Who has machine tools?!?

[No Have MSG]

Some cute little toys you guys have there.

Excuse the mess, just took over running this part of the company. The guys before were slobs.

[Axel]

Ooh, whatcha stamping?

[No Have MSG]

I build leaf springs, the punches are for the holes and cupping. I have some big old lathes converted over to make coil springs, we just don't do them anymore since it is too much of a pain. Have some other machine tools too, a lot of it from the 30's through the 50's, a lot of it converted to newer electronics. My straightener shows it was rebuilt by Boeing in 1954.

[KMDPB]

Got a Nichols horizontal mill, toolroom model with vertical attachment so I can be like DocsMachine !

[DocsMachine]

Noice! Looks like it's in running condition, too, though the loose wires at the top of the column worry me a bit. Already has a VFD installed, which is a big help.

The big score is the vertical head, including the drawtube and presumably the collet adapter. Hopefully you got some collets with it? The old 4NS collets can be somewhat hard to find...

I have a head, though I haven't had a chance to finish rebuilding it, and I didn't get any of the collet parts. If I ever get that up and running, I'll probably use an ER holder, or, I have a rare set of Canadian-made collets that fit directly into the NMTB-40 taper.

Did you also get the overarm parts?

Doc.

[KMDPB]

Those wires are before i wired the the freak drive. Came with a full set of collets. It came with all the over arm parts except for the support, but luckily that'll be the easiest part to remake. It's funny, when researching the machine the interwebs led me to your write up, which I wasnt aware of before hand.

[DocsMachine]

The one on my website isn't complete. I sent the table off to be ground back to straight-and-true a few years back, and posted about the re-rebuild over on the Tinker's Guild. Lots of good information in there, too.

I've also got digital copies of the manual around here, somewhere, too.

Doc.

[XEMON]

Finally bted and trammed the mill today 🥳

Making chip for the first time, now I need to figure out what to do with it 😅
Thanks Jonnydread for the body 👍

[Conined]

Hey, I have some machine tools!
First up is a 1946 Diamond Tool. Co B-12 horizontal mill https://youtu.be/xSyjgafgsoE

Next is an Atlas HB7 shaper.

https://youtu.be/HboO5P8b2K4

Lastly is my Artisan Mfg Co lathe. This is a very unusual machine as described in the video below.

https://youtu.be/2cTZgEAQO6M

[mikew]

Love these older machine tools!

[Levi]

That little shaper is super cool!

[ZaDeer]

Update: VFD installed, head rewired for 230v, cleaned up the majority of negligence from the past 3 years and she seems to be happy! Still have to tram everything up but 7 thou out off of an eyeball ain't bad!

[Magageddon]

I've got an old benchmaster manual mill that I got off facebook marketplace for 875, I just took it all apart for moving and found out the motor and milling chuck is adjustable, so I could mill at an angle without having to have an angled vise, pump mag rails here I come

[DocsMachine]

Woohoo! More toys for the toyboxes!

Doc.

[XEMON]

No new machine, but I've been putting the new mill to the test and I'm blown away 🤯

I think my next project is to make a set of machinist jack 😅
(And maybe a set of longer C-clamp 🤣)



And followed it with my first power tapping that didn't end up in a broken tap or stripped threads 😅

[BrickHaus]

Im posting in hopes Velcor smiles upon me. This cheapy 7x14" lathe popped up locally for 300 bucks. Im set up to go buy it after work, but someone could always snipe me today so until its in my truck I need the good vibe.

[DocsMachine]

Somebody left the key in the chuck. That's a no-no.

Doc.

[XEMON]

thats something someone usually does only once 😋

[netsurferdude2]

$300 is a great price for one of those! That looks like a lot of fun

[BrickHaus]

Picked her up. Seems like itll do the job. The old man that sold it was super nice. He's an old hobbiest. He tossed the micrometers in for free as he was happy to see his lathe go to a good home.

