A bit about my lathe

**Michael G** · 16th October 2011, 07:55 AM

There's probably a dedicated thread for this sort of thing but the search engine is playing silly buggers, so -
Azzrock asked for some pictures of my lathe. Looking through my collection I haven’t got many but have found a few.
First of all, what is it and why have I got it?
I do volunteer work for a group called TAD (Technical Aid to the Disabled) and was finding that the 7x20 Dai-shin P4 I had was not quite big enough. It also had top speed of around 1000 rpm and was not overly rigid. So I was looking for something more powerful, rigid and faster – not much to ask really.
Being an Ebay dreamer I look at what is up for sale and one day saw a second hand lathe of around the right size but with the incredible (to me) price tag of $6000. It was a CVA lathe and I was intrigued as to why it was so pricy and so did some research. From the limited information I could find I discovered that they were a top end lathe with some very nice features – pretty much everything I wanted and then some.
A year or so later I saw a guy in the US trying to sell one on the PM forum. I emailed him with a couple of questions as I was wondering how a British lathe ended up in the US. He was having no luck selling it (it had bits missing and was not running) so after a couple of months I made an offer which he accepted. All up it cost me around the same amount to get it to Adelaide as I would have paid for a Hare & Forbes machine of a similar size. As a result, I was the owner of a 1957 CVA toolmaker's lathe (that did not work).
Apparently the owner bought it from a dealer in a stripped down condition as a fixer upper but never had the time and after a couple years decided to pass on it. To get it running there were something like 30 items that needed to be fixed, ranging from replacing some missing bolts (mainly BSF) to rewiring the contactors as the control wires were missing. The spindle was sound but there was wear on the bed.
A couple of the more interesting fixes were the gear control quadrant – broken so I had to make up a new one, and some of the sheet metal covers for the taper turning device. For all of these things I had to rely on pictures from the internet and pictorials from the parts manual (although that was not very detailed in some cases). One of the major problems was that when the lathe was still functional, a past user had decided to apply grease to some of the oil ports. As a result the automatic oil pump in the apron was clogged and not working (and judging from the wear, had not been for some time). The lathe has three gear boxes and all of them had leaks, so that oil levels ranged from low down to non-existent. It was hard to tell though as the oil level windows were plastic and that discoloured that you couldn't see the oil anyway. These were replaced with glass ones – much better.
I've also had to make up change gears for it (needed for metric threads), replace belts and seals, find a tool post as well as buy various chucks as it only came with a face plate. I've also added a graduated dial to the carriage handwheel (not originally on this model, but introduced a few years later) and am currently working on a micrometer stop for the bed.

Photos:
DCP_0196 – Lathe as first seen
P1000897 – Oil sight window (plastic top, glass bottom)
P1000899 – Middle (feed) gearbox – sits behind the round dial
P1000901 – Speed gearbox. 12 speeds available ranging from 29rpm to 2200rpm
P1000933 – Gear box out of the lathe – around 80kg I think. Takes over 5 litres of oil
P1000948 – the Motor (3kW) and gear box mounted in the lathe base. They are bolted to a rubber suspended sub chassis. Transmission to the spindle is via flat belt
P1000973 – the gear quadrant and covers I had to make up. The hardest part for many of the missing items was working out what shape they should be
P1000975 – the power switch after I'd rewired – control voltage is 415V; the control wiring was missing (and there was no schematic), no earth and the switch was not wired up correctly. Nervous when I first connected power? Nah…
P1000988 – Tee nuts for the compound. My replacements are on the right. The originals are on the left. The compound would not originally clamp properly because the one on the far left was too long.
P1010098 – the lathe as it is today

**Bryan** · 16th October 2011, 09:18 AM

Thanks for posting Michael. Just been reading the CVA page on lathes.co.uk. Apparently it's essentially a Monarch 10EE copy, and cost as much as a house. Very cool machine and well worth the effort I would think.

**azzrock** · 16th October 2011, 10:05 AM

hi . Thanks for the photos and info about your lathe.You have done very well. that machine looks fantastic. I would of never picked it was from 1957.
Also your showing true largess in your volunteer work. Great to see.
Did it take long to get your cva running?
Although im not an armature some times i feel like one on this forum.
aaron

**Greg Q** · 16th October 2011, 10:20 AM

Simply fantastic job. Well done, and thanks for posting it.

