new hobby lathe pencil sharpener

[Frank S]

well my guy is on his way to pick up my new hobby lathe at least that is what I told him it was. he knows he is going to pick up nearly a full step deck trailer load of machines for me but I wish I could be there to see the look on his face when he sees this little lathe


My wife asked me what I was going to use it for and I said I don't know maybe sharpen pencils with it.
It is factory raised to be able to turn the full 36" over the carriage
total length is between 21 to 23 feet. So I'm guessing maybe 10 or 12 between centers

[Radioman]

Your going to need an inverter the size of your house to power that bad boy! I’m super jealous!
All the best to you. Now all you need is a mill of similar size to compliment it.

[metric_taper]

My wife will not let me build another shop, the intent to prevent any more hoarding. You are lucky you have the space for this beast.
How big is the head stock through hole? My puny lathe has a 80mm through hole, but a shrimp in all other comparisons to 36" throw.
I do understand, you've probably ran up against limitations of your current machines, this should fix that....... temporarily.

[Frank S]

Your going to need an inverter the size of your house to power that bad boy! I’m super jealous!
All the best to you. Now all you need is a mill of similar size to compliment it.

When I saw it and told the guy I'd like to have it. It was nearly buried under tons of boxes. He asked what I could possibly want with a lathe that size.
Just so I can say I got one if nothing else. I use to have a 1917 Johnson 20" lathe 12 ft bed that had half or the gears broken but it would run at 1 slow speed which was perfect for threading the ends of 8" hydraulic cylinders A guy cam in one day and asked if I could turn the Of of a 16" sch 160 pipe and thread it He had been to several big machine shops and none of them had anything large enough.
So the way I figure it if nothing else I will have large chunk of iron for thermal mass in the shop.

[owen moore]

Thing is, it will take a week to reach room temp. Then you have to keep it heated and busy! What have you got there? Leblond, Monarch, Lodge & Shipley,G&L? I would think it would be around 15 to 20 hp. Looks good sir!

[Frank S]

My wife will not let me build another shop, the intent to prevent any more hoarding. You are lucky you have the space for this beast.
How big is the head stock through hole? My puny lathe has a 80mm through hole, but a shrimp in all other comparisons to 36" throw.
I do understand, you've probably ran up against limitations of your current machines, this should fix that....... temporarily.

My wife thinks that I should wait until I have my shop built before getting these things. But what if I had an opportunity to get one of these and my shop was already built

Or one of these

Or possibly this for cracking black walnuts

[Frank S]

Thing is, it will take a week to reach room temp. Then you have to keep it heated and busy! What have you got there? Leblond, Monarch, Lodge & Shipley,G&L? I would think it would be around 15 to 20 hp. Looks good sir!

When I looked at it I couldn't get close enough to see what it was or the HP but I'm thinking it should be upwards of 30 hp
I have a 26" leblond with a 7.5 hp way under powered. my 17" Leblond is under powered as well it only has a 3 hp on it. I use to have a little victor 16x40 tool room lathe with 7.5 Hp on it now that was the perfect size motor for that lathe
I also have a 1917 16inch Leblond with a 1 hp but the gears in it will only take about 1.5 to possibly 2 hp
I have 3 8hp motors that I could build a rotary converter out of by paralleling them, with enough run capacitors I would be able to achieve a near perfect leg to leg balance at near full RPM then I would be able to run a 20 HP with no problem also a little hack that few know about is if you add capacitors to the machine's motor to help balance out the phases then switch it on and allow it to be an idler say you have a 3x8 converter running a 20 hp as an idler only you can power up an 40 hp machine down stream as long as your cableing and switch gear matches the largest of these motors. It works the same way as using 2 car batteries to start a larger vehicle as long as everything is in parallel
But what I will probably do is have the electric company set a 2nd transformer and have 3 ph I already have a quad 00 service run but am only using 2 of the legs and the neutral.

[suther51]

Could go the amish rout and gang 2, v4 Wisconsin gas motors together with a massive flywheel to smooth things out. (In an effort of full disclosure I have a bit of an obsession with Wisconsin v4 motors ;-) )
Eric

[suther51]

That IS a lathe to put a smile on one's face.
The duly lift truck in the picture looks very much like the big lift my boss has at his shop. Put 8 gallons of hydraulic oil in it and still nothing on the dipstick. Told em to order another drum. Leaks just sitting. All said likely the most reliable lift truck he has after we converted it to lp. 12.5 k capasity but have picked around 14 at a guess, could only go straight, not enough weight on the steer wheels to turn. Not good when details don't matter and the office dwellers take on jobs the business is not equipped for, like 36" sch 80 concrete lined water main shipped at 40' lengths including casing and insulation.
Eric

[metric_taper]

Frank, from looking at the photo, it appears (at least to me) that the head stock and tail stock have a spacer added to raise them up. It may be some optical trickery I'm seeing. If this is the case, I wonder if this was a factory modification.