Thread: Just finished and tested.

Over the Thanksgiving weekend my daughter Rachel and I started tearing down my Hardinge TL-10 lathe to repaint it. When I bought the lathe it had already had new spindle bearings, new lead screws and lead screw nuts in the cross slide and compound, had the bed reground and thurcite B installed on the carriage, a new Penta DC regenerative drive with a new 3HP DC motor, etc, etc. The lathe had been rebuilt to as like knew condition as you can get a 65 year old lathe. But when they were doing all this rebuilding they didn't paint it and it looked like crap.

Rachel and I just finished taking care of that. I even had to engrave a new thread chart for the gearbox. The original one was readable but looked really nappy. SO I guess I can officially say I have an engraved Lathe.

I also made a dust cover for it out of some rubber coated canvas curtain liner material. Unfortunately, my situation doesn't allow me to have a dirty room for the grinders and grit making equipment and a clean room for the precision stuff. So I have to have a way to keep the grinding dust off the precision machines. Machine covers were the best solution I could come up with.

Nice. I love the color. I think the green - grey color is ideal for machinery.

It's a good thing to see an old tool restored.

Looks like new.. great job

Ray, that's beautiful. I actually thought the original gray was fine too, but it had to be fun (and costly) to refurbish. I've not used a Hardinge, but they were always spoken of as being tight and precise - often for tool room work.

I suspect Geezer and Joed would have much better informed thoughts, but I love metal cutting.
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I'm jealous of your vertical mill to the right fo the lathe. My lathe is a 13x25 Taiwanese made Victor. Its lonely - needs a vertiacl mill to keep it company.

Very nice job Ray.

I so want one of these. I used one for years when I was a machinist in a job shop. They are great lathes.
Mill is first on my list though.

Fantastic lathe,looks great,I had to sell my HLV 6 years ago when we moved,no space.no conveniant 220 for the 3 phase,miss that sucker.What tool holder you using?
Just rebuilt my little S.B,nothing beats old american iron

Bruno,
I chose that green for a couple of reasons. A lot of the old machines in the machine shop my dad worked for when I as a kid were alpine green. As a kid I was always impressed at the scale of their equipment. They had big stuff like a 24" shaper and a 6ft swing lathe with a 28' bed. So nostalgia came into play on the color choice.

It also matches the cedar cabinets that my friend Mark and I made for the shop. I know looks really isn't a big factor in functionality but I am more efficient (at least I feel more efficient) if my work area is clean and organized and looks nice.

When I started remodeling my garage full of machines into an actual shop I also wanted a place where me and the guys could hang out and do guy stuff. So this is both my shop and my den or man cave. Its where I reload my ammo, smoke an occasional pipe, and just get away from all the estrogen in my home. Ya I love my kids but a guy who has all daughters needs a boost of testosterone occasionally. I wanted a shop/man cave that I could be proud of how it looked and was a comfortable hang out when I need to decompress.


Hey Pinklather,

She is a really nice tight machine. This is also the easiest machine I have ever cut threads on. Its just almost idiot proof.

That is actually a large Burgmaster turret drill next to the lathe. I do have a Hardinge UM mill with both a vertical head and the horizontal arbors that I am gong to tackle pretty soon.

Pixelfixed,

That is a great looking old south bend. I like the guard around the drum switch. Clever idea.

It is hard to beat old US made machinery.

Ray

Very nice job! I love old Southbends . Mine is a 9a