Thread: Bring back the Hercus 9" ARM

I second that, they could bring a lot of their stuff, trouble is the majority of buyers only look at price, 9" now days would have to run $ 4-5,000 and you can pick up a chinese version for less that $2,000 no one seems to care that it will only last 2 years, then have to be rebuilt and wait 6 months for parts, maybe they could do a Woodfast and sellout to a major iternational brand build lookalikes in china and pretend they are as good as the old versions.

The horse is long dead Ken.

IMO the nines are too bits and pieces-ish. The winner in the Hercus styling stakes for me was the Craftsman, chased very closely by the 260G.

BT

To expensive to produce anything here in Australia now, with the high cost of labour and some of our ridiculous OH&S laws. Our Grand Kids will be paying the price for it down the track when we have to import everything.

In the future there is potential for something like this to work. The days of cheap chinese machinetools are drawing to a close. But, I don't think it could be done exactly as it was because some of the features have been replaced with better and cheaper technologies.

eg. Drivetrain can almost be complete replaced with an inverter drive system which would be cheaper and better. Same goes for replacing the screwcutting gearbox with a servo or stepper system.

Originally Posted by neksmerj

............... Southbend are doing it, why not us? The 260 was a lovely machine, but far too expensive to produce..............Ken

Grizzly only bought the Sothbend name. The "new Southbend 10K" is or was made in Taiwan. But despite it being made in Taiwan, it was way too expensive to find any buyers. Do you know of one of these lathes actually having been bought by someone? So far I have only seen pictures and heard of it being shown on exhibitions in the US, but I cannot find one single review by an actual real owner made of flesh and blood.

There was another small company making a very similar lathe, similar design and similar size. It was called Myford. They closed doors last year. The last Myfords had a list price around AUD 12K. That is what it would cost to manufacture something like a 9 or 10" Hercus or Southbend or Boxford or Myford in a country like the USA or GB or.. Australia.

Be honest to yourself, would you be prepared to pay that sort of money for a manual 9 or 10" lathe?? If your answer is yes, why then did you not buy a new Myford a year ago when the factory was still alive? If your answer is still yes, what is wrong with the German Wabeco D6000E lathe, its priced about like the new Southbend, is metric, is a modern design, and you get 5 years warranty to boost. Chris

Originally Posted by Auskart

To expensive to produce anything here in Australia now, with the high cost of labour and some of our ridiculous OH&S laws. Our Grand Kids will be paying the price for it down the track when we have to import everything.

We had our 13 yr old grandson staying with us recently.
I happened to mention to him that we might make some wooden pencil cases like the traditional design thats been around for a long time.
I was corrected by him, when he told me OH & S do not all allow wooden pencil cases in schools these days.
Where are we heading?
regards
Bruce

Originally Posted by Abratool

We had our 13 yr old grandson staying with us recently.
I happened to mention to him that we might make some wooden pencil cases like the traditional design thats been around for a long time.
I was corrected by him, when he told me OH & S do not all allow wooden pencil cases in schools these days.
Where are we heading?
regards
Bruce

Yep we are wrapping our children and workers in cotton wool these days and making everyone else responsible for the stupid actions of a few, I don't wish to mention what line of work my son is in, but some of the OH&S rules in his line of work are absolutely mind boggling, you really have to wonder who sits down and thinks these rules up. We are the Nanny country of the world.

Originally Posted by Abratool

We had our 13 yr old grandson staying with us recently.
I happened to mention to him that we might make some wooden pencil cases like the traditional design thats been around for a long time.
I was corrected by him, when he told me OH & S do not all allow wooden pencil cases in schools these days.
Where are we heading?
regards
Bruce

Hi Bruce,
I wonder if it's because they can become a weapon or they might get a splinter or maybe it's too heavy to carry.
Whatever the reason is I'm sure it's going to be a well thought out one...not!
Perhaps this is why I enjoy my job so much. We are still using common sense and being responsible for your own safety which is basically removing stupidity and complacency.

Phil

Originally Posted by Abratool

We had our 13 yr old grandson staying with us recently.
I happened to mention to him that we might make some wooden pencil cases like the traditional design thats been around for a long time.
I was corrected by him, when he told me OH & S do not all allow wooden pencil cases in schools these days.
Where are we heading?
regards
Bruce

Im afraid he isnt right there. My school and hundreds upon hundreds of others make wooden pencil cases by the truckload. Its the second job they make in our year 7 class, right after a personalised door stop. The kids are welcome to use them as a pencil case but ive not seen one used yet in that way. Instead we also tell them they can put their own goggles in there and store them in their locker to stop them getting scratched up, which many of them do.

