Project Lathe
Turbo Mini Forums

I know a few of you are interested in this so here is its own topic.

This lathe was in use where I work up till about 3 years ago. Following an accident on another small lathe elsewhere on the site, "da management" decreed that all small lathes be removed from use, and all machining jobs to go to the central workshops. All well and good for work, but a pisser to all the many people who used these lathes for homework jobs.

Anyway, the lathe in question was removed from a small local workshop and placed in storage in a pumphouse, undercover but with doors open to the (dusty) outside.

When I found it had been removed I approached my boss to ask if I could buy it. Keeping an eye on it I visited it every few months and gave it the good news with a can of duck oil.
To cut a long story short after 3 years of asking every few months either he decided I could purchase it, or got pissed off with me asking about it.

As with everything with a large company, this involved me making a written offer to the purchasing dept, with what I would pay for the lathe. My initial suggestion of 50p to the gaffer didn't go down too well, so after consulting the scrap manager, who is the biggest scrap metal buyer in the UK, we decided it was worth £80 per ton as "machine scrap" grade.

I guesstimated on the low side that it was half a ton, hence my offer went in as £40. A few days later I got a call from the purchasing guy, he said £40 was OK, but unfortunately I'd have to pay VAT on top of this. Obviously this was a major disaster but I managed to scrape together an extra 7 quid....!

So with some help from my mate at work, we got it stripped down and ready to get home, then another mate came to the rescue with his 1-ton Ford Ranger pickup.

With two trips from work it was all home, the table it mounts on isn't all that heavy and was easy enough to lift between two of us. However the main lathe bed was a bloody heavy lump, my engine crane just about managed to take the weight of it. After a bit of humping and shoving it was back on the table and in position in the garage.

Here some pics of when it arrived, I'd just started to paint the bed.



It also came complete with a faceplate, 2 off 3 jaw chucks, 1 off 4 jaw chuck, result.



It is a bit of a strange design, slanted beds, this means it can take a large dia lump for the physical size of it.

As with most industrial stuff, it had a 3 phase motor.

After weighing up the options I decided a single phase motor was the easiest and cheapest solution.

Here it is mounted on some adaptor brackets, as it is slightly physically smaller than the old motor.




Also a bit more painting.

result, tom , well done .

Medusa + injection = too much torque for the dyno ..https://youtu.be/qg5o0_tJxYM

Perserverance paid off there!

that is unusual with the slanted bed, a good design though most of the swarf will head backwards and not go on the floor.

what diameter peice can you get on there 13" ?

top stuff tom.............. your so tight though.....LOL .....

when can i come use it ???

Tidy lathe. I'm hopefully picking my colchester up next wekend.

WWW.TURBO-MINI.COM

Well that looks a tidy piece of kit.

Can't go wrong at that price either.

looks ace mate well done can you find any more knocking round :)

excellent

Yes i moved to the darkside

Instagram @jdm_brett

On 14th May, 2010 Tom Fenton said:
As with most industrial stuff, it had a 3 phase motor.

After weighing up the options I decided a single phase motor was the easiest and cheapest solution.

Here it is mounted on some adaptor brackets, as it is slightly physically smaller than the old motor.

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???

Hi Rod, it was an ebay special!

However, the wiring instructions do show it to be reversible depending on which way you wire it up, and move a couple of links.

For me it doesn't need to reverse- the lathe gearbox can do that for me.

Joe- believe it or not you could theoretically probably get an 18" lump in it! Certainly the faceplate is 16" anyway.

Edited by Tom Fenton on 14th May, 2010.

ooh that is a good size!

Indeed, the slant bed although unusual is pretty smart thinking really.

Next step is to get the pulley modified to suit the new motor, I'm off to see Carl in the morning to get this done.

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???

It does indeed have 6 terminals like a 3-ph motor.

I will admit to not knowing a great deal about electric motors, however I have a few tame electricians on hand to sort out wiring it up via the push button start/stop mounted at the front, and also to make the emergency stop/brake lever work as well.

ill give you £50 for it

bargain, what size motor did you go for?

"Turbo's make torque, and torque makes fun"

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

2HP, the same as the old one was.

It will come in useful tom, although you'll find yourself wanting a milling machine next no doubt as i do!

We got our lathe the same way from my bro-in-laws fire station. HSE said they werent allowed to use it and could therefore only sell for scrap value as a donation to the station.
Its a colchester triumph 2000, hydraulic copier, loads of tools, 3 and 4 jaw chucks, faceplate etc.
Princely sum of 100quid! they fetch 2000+ happily all day long and dealers punt them out at 3500 so bargain of the century for me! Luckily we have 3 phase as well.

On the look out for a milling machine at the minute.

Well a small update here.

Nothing would be complete without some Force Racing parts so on Saturday I went to Carls and he bored, sleeved, and keywayed the pulley from the old motor to suit the new.

No titanium here I'm afraid.



With that done I fitted the motor, I will need a contactor to wire in the remote stop start buttons and safety interlocks, but not being able to resist having a try I have just wired it straight to a plug for now.



So Saturday afternoon I made my first swarf, all very exciting!

Any projects lined up to use it for yet?

The first job is to hopefully make an adaptor to mate a small single phase motor I've acquired to the old suds pump which currently has a 3-ph motor attached!