New toy

[Gary820]

Over the last couple of days I've had a bit of disruption at work, some equipment moved around and today we had a delivery.....

We now have a shiny new lathe
It's been bought for re facing polished alloy wheels but as was demonstrated today it can be used for other things. It's got various attachments that i don't have a clue what they do yet.

Can't wait to get to grips with it.

 

[silvercruiser]

Id love to know how to use a lathe properly. ive always seen them used but never had a go.

 

[clivehorridge]

Over the last couple of days I've had a bit of disruption at work, some equipment moved around and today we had a delivery.....

View attachment 124038

We now have a shiny new lathe
It's been bought for re facing polished alloy wheels but as was demonstrated today it can be used for other things. It's got various attachments that i don't have a clue what they do yet.

Can't wait to get to grips with it.

Blimey, that looks posh.

As a kid, I was lucky enough to go to a school with a craft block, where we did woodwork and metalwork, and both the workshops had approriate types of lathes.

I used to love it, we'd do turning, tailstock drilling and thread turning, inside and out, on the metalwork lathes.

There was a Colchester, a Myford and another, but I don't recall it's make.

The school has been demolished now, and I'd bet they went for scrap

It's a shame, they were old when I was young, but they were beautiful and well cared-for machines.

 

[Gary820]

It's a nice bit of kit, cost a few quid too. As I've found the company isn't shy about spending money where needed, they don't like to sub let repairs etc and if need tooling it's ordered. I've got a nice budget which I'll struggle to spend!

Yeah had similar craft block when I went to school, I'm not a fan of wood work, never got on with it tbh.

Used to spend my time in the electronics part playing with sparks lol, spent hours designing stuff, etching circuit boards and soldering in components. That science and mathematics were the only lessons at school I actually cared about lol.

 

[Shayne]

Club discount quid a wheel , train Lily and you will save a fortune in pocket money

 

[Towpack]

My old school also had a fully equipped metalwork/engineering workshop. All the big floor standing lathes were Herberts, along with vertical and horizontal milling machines, a shaping machine and a few smaller bench top lathes and numerous pillar drills and grinders/polishers. When the school closed (long after I had left) I heard all the machines were to be sold off but the next thing I knew the whole lot had gone, probably bought by a machinery dealer no doubt. Back then all the machining was done manually, not a keypad or digital display in sight and everything checked with micrometers and vernier callipers and I loved it. Think I've just turned into a boring old fart!

 

[StarCruiser]

I too had a craft block at school but we didn't get to do much, it was a pretty well equipped workshop but all manual no CNC. When I got to college they had a metalwork department we spent some time in making things and riveting sheet metal. They had some CNC machines from old donated pinch tape things with programming booths up to pretty modern kit (at the time). Oh how things have moved on. I loved it. And the woodwork. One thing I'm thankful for is my parents getting me into that school, despite the school cross country!!

 

[StarCruiser]

Think we had some Herbert's. There were Ward capstan lathes in LEC from before the war that were still used for production. We had a shaper, pillar drills, a Myford, various mills. I look after a company now that has a Webster and Bennett vertical lathe where the chuck is more a turntable, 4 foot across. It weighs in at 12 tonnes with a 30hp motor on it.

 

[Chas]

. Back then all the machining was done manually, not a keypad or digital display in sight and everything checked with micrometers and vernier callipers and I loved it. Think I've just turned into a boring old fart!

My school had workshops like that too, which was unusual for a grammer school which usual was more academic stuff, I loved getting on the lathe, no idea what make they were, I couldn't do anything fancy, I've still got somewhere a toasting fork and a keyring I made, Oh and a centre punch, still in use these days.
Welcome to the boring old fart club TP.

 

[BobMurphy]

My school had workshops like that too,
Welcome to the boring old fart club TP.

Nothing like that in my schools - just academic study (though I did get to make some electronic things, out of hours, in the Physics Lab).

I'm making up for it now - two lathes, a milling machine, pillar drill, 30-ton press, welding & grit-blasting stuff.

And not a DRO in sight (though it would speed things up, I'm sure).

Bob.

 

[clivehorridge]

Seems like I've sparked up a boring old farts club

I wasn't a fan of woodwork, nor the crosscountry.
No such thing as CNC or digital displays then.
Micrometers, verniers, and the calibrations on the lathe equipment.

 

[TonyP]

Been offered this lathe, not sure of make or condition but can't wait ho get hold of it...

 

[Gary820]

Club discount quid a wheel , train Lily and you will save a fortune in pocket money

Yeah I can discount a quid off per wheel not a problem mate

They reckon for a lot of wheels it can take 2 to 3 hours to program/teach them in. Once that's done though 15 mins max per wheel plus lacquer and bake.
We've contacted every one in the York area that does polished wheels (not many do on a lathe they often do by hand!!) Got prices and we've set ours less!
A lot of car dealers have someone take the wheels away so have to leave a car on axle stands (did that at bmw) we will offer a service where the car comes to us in the morning and we'll do all 4 wheels within the day, sooner if it's a wheel we've got on file.
We've employed someone just for this job.

 

[Towpack]

Alloy wheel skimming should be childs' play on a machine like that Gary. Maybe, after a bit of practise, you can knock out billet cranks