Its funny, over the years projects come and go in popularity, but the pencil box is -always- popular.

Interesting what you had to say. I had cause to ring them the other day. I wanted a 2nd. tool rest base for my Hercus made (Top Turn 400 Durden wood lathe).
Steve said dont make them any more and havent got any left in stock. He went on to say that another brand Woodfast has the same profile and to check it out.
So, yes, I will check it out - he didnt want to enter into the debate about Australian manufacturing and how it has been destroyed. Dont blame him, I
guess it hurts too much. Drillit.

Originally Posted by Drillit

Interesting what you had to say. I had cause to ring them the other day. I wanted a 2nd. tool rest base for my Hercus made (Top Turn 400 Durden wood lathe).
Steve said dont make them any more and havent got any left in stock. He went on to say that another brand Woodfast has the same profile and to check it out.
So, yes, I will check it out - he didnt want to enter into the debate about Australian manufacturing and how it has been destroyed. Dont blame him, I
guess it hurts too much. Drillit.

Hi Drillit,

I bought an incomplete rest from Steve last year and made the missing bits. Maybe an option ?

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f65/dr...0/#post1488120

Bob.

Originally Posted by Anorak Bob

Hi Drillit,

I bought an incomplete rest from Steve last year and made the missing bits. Maybe an option ?

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f65/dr...0/#post1488120

Bob.

Thanks for that. I will give him another go. Interesting that Woodfast has the same profile. I know they are from SA
but I understand thei rlathes are now made in China, of all places. Thanks, Drillit.

Hi all,

I was going through some material I had copied onto my computer and I would like to bring attention an older thread on this forum

<https://www.woodworkforums.com/f189/hercus-production-notes-historical-141739/>

particularly the attachment

<https://www.woodworkforums.com/attachments/f189/183173d1317348858-hercus-production-notes-historical-pfh-talk-circa-1980.pdf>

as some basic background to this discussion.

Also looking at another website I came across a recent review (16/2/13) of an example of the type of lathe that is looking to fill the segment of the market previously occupied by the Hercus 9 inch lathe

<http://www.mini-lathe.com/reviews/Lathes/Sieg_C8/C8.htm>

Somewhat cheap and cheerful but could do the job for many people...

--
Regards,
David

Originally Posted by scottyd

My school and hundreds upon hundreds of others make wooden pencil cases by the truckload. Its the second job they make in our year 7 class, right after a personalised door stop. The kids are welcome to use them as a pencil case but ive not seen one used yet in that way. Instead we also tell them they can put their own goggles in there and store them in their locker to stop them getting scratched up, which many of them do.

Its funny, over the years projects come and go in popularity, but the pencil box is -always- popular.

I am going to show you a project that you will love. I would have loved to be given such a project during my training. There is a technical school in Basel, Switzerland (my old home) for mechanics and machinists. They run a training workshop so the guys can have some hands-on experience. I remember spending months in such a school filing and sawing.... and scraping the famous cube whose sides had all to be flat and square without using any machine tool..... Anyways, this school workshop in Basel decided some 10 years ago that it was a good idea to let the apprentices make something more useful.... something that they could buy themselves once made, or that could be sold to improve the funding for the school: a lathe.

The lathe is named after a flute used in Basel during carneval: Piccolo. I just tried to look up the link..... and surprise surprise now even the enciclopedia of machine tools (Lathes.co.uk) has a page for this piccolo lathe:
Page Title

And here the original link to the Lehrwerkstatt (Polytechnic training school) in Basel:
piccolo 102DA

Sorry its in German, they do not really push export. Although some 10 years ago I enquired and was given prices. I think I still have some more info in a Piccolo folder in my Yahoo group 8x18_lathe.

The Piccolo is a very fine lathe, leadscrew between the bedways, VFD, scraped bedways... an ideal learning project, at at the end you can if so inclined take it home.

Just imagine a school like this was available in Australia.... maybe a TAFE course "make your own lathe"? I would want to return to school!!!! What about you?
Chris