Yet another "new" lathe.

[toolman49]

G'Day ,
Just a quick intro, my name is Martin, I'm a freelance technician servicing Mailing, Packaging & Labeling machinery, this requires me to fabricate & modify machine parts on a fairly regular basis. hence the need for basic engineering facilities.
Fleabay watchers may have seen a listing at Easter time for a 12 x 36 Honden that had been in storage for 20 years. I bought the bugger and it was exactly as advertised, brand spanking new in the original packing crate. It came without stand, motor or chucks and has been a work in progress, consuming a goodly chunk of my spare time for the last 7 months. I have resisted posting until I felt it was maybe of interest to other owners of similar machines.
To date it has been fitted with a solid stand (scrounged, painted & fitted out) Bison chucks, Easson DRO,1.5 hp variable speed D.C. drive motor & an AXA toolpost.
A detailed report on all the work done would run to the size of "War and Peace" so I won't bore you with details, but if anyone is interested in particular parts of this project let me know and i will add further posts,
Regards,
Martin

[Dave J]

Hi Martin,
Welcome to the forum, nice looking lathe and I agree it looks brand new.. I wouldn't worry about boring us with details, we are all tool heads here and love this sort of stuff.
That cabinet compliments the lathe nicely.:2tsup:

Dave

[Stustoys]

Hi Martin
Welcome
What Dave said, plus.
Do you know where it was made? It looks very much like a lathe my brother inlaw has, though yours is somewhat prettier :)
Is the shaft below the leadscrew for powerfeed or on/off?
What are the orange/red circles on the headstock?

One day my garage will be that clean again :(

Stuart

[RayG]

Hi Martin,

Welcome to the forum, beautiful looking lathe, and nicely setup.

I like the way you have done the cabinets and stand setup, I am thinking of doing something similar to try and get a better setup for storing tooling, I was looking at cutting up some el-cheapo rolling cabinets.

Do you have any details and pictures of the construction.

Regards
Ray

[toolman49]

G'Day Fellas,
Thanks for the kind comments,
The Lathe was built in Taiwan in Nov 1990, the same machine was sold here under various brand names such Repco, MacMillan & Frejoth etc.
The lower rod is for power feed . a particularly nasty part of the design is that bronze drive gear from the worm to apron is hidden and not lubricated from the oil bath and normally fails prematurely and costs a packet to replace, my solution in the short term is to leave the thread chaser dial off unless I'm imperial thread cutting, this gives me access to lubricate it, long term i will fit an oil cup with a pipe to the gear. The orange circles are the sight glasses for the headstock bearing oil reservoirs (quick tip : to flush headstock bearings hold a large rag over the sight glasses and blow into the oil fillers with compressed air, the sight glasses pop straight out, the crap that came out with the 20 year old oil reminded me of dissentry) . The stand that the machine is on was originally from some sort of paper processing machine, possibly a Moore Paragon burster, when I acquired it it had been sitting in an out door graveyard for years, It cost me a slab (fair swap) the construction is 10 30x 30mm square uprights and 9 30x30 mm cross members it is fitted with 8 x 100Kg casters and whilst it is movable it's a 3 gorilla job. The raw MDF edge will be covered with 3 x 30mm aluminium and painted when I get the time and the inclination as I am currently working on a spindle speed tachometer.
Once again thanks for the kind words,
Martin

[eskimo]

welcome
good looking machine..pity it better than mine tho:D

[tinkera]

Hi Martin,
Welcome & thanks for showing the lathe setup. Just wondering how you are going about the spindle tacho ?
Ian S.

[toolman49]

Hi Ian,
The Tacho is based on a MaxxTronic MX 019 P.C.B. this comes supplied with an infra red sensor which isn't all that suitable for an oily environment, I will be using a hall effect sensor reading a 10 hole sector plate attached to the end of the spindle, the 10 holes are necessary to get the low speed resolution down to 10 R.P.M. increments, will post pictures when finished.
Regards,
Martin

[RayG]

Hi Ian,
The Tacho is based on a MaxxTronic MX 019 P.C.B. this comes supplied with an infra red sensor which isn't all that suitable for an oily environment, I will be using a hall effect sensor reading a 10 hole sector plate attached to the end of the spindle, the 10 holes are necessary to get the low speed resolution down to 10 R.P.M. increments, will post pictures when finished.
Regards,
Martin

Hi Martin,

I'm interested in how that approach works out, I'm developing a pic based spindle tacho. Initially for the mill, and I'll make one for the lathe as well, now that I've got the VFD fitted. I'm measuring the period between pulses, (1us resolution) so that only one pulse per rev is required to give high resolution rpm display.

One advantage of multiple pulses per rev is that the update time is faster, for example, in period measurement mode, at 30 rpm, the display will only update every 2 seconds, whereas your 10 ppr the display will update every 200ms at 30 rpm.

I assume that your sensor plate will be mounted at the far end of the spindle away from the chuck?

Regards
Ray

[Greg Q]

Toolman, very nice job on the lathe. Sanitary installation of the DRO, and I do very much like the stand. My own lathe has a massive cast iron stand with almost zero storage, so I am a bit envious.

Greg

[toolman49]

Hi Greg,
Thanks for the comments, another alternative for tooling storage (depending on the size & location of your lathe) is a used overhead modular office unit, I picked the one in the photos up for $20.00 years ago (had always intended to fit a shelf but never got around to it). The lathe in the photo is on the market & when it goes I will be using it for milling tooling These units have the advantage of being lockable.
Regards,
Martin

[Bryan]

Martin, at the risk of being repetitive, Nice Work.

As to storage I find old kitchens a good source. Picked up 3 sets of roller drawers from the dump recently, and have a high-mount 3 door cupboard that will go above either the lathe or a bench when I get organised.

PS: I think your Honden may belong to the Lantaine family. My lathe is a poor cousin.