucks and tailstock etc seem so small (and hopefully precise).
Michael

 

[f350ca]

Congratulations Michael. Saw your lathe listed and was tempted but decided to pass on it, good thing might have been a bidding war.
We need pictures of it going into the basement shop.

 

[valleyboy101]

Bidding war. I wish we could know. Who knows what the next lowest bid was - maybe $500 - I paid $1609 + tx. But I'm really happy so far - the ways are good and it's not exactly tool gloat but I'm happy. What kind of shaper do you have? That is the only thing left that I really want to find - I sold my beautiful 12" Hendey 10 years ago when I moved.
Thanks,
Michael

 

[itsme_Bernie]

I really look forward to hearing and learning more about this machine Michael. How interesting, and seriously beautiful. You look pretty hooked up for tools.

I haven't read Tony's site for this lathe yet, just looked at pics- but I am going to find out what the DC motor/generator are for... Congrats man!


Bernie

 

[valleyboy101]

Thanks Bernie,
The motor generator set and the dc motor which it supplies are an old fashioned way of providing continuous variable speed. There is a sliding rheostat on the front left pedestal which controls the speed. First I have to set up to run the generator with single phase. I have a 2+ HP motor ready to go to run the gen. A good Christmas holiday project.
Michael