should i be upset to see this lathe destroyed?

Kind of, yes. I've read that guy's page a couple of times, and that sort of thing has annoyed me each time.

I thought it utterly absurd, that this fellow who was casting and building his lathe from scratch, would destroy a commercial lathe simply because it needed some repairs.

The horizontal mill? Admittedly an older unit, and likely well-worn, but I was astounded that he junked the entire thing simply because part of the table mechanism broke. Building an entire lathe is apparently no big deal to this fellow, but fixing one is apparently beyond him.

Don't let it bug you too much, there's any number of usable machine tools that have gone to the Great Scrapyard for even more inane reasons. Doesn't mean ya gotta like it, but there's not much you could have done about it.

Doc.
 
he shoulda sold it... someone else coulda done the fixin and had a good machine...

why not use cast iron from an old engine block or those cheep shit chicom vises... ( which break all the time )... not like theres a shortage of crappy cast iron ...


G
 
Yea. I don't like seeing a good old tool wasted for scrap.
 
I think it's insecurity issues :D maybe his fire's out if ya know what I mean

Anyone who would do that to a reasonably salvagable metal lathe doesn't deserve good tools. If you need old castiron there certainly are enough engine blocks out there that nobody's gonna miss, every day someone puts a piston rod through a block or some such tragic ending.
Real tool users do not wantonly destroy tools, even to show off. This guy should check in his opposable thumbs at the door

Just my opinion, I've got a totally worn out miniature Burke horizontal mill from the 1940s that could probably net me decent money from the scrapyard, but I can't bear to waste it so at some point it will end up with new surfaces on the very badly dished dovetails (which are part of the body casting so that's a challenging problem to solve)

-Page
 
I thought maybe I was the only one bothered by this guy. In one of his stories he told of buying an old vertical bandsaw off of ebay, and reveling in his triumph over the other bidders. He had trouble with blade tracking and hauled it off and destroyed it. I think that he is afraid of selling it to someone who could make it work, and making him feel inferior. I think he has anger issues. I also could not believe that he smashed that lathe to bits and then is making a phony homebuilt toy. If I was the second in line bidder on that beautiful old bandsaw and read that crap I would have been more then a little irritated. I don't think his head is warm all the way around.

Thanks for posting this so I could vent, this has bothered me for a while.

Alden
 
scrapiron04_bedsection.jpg


Rusty ways = end of metal working life on a bed that big in my experience, still it would be a perfectly good wood lathe with just a couple hours work.
 
It's disgraceful. Some guys spend years looking for quality equipment to use/rebuild. This idiot just flushed a little bit more of our machining history down the toilet. It's disappearing fast, guys. We will soon only know how to push buttons and marvel at how nicely our CNC works.
-Mark
 
Im so glad im not the only one! I love antique, and old tools. to me, even if a lathe like that had some rust and lost accuracy, i would still find plenty of use and enjoyment out of getting it up and running. older tools with the old fashion look like that lathe, are disappearing and it makes me sad! this guy is a nut job. i didnt see anything he made that was worth a damn, he has some issues. i feel better that there are more who felt the same as me about this.
-Lou
 
Rusty ways can be scraped /stoned by people who know what they are doing. I had a friend I used to ride with who was a machinist, he picked up a rusty lathe and had the ways scraped and it was good

-Page
 
sunshadow said:
Rusty ways can be scraped /stoned by people who know what they are doing. I had a friend I used to ride with who was a machinist, he picked up a rusty lathe and had the ways scraped and it was good

-Page
Click to expand...

I used to be the machine repair mechanic at Timken who scraped in the ways on our machine tools from time to time. If anyone near me has an old machine tool that is in need of having the ways refurbished, just let me know. It may take a while, but we'll get them scraped in and get your machine up and running! I still have my scraper and stones. And no, I won't charge you. It will be a fun little project for two tool/knife nuts to have fun with! Just supply the beer!

Scott (ickie) Ickes
 
I rebuilt a lot of my tools from old machines. Get a lot for the buck that way. Plus, here in Atlanta you can go to Redmond Machinery and look at old stuff all day. Its fun.

Also, at work we make ironparts. A lot of iron parts. Scrapping them you get nothing compared to the value of the part. So this was a waste IMO.
 
scottickes said:
I used to be the machine repair mechanic at Timken who scraped in the ways on our machine tools from time to time. If anyone near me has an old machine tool that is in need of having the ways refurbished, just let me know. It may take a while, but we'll get them scraped in and get your machine up and running! I still have my scraper and stones. And no, I won't charge you. It will be a fun little project for two tool/knife nuts to have fun with! Just supply the beer!

Scott (ickie) Ickes
Click to expand...

Ickie, If my old Burke mill wasn't 3000 miles away from you I would load it into my truck with a case of one of my friend's statefair goldmedal winning homebrew and learn from you. That is something that I am eventually going to need to know now that there are no more flame hardened ways availablefor purchase to replace the ones on my Leblond that my father damaged before I got it (He was running the thing stupid drunk, he's lucky to be alive)

At some point if you could point to a good book that I could learn from I would be in your debt.

-Page
 
scottickes said:
I used to be the machine repair mechanic at Timken who scraped in the ways on our machine tools from time to time. If anyone near me has an old machine tool that is in need of having the ways refurbished, just let me know. It may take a while, but we'll get them scraped in and get your machine up and running! I still have my scraper and stones. And no, I won't charge you. It will be a fun little project for two tool/knife nuts to have fun with! Just supply the beer!

Scott (ickie) Ickes
Click to expand...



Hey... its rare that you hear about it...
are there books or manuals to learn how to do this skill... or is it just handed down..
- just curious :thumbup:


thanks
Greg
 
G'day all, there is a book called Machine Tool Reconditioning by Edward F Connelly that speciffically deals with hand sraping bed ways,be warned it's rather pricey though, i think i paid $90 for it.
Hope this helps:)

By the way i wasn't too happy to see that old lathe broken up, i'd love an old girl like that. So what she was a bit rough? the old timers used to turn out some amazing work on worse machines than that, nowdays its all CNC, and i recon we've lost a lot of craftsmanship because of it. His website has some handy ideas about oil burners though
 
thanks for the tip... i'll look to see if i can get that one...:thumbup:

guess i was abit ticked... cause i've been looking for a lathe like that for quite some time.. and the ones i've seen are real pricey for a skin flint like me... ;)

G
 
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