Greg

**welder** · 16th October 2011, 11:02 AM

beautiful restoration job

**morrisman** · 16th October 2011, 11:14 AM

How on earth did you manage to get that here from the USA ..... did the seller organize shipping ? Was it on the West coast ? I guess you used a freight fowarding agency and it was in a container ? It must weigh a ton, literally . Was it on a shipping skid ? MIKE

**Michael G** · 16th October 2011, 11:18 AM

From memory it took a couple of months to get to a running condition. I still have bits that I'm doing or have on a list for one day, but they are few and not urgent (remake the cross slide screw and nut for example). It runs and has no bad habits.
Those of us who have these lathes think that they are actually better than a Monarch 10EE in some respects (a heresy that can not be repeated near Monarch owners). The reason is that the 10EE has an electric speed control system that while giving variable speed can be trouble. The CVA has a plain selectable gearbox - no variable speed but no electrons doing funny things either.
I must admit that one of the things I like about it is the shape - the rounded off shape of the Monarch looks (to my eye) old fashioned but the CVA does look contemporary.

Michael

**Michael G** · 16th October 2011, 11:24 AM

Morrisman,
Organising shipping was 'interesting'. I used a freight forwarder but had to get it crated up (custom made wooden skid and box). I couldn't have organised it all if it wasn't for the web - I found it on the web, found a company to crate it on the web and hunted down a freight forwarder via the web.
It's original location was in Tenessee (I think). The lathe by itself weighs around 1500kg

**matthew_g** · 16th October 2011, 12:39 PM

Originally Posted by Michael G

From memory it took a couple of months to get to a running condition. I still have bits that I'm doing or have on a list for one day, but they are few and not urgent (remake the cross slide screw and nut for example). It runs and has no bad habits.
Those of us who have these lathes think that they are actually better than a Monarch 10EE in some respects (a heresy that can not be repeated near Monarch owners). The reason is that the 10EE has an electric speed control system that while giving variable speed can be trouble. The CVA has a plain selectable gearbox - no variable speed but no electrons doing funny things either.
I must admit that one of the things I like about it is the shape - the rounded off shape of the Monarch looks (to my eye) old fashioned but the CVA does look contemporary.

Michael

Ohh come on....The 10ee is a classic and a thing of absolute beuty

**azzrock** · 16th October 2011, 01:52 PM

i have to agree its hard not to like the 10ee.

Attachment 184635

**Michael G** · 16th October 2011, 07:04 PM

Matthew, the most important argument for me is that I have a CVA but don't have a Monarch. If I did I'd probably rave about the smooth retro look unlike those ugly boxy lathes that copied it...

One thing that has always puzzled me about the 10EE is that the 20" bed version sold quite well, but relatively few of the 30" bed version were sold.

Dave J · 17th October 2011, 12:24 AM

Michael,
You must have wanted that lathe bad with the trouble you went through, glad you got what you wanted.

It would be a nice machine to work on and I don't mind the squarer lines it has.

Thanks for posting
Dave

PS
The lathe thread is here if you want to copy and paste it there.
https://www.woodworkforums.com/f65/sh...-lathe-121627/

**morrisman** · 27th May 2012, 08:20 PM

Hi

The motor in your lathe looks interesting . You say it's 3Kw ( 4 hp ) . Is it a modern 3 phase motor and do you run a VFD ?

Mike

**Michael G** · 27th May 2012, 10:47 PM

The motor is the original (1957) motor, although when I got it I sent it down to the local motor rewinders for a health check. That indicated a short somewhere and it was cheaper to have it rewound than fault finding (which would have ended in a rewind anyway). I haven't got a VFD fitted for several reasons

I've been told that VFDs don't put out a clean sine wave but a composite wave form. This can cause problems with older insulation in motors (not that it should be a problem post rewind)
A standard rule with VFDs is there must be nothing between the VFD and the motor otherwise the VFD could be damaged. The control wiring is complicated enough as it is. While I could adapt the existing controls to a VFD, it would be a lot of work for little gain (see below).
Because of the in-efficiencies in a VFD and the limitations on electrical supplies, the supply to a VFD would need to be 3 phase anyway. The speeds on the lathe are nicely spaced and have a wide enough range (29rpm to 2200rpm) that I really don't find there is a need for any further graduation in speed.

However, I will be putting a VFD on my 3 phase T&C grinder when I get to that as then I can run it on a single phase supply.

Michael

**morrisman** · 27th May 2012, 11:00 PM

OK

Sounds like you have a efficient local rewind business who know about older motors , that helps .

Yes , I've thought that VFD's and older motors don't match together as well as the modern motors do .

You have 3 phase in your shed then ?

Mike

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A bit about my lathe

great post.

shipping

good point

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