Thread: Bed regrind

The price doesn't seem so dear, considering 30+ years ago Hercus beds were costing $300 for regrinding at a firm that was regularly advertising in the SMH.

Jordan

The price of $500 sounds pretty reasonable to me.
Once its ground & looked after you will get many, many, good years of use out of it.
The killers of lathe beds & saddles cross & compound slides are abrasives, filings,& small metal chips like cast iron.
However, I believe the use of abrasives & files are the biggest problems.
Always best to lay down a sheet of oily paper, plastic sheet foam or equivalent over the bed when using these to collect the fine abrasive & filings, that can get into & under mating surfaces & cause premature wear.
Clean lubricant is important.
regards
Bruce

My 10EE bed cost $1650 to grind....

If you are after an "as new" lathe bed, the $500 for a re-grind are certainly very well invested. But if you were just after a lathe bed without excessive wear/damage, you may consider having a look at a used bed like this one for a fraction of the re-grind cost: hercus 260 lathe bed
Chris

hi my 9c has a fare bit of damage right in the working zone.
its a real shame because its a great lathe.
it works well so i just try not to look at it.
what sort of order is the rest of your machine in?
aaron

There are 2 types of wear I've seen on lathes.
The worse one is when the a sliding area is worn down wholly. It might even be smooth, but missing material means it's no longer as accurate as it was.
Not so bad is when there are dents that might look bad, but don't necessarily reduce accuracy unless it's also worn as in the first case.
If there are raised craters around dents, they can be scraped off.
So, take heart if you only have a dented bed.

Jordan