Remember when I was dealing with the Grizzly wood lathe and I had an issue with the main spindle and I said if only I had a metal lathe I could fix the issue?
No?
Well trust me, it happened, I was there, I can vouch for me.
I mean, why would I lie?
just push the I believe button and lets move on please.
I mean Cheese Whiz...
Anyway, now I have a metal lathe, and for those who might care, the story (there's always a story, isnt there?)
I run across an ad on CL for a pretty good Metal Lathe, decent price. Kind of smaller than I really wanted, but a brand I know, etc. As I was churning through this in my mind I keep looking. A newer ad pops up with an add for another lathe. Little bit of a off brand, but more the size I was looking for.
I decided to go big and if it didnt work, I would go after the second one.
made contact, worked out a time to possibly go see it the next day assuming it wasnt pouring cats and dogs. That night I drove out to get the trailer and instead got hammered by wind and rain and hail and ended up not getting the trailer. (mental note Metal building plus Hail Equals LOUD)
The next morning, weather still looked iffy so I called the guy and told him we should put it off a day. He didnt like that idea, come look now or dont come at all. I dropped what I was doing, got the LOML for some help, went and fetched the trailer and drove half way across Texas to see this lathe.
Not really, it wasnt half way across Texas. Maybe a quarter.
OK fine, it wasnt a quarter, but it was a long way, can you just give me that?
about an hour and half after picking up the trailer I was rolling up at this guys shop. I got a tour of his shop which was nice and then found out the lathe wasnt there, it was at his house that was just down the street.
Now, if you know Texas people, you know down the street means different things to different people. Needless to say 30 minutes later we pulled up at his house with me following him.
For those of you not keeping up, not good at math, or whatever, we are now 2 hours away from my shop. Drove an hour and a half to get there, then 30 minutes more to his house, see how that works?
We go out back to his airplane hanger....
Did I mention he had an airplane hanger? No?
And I look at the lathe. It looks nice, LOTS of tooling and accessories. He doesnt have a way to power it up, but he tells me he ran it when he bought it from a widow who's husband was a friend of his, etc.
I told him I would take him at his word that it worked and we made a deal on the price.
We proceeded to work to load it up.
I decided to take the lathe off the stand to help it not be so top heavy while driving half way across Texas to get back to my shop.
The LOML and I removed the bolts holding the lathe to the stand. We used a engine hoist to remove it from the stand on the trailer he had it on and put it down on my trailer, then put the rest of the pieces either in my truck or on the trailer.
Now of course you are asking yourself, hey! where's the pics dude!
Well, short answer is I suck at taking pictures when things are going on. I was much more focused on the project at hand than I am on taking pictures. What can I say, its a fault I have.
Now, off we go and because of time constraints I drop the trailer at the house and the LOML and I head off in our separate ways to get things done we need to get done.
Here it is, all wrapped up on my trailer, in my driveway.
That evening, the LOML and I hitched it up again and drove it out to the hanger to get it under cover, but didnt have time to get it all unloaded and setup.
here's a pic of it and a bunch of the accessories sitting in the hanger
A few weeks later, all 3 of us head out to the Hanger and use my Engine Hoist,
Did I mention I bought an Engine Hoist?
No?
OK then.
We used my new Engine Hoist to get the lathe up off the trailer and over into place on its base.
Hey look! Its my Mill, My engine stand (did I mention my engine stand folds up?) and my Lathe
How cool is that?
It was a little challenge to pick up the lathe and move it across the room (it weight about 1500lbs) but the three of us were able to accomplish it
Of course at this point the lathe is not powered up, and we did not have time to work on getting it powered up that day.
Come back a few days later, get power wired into the lathe. Turn it on, push the button,
Nothing...
Crickets...
Silence..
Point is, It did not come on. nothing spun, nothing worked
Did I mention I didnt see it run before I bought it? I took it for the guys word that it worked?
HMMM.....
OK, so I take some pics of the electronics box, that way I could do some digging to see where there might be a problem. Luckily its not overly complicated or anything.
Right? I mean thats not that complicated. Its not like there are lots of wires in there, or transformers, or 24V relays or....
Umm, yeah...
A few days later, the LOML and I go out to the hanger with my electrical kit and I start going through checking fuses, seeing what voltages are where, etc.
It all looks right.
Dammit...
I decide to take the front switch plate off, see if maybe there is a bad switch. Went though the power switch and it seems to be working fine, get to the reset switch / emergency cut-off switch and nothing. Its open all the time (should be closed for the unit to run and open to shut it off)
Its a all plastic switch with a couple of metal contacts, so i work with it a minute and I get it to short out to be in a normal position. I put the plate back on. We throw the switch, hit the button and..
YES! It works. Spins frontways and backways and leftways and rightways and. Wait, scratch that, reverse it.
Point is, it works.
Just have to find a replacement switch for the long run. Which honestly this lathe does not have a foot switch to shut it off like most big lathes do. May have to fabricate one of those for it and wire in my own little custom switch.
so its official, I can now not only take wooden square things and make them round, I can now take metal square things and make them round.
Which is important, really, it is
Oh and for those who care (I know, if your still reading this you really must care)
Its a Enco 13"x40" Geared Head Gap Bed Lathe.
DD
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