old lathe

[thefixer]

G'day all

I was wondering if anyone can tell me anything about this lathe.This is the only photo I have and it it was taken using a mobile phone camera. It belongs to a bloke I know and he is donating to my son and me. All we have to do find the time and fuel money to go and get it:mad: . It looksold but I reckon it has to be better than $99.00 GMC that we are using now.
Cheers
Chris

[OGYT]

Ya can't beat the price. I'd say go for it!

[TTIT]

I've got no idea what brand it might be but as long as there's a motor hangin' off the other end of that belt, I reckon you're in business ;) - looks like it has all the makings of a good starter lathe. You're dead right about it being better than a GMC too - but then that doesn't take much does it!?!? Have fun with it :D

[hcbph]

It's hard to tell from your picture so I'm basing this purely on the shape of the tailstock. It might be either a Delta DoubleDuty or HomeCraft lathe. If it is, it's a good, solid, basic lathe. They were sold here somewhere around 1930-1950.

Here's a good picture of a Homecraft lathe: http://www.owwm.com/PhotoIndex/detail.asp?id=1757

Good luck with your lathe

Paul

[hughie]

It looks old but I reckon it has to be better than $99.00 GMC that we are using now.

Chris, It looks well worth the money ....:D as long as its not on the other side of the country.


Ya can't beat the price. I'd say go for it!


And if you dont like it, give it a coat of paint, shine up the metal bits and sell it. Its got to be worth 150 tarted up ;) :D


You're dead right about it being better than a GMC too - but then that doesn't take much does it!?!? Have fun with it


You'd be hard put to go wrong with it.

[DJ’s Timber]

I say grab it. Give her a good clean up and check the headstock bearings for any play and give them a lube as well.

One thing I would definitely be doing, is making a guard to go around the pulleys and belt.

[thefixer]

Thanks Paul. I think you might be on the right tram there. As you say anythings gotta be better than the GMC , tailstock doesn't line up with centre of the spindle and the bloody thing won't stop chattering because of the flexibility of the tube steel bed. Still it will probably make a reasonable linisher when I get the other toy.

Cheers

[hcbph]

Here's a couple of threads on overhauling these model lathes. http://www.owwm.org/viewtopic.php?t=20691
There are threads at either SawMill Creek or Woodnet.com on overhauling a Delta HomeCraft lathe. Biggest issues is the seals, but see the above thread for options.
I happened to have a DoubleDuty Lathe for about 10 years. It's a good lathe, no flash, no glamour but a good dependable lathe. I sold mine because I needed something bigger for a job.
The difference between the DoubleDuty and the HomeCraft is the DoubleDuty has a steel bed while the HomeCraft is cast iron.

Paul

PS you can find a manual to download at owwm.org. That's where I found one when I still had the DoubleDuty.

[thefixer]

Paul your an absolute wealth of information. You must be at least 150 years old to have have accumulated all that data.

[hcbph]

Us old dinosaurs have memories like an elephant :-)
Seeing that I used my first lathe in school about 40 years ago, and bought my first one about 35 years ago, would you expect less :-)
Here's a tip on your lathe, when you get ready to mount it, put some spacers under it. You want to leave at least a 1" gap between the bottom of the bed and the table. There are times you may need to mount something and have to put the bolt etc through the bottom. It's a whole lot easier if you leave a gap.

Paul

Ps: If you want to drool, I replaced my Delta with a Jet 1642 along with an 18" bed extension. It's good for 16" x 60" and I not have a Vega Duplicator I can hang on it. Much as I liked the Delta, I love this one much more.