Picked up my *new* engine lathe, today

B

Buyckskin2

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A little over a week ago, I spotted an import lathe in the back of a warehouse covered with dust, dirt/filth. It is missing the compound dial and handle, the E-Stop flange mount is cracked. The main power On/Off knob is also missing. However, a 3 jaw chuck is mounted on the spindle, it has a 4-jaw, a driver plate, two face plates, a steady rest and a follow rest. It also has a live center and a couple dead centers and an additional set of inside jaws for the 3 jaw chuck. There is a little toolbox that includes several threading gears (metric, i suppose) and a couple of wrenches. The manual says Jesco Machinery Ltd. "Prince" model 1340. The swing is 13" and between centers 40". The dates are 1998 on all doc's and it is a freight damaged machine that was never put into use, or wired. I finally swung a deal with the owner of the place at the end of last week and was able to pick it up, today. I have a couple of days worth of clean up to do (as time permits,) then locate it to it's final address inside my little shop, level it, hook up the Phase-A-Matic, 3ph converter that's been lying around my place for a few yrs and never tested before. Hopefully, that little converter is operable and if so, I will be able to make chips very soon. I am pretty excited about it.

I will try and post pictures later.

Buck
 
We had a 13" Prince made by Sharp at work. Its low speed is about 105 RPM,IIRC. Wish it was lower. You could use a VFD (correct initials?) to slow it down. Ours slung oil out of the spindle just behind the chuck,and had a labyrinth that could not be altered. I meant to turn a snug fitting ring that could be pressed over the end of the spindle housing,L shaped in cross section. I was going to drill a hole in the bottom of this ring so the oil could at least be caught and would just drip down instead of slinging oil on the operator. MSC sells the Prince model,but I have no idea how many Taiwan or Chinese makers make SIMILAR models(with parts that might not interchange,a common problem).

Our tailstock could not be clamped down tightly enough to avoid slipping back under pressure. It broke a part,but we made a new part,and I think we welded something also in the tailstock. Hope you have better luck,and keep in mind curing the oil slinging problem if yours does the same. We never could get Sharp to correctly identify their own product. They sent pictures of an entirely different lathe,so we had to make new parts ourselves.

I don't mean to say it is a bad model,just mentioning a few things you might look out for. If I had to use that model,I'd certainly get it rigged up to do a lower lowest speed. Most lathes made these days do not have low enough low speeds,and when you try facing off the face plate,or similar size work,it is a big problem wearing the cutters right out,or the work ringing like a bell,leaving bad surfaces. I've got my Grizzly 16" rigged to do 30 RPM instead of the 60 it was set up to do. I made an intermediate pulley to halve the speed. I wish it would do 10 RPM,since it will swing 25" in the gap. 60 is just WAY too fast. My 16" is 1 phase,so I can't do it simply with a VFD.

If your lathe IS 3 phase,don't change the motor. 3 phase is a much smoother running lathe,and I'd just get the variable unit for it. My Hardinge HLVH has a low speed of 135 RPM. I need to get it slowed down,but have the larger lathe for big jobs. I like the 3000 RPM top speed for turning very small parts and ivory.
 
Buyckskin2 said:
A little over a week ago, I spotted an import lathe in the back of a warehouse covered with dust, dirt/filth. It is missing the compound dial and handle, the E-Stop flange mount is cracked. The main power On/Off knob is also missing. However, a 3 jaw chuck is mounted on the spindle, it has a 4-jaw, a driver plate, two face plates, a steady rest and a follow rest. It also has a live center and a couple dead centers and an additional set of inside jaws for the 3 jaw chuck. There is a little toolbox that includes several threading gears (metric, i suppose) and a couple of wrenches. The manual says Jesco Machinery Ltd. "Prince" model 1340. The swing is 13" and between centers 40". The dates are 1998 on all doc's and it is a freight damaged machine that was never put into use, or wired. I finally swung a deal with the owner of the place at the end of last week and was able to pick it up, today. I have a couple of days worth of clean up to do (as time permits,) then locate it to it's final address inside my little shop, level it, hook up the Phase-A-Matic, 3ph converter that's been lying around my place for a few yrs and never tested before. Hopefully, that little converter is operable and if so, I will be able to make chips very soon. I am pretty excited about it.

I will try and post pictures later.

Buck
Click to expand...
Its always nice to hear someone takes the time to heal an old machine to bring it back to life, so it can complete its purpose, make parts.
 
Congrats on the lathe Buck! Pictures or it didn't happen! :)
 
Syaminab said:
Its always nice to hear someone takes the time to heal an old machine to bring it back to life, so it can complete its purpose, make parts.
Click to expand...

Thank you all and I hope to post pictures in the next day, or two. I just realized today, that my friend has had the very same machine in his racing shop for about 14 years and he says his machine has performed flawlessly all the while. His machine was sold by Jet.

Have a good rest of your week.

Buck
 
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