She needs a good cleaning and oiling. He said he had the jaws out of the chuck and isnt sure he got the scrolls back together perfect, but he said its more on center than it was.

I need to establish an area in my room of doom before I can set her up proper and make a cut, but I had to seize the opportunity for a cheap lathe with tooling when I could.

[Levi]

Congrats! Lots of capability there for 300 bucks. Nice score!

[cfos00]

I used one of these (Chinese clone) for a long time! They work great. I would recommend a wedge toolpost changer if you can get one, but they don't need major changes to do great.

[spydrmn]

I feel like I'm late to the party. Here's my slice of heaven. Southbend 9A. Grizzley bench top G463. Tawainese drill press.

[XEMON]

Hey!
That's nearly the same size everything as I have in my "shop" but in a more spacious space!

Does your flat belt pop out every time you push it a bit too?

[DocsMachine]

I think I mentioned it earlier in the thread, but it's worth reiterating: A manual lathe like that lives in oil. You cannot "over oil" it, unless, as I've said, your socks start to get squishy.

When you go to use it- even for a quick job- wipe down the working ways and re-oil them. Oil anything that spins, slides or pivots. Ypu''l find plastic gears and a belt drive under the left-hand cover, those you don't have to oil.

But the carriage ways, the cross-slide ways, the compound ways, the screw pivots (most of which are almost certainly not actual bearings- they're steel-on-iron, and thus must be copiously lubed.)

For something like that, a bottle of cheap motor oil is perfect, and a few bucks on eBay or Amazon should get you a good Eagle brand trigger oiler. Slightly better still, maybe grab a bottle of 90W gear lube- it's a little thicker and thus will stay in place a little longer.

In case you didn't know, that's an 0XA tool post- one of the best upgrades you can get for that machine. You've got a standard 5-piece set that it came with, but that's really only three usable toolholders- the other is a boring bar holder and the last a parting blade holder. A few bucks on eBay can get you another 3-pack or even 5-pack of standard toolholders.

AND... absolutely do not bother with anything carbide, yet. The machine simply doesn't have the rigidity, and "sharp honed" inserts are expensive and fragile. You would be far better served by a few dollars worth of 5/16" or 3/8" HSS. Grind them to shape with a bench grinder, and hone them with a whetstone or oilstone. That machine will work very well- for what it is- with sharp HSS on aluminum.

The drill chuck will be handy too, but looks like it'll need an arbor- chances are it's JT2 (Jacobs Taper2) to MT2 (Morse Taper 2) but you'll want to confirm the Jacobs before you buy.

Apologies if you know all this already, but I thought it worth noting.

Doc.

[BrickHaus]

Ah doc. Ill always take any knowledge you guys want to drop. I can likely learn or re learn something every day.

I did service machine tools for 6 years i quit due to travel requirements and pay. In that time I did learn quite a bit about maintenance. Im hoping I know enough to make this a nice little hobby machine.

The tool post is a huge plus. He did add boring bars so the bar holder may also be usable.

He thought he had a milling table for it too, but we never found it.

[evilfishsticks]

I picked up essentially the same lathe as BrickHaus minus the tooling just before winter. It was brand new in the box still for 200 bucks, got it off some guy whose employee asked him to get it to make boat parts and then quit like 20 years ago, so it sat unused. It's still covered in the shipping grease and I thought I'd have time to give it a good cleaning and greasing and oiling over the winter... that never happened. I also have my dad's old drill press sitting in my step mom's garage just waiting to come to my house. I'm just about wrapped up on my home renovation projects so hopefully I'll get around to using these soon.

[BrickHaus]

Im gonna say the fact that your chuck adapter has counter sunk holes for mounting screws vs mine having studs and nuts on the back side of the chuck tells me our lathes are similar, but yours is built slightly better.

Awesome to see, i got my grandpqs old drill press too. It needs some work though I managed to stiffen it up enough to use it so far.