Screw-on chuck mounting to bayonet.

[Toolmaker51]

I think that it was European.......<snipped>
It would have been a great lathe except for the wear, it was heavy and very rigid.

Click thumbnails for full size

Get an eyeful of those ways, NO scrimping there!

Later years then US heavy iron, Italy, Spain, Britain, areas around Poland, Czechoslovakia, likely Russia too, had no hesitation building heavy patterned machine castings. I'm sure the iron was of good specification like Meehanite, chilled, seasoned, induction hardened as measures of competition.
At same time German and Swiss offerings had thinner sections but far more webbing. I'm thinking those were chasing foreign markets [shipping], the heavy stuff more domestic.
Despite gargantuan appearance, those of Italian and central European makers operated in a very civil but positive manner. Had examined British, French and Spanish too, apparently not so many sold, never had one in front of me on a shop floor, save one HES lathe. That had wonderful collection of features, for certain.

[tonyfoale]

Get an eyeful of those ways, NO scrimping there!

Later years then US heavy iron, Italy, Spain, Britain, areas around Poland, Czechoslovakia, likely Russia too, had no hesitation building heavy patterned machine castings. I'm sure the iron was of good specification like Meehanite, chilled, seasoned, induction hardened as measures of competition...

My old Spanish lathe did not have hardened ways hence the wear problem. There are times when I wish that I still had that machine for heavy work despite the wear. Did you notice the interesting feature of the ways? The tailstock had the normal - one flat/one pyramid - arrangement but the saddle had two pyramids.

I kept a lot of things when I scrapped that lathe and many have been put to good use. Several featured in my past posts.
The motor and gearbox were kept, of course. The motor was used to power my shock dyno; Shock dyno (or Shock absorber dynamometer)

The face plate and chuck back plate are used in this chuck mounting post.

Mounted on a square steel plate the chuck is used on the mill as a vice for round things.

I kept the cross slide and compound rest which was used in my brake drum grinder; Grinding machine for drum brakes.

The cylinder from the tailstock was the basis of my cylindrical square; Cylindrical square from a lathe tailstock.

The lead screw was used to make the boring bar for a line boring setup that I used to make front forks.

Reusing madness.

[Saltfever]

(edit. . . much deleted) I kept the cross slide and compound rest which was used in my brake drum grinder; Grinding machine for drum brakes.
The cylinder from the tailstock was the basis of my cylindrical square; Cylindrical square from a lathe tailstock.
The lead screw was used to make the boring bar for a line boring setup that I used to make front forks.

Some great links but an important one is missing! I'm very interested in seeing your line boring setup. A write up can be tedious and time consuming, so I am not making that request, but maybe a couple of pics for the curious!

I have been thinking about the drive mechanism for such a machine but have made no progress. Visions of an Arduino/stepper/Mach III machine have languished as being too complicated for such a simple machine and flown off into the ether! I am now considering a Power Table feed accessory as a possible way to drive a lead screw. I would be interested in your thoughts.

[tonyfoale]

Some great links but an important one is missing! I'm very interested in seeing your line boring setup. A write up can be tedious and time consuming, so I am not making that request, but maybe a couple of pics for the curious!

OK, but just for the curious.

Click for full size.

The end result was making some 1960/70s replica front forks.

I have been thinking about the drive mechanism for such a machine but have made no progress. Visions of an Arduino/stepper/Mach III machine have languished as being too complicated for such a simple machine and flown off into the ether! I am now considering a Power Table feed accessory as a possible way to drive a lead screw. I would be interested in your thoughts.

It depends on what you want to do with it. If you want uncoordinated axis moves then the unit that you mention would be fine. If you want to coordinate the moves on different axis then steppers would be the easiest solution.

[tonyfoale]

I found another pic which shows what it was that I line bored.
It was the tube in the middle of this photo.

Click for full size.

[olderdan]

Tony,
Beautiful work on those fork sliders, stronger than the originals no doubt and some special internals maybe? I understand the line boring fixture having done similar in the past on roadholders and good use of an old leadscrew. I would be very interested in your machining sequence to the bottom spindle mountings.
Regards
Alan

[tonyfoale]

Tony,
I would be very interested in your machining sequence to the bottom spindle mountings.
Regards
Alan

Ha, I cheated. I bought some Honda forks from a wreakers because I wanted the so called cartridge inners. A bit of measuring showed that a bit of cutting and turning could transform the sliders into Ceriani look alike bottoms.
I'll try to find the time to make this a full post but this should give you the idea.

[Saltfever]

OK, but just for the curious. (edit . . . ) If you want uncoordinated axis moves then the unit that you mention would be fine. If you want to coordinate the moves on different axis then steppers would be the easiest solution.

Thanks for getting back to me, Tony. I just need just single axis travel for doing main bearing caps in a block. I will be replacing OEM cast iron caps with (yet to be designed) DIY 4140 caps. I would like to use carbide inserts but bar deflection, and high rpm may change those thoughts. Only collecting good ideas at this point . . . haven't had time to do anything else.