Thread: Free lathe / intro

Hi all. Bryan here. Just joined. I'm in my 40s and live in a quiet town in South Australia.

I've just been given a lathe. (Sorry, inline images don't seem to work.) If I'm measuring right, it's about 11" x 20". It was being scrapped because someone had fed the carriage into an immovable object and crunched some stuff to do with power feeds. I don't imagine it's worth trying to replace all that stuff. So it's strictly a hand feed machine, which is a shame. But also not, because that's the only reason I own it. With no back gears, spindle speeds are limited to about 300 - 800 RPM, so big stuff is out too. So overall a bit limited but way better than nothing.

Its origin was a mystery. It has imperial scales and SAE fasteners, but I couldn't find any branding anywhere. It has the 'cheap & cheerful' feel we now tend to associate with Chinese stuff, but it's got to be 30 years old. Finally, after what seemed like a week of scrubbing, I found a badge on the chuck, which starts to make sense. I guess it could just apply to the chuck, but lacking any other ID, I have to assume it's a PUTm brand lathe. So my question is: Does anyone know anything about Putm machines, or Polish stuff, or other iron curtain exports?

It's a bit short on tooling. The 3 jaw chuck with reverse jaws and a faceplate is about all it came with. So I'm on the lookout for a few items.

You can probably tell I'm not a machinist, just a tinkerer. I did do a year of fitting & turning night classes at TAFE in a different century. Lathe ownership, like fatherhood, has come as something of a surprise. But I'm enjoying playing with my new toy, and looking forward to refreshing my skills and learning more. From the bit of reading I've done here, there's a very good signal/noise ratio, and it seems like a nice place to hang out. Thanks for reading.

That is a very nice lathe.. Personally I would repair the damaged parts it is worth it..

Some lathes (Colchesters) have a shear pin made of mild steel (a nail will do) on the lead screw to prevent damage. It may be as simple as replacing the pin, stranger things have happened. It looks like a Bison brand logo on the chuck.

It looks pretty much like your generic Taiwan made machine of the early 1980's. I have one which is branded "McMillan" . Very similar to yours except mine doesn't have the US style handwheel arrangement like yours. I'd say that only the chuck you have is Polish. I reckon you would be able to buy replacement parts for yours as well. Not sure where but Hare & Forbes would be a good place to start.
I wonder why the feed shaft and engaing levers have been removed? If that was all damaged as well as the feed box it must have been a monumentaly crash. Maybe it was just the feed shaft itself that was damaged somehow. In one of your pics before you cleaned the machine up, it shows the feed box and leadscrew still fitted. did you check the box out. If the gears inside are not damaged it might not be that big a job to repair. same for the lack of a back gear. You might be able to get parts.
If all else fails you could run it via a VFD which will give you good spindle speed control and you could also look at using a stepper motor to drive the lead screw and a feed shaft.
Do search on electronic lead screw drive or something like that. I have seen a few articles on this but don't have the info at hand. Apparently if set up correctly they are very accurate.
regards
bollie7

I agree with RC, no better way to learn a bit about your machine than to pull it apart and have a look. Plus the feed geartrain is probably the most complex part of the lathe, as its already stuffed you have nothing to lose if you pull it apart and cant get it back together again!

There are guys on here who can help you locating new gears or who could even cut them for you. Just photo everything as you pull it apart and bag and tag the pieces so you can figure out where they go when it comes time to put it back together.

As said above, with any luck it is just a shear pin thats let go!

Brendan

P.S Im almost certain the owner of this site will be able to positively ID the machine for you: http://lathes.co.uk/

The Badge has an image of what appears to be an American Bison ...could it be from the states?

I didn't know Poland was a state of the USA But I never heard of Eskimos in Adelaide either so what do I know?

I'm liking the Taiwanese idea. I've emailed Tony at lathes.co.uk. Poor guy must get a lot of similar emails.

I have the gearbox and leadscrew, and can get the feed shaft. (I had to strip it to move it on my own, and I didn't bother refitting some items.) They are intact as far as I know, though I haven't inspected them closely. Apart from the whole back-gear assembly, there's at least one change gear missing, and something in the carriage is missing too. Will suss it all out further when I get a chance. But a positive ID would give me some optimism. I can assure you the guy who owned it is no fool. He wouldn't have ditched it for want of a shear pin.

Thanks for your interest guys.

i agree with Bollie7 its an import for sure you maybe able to find another like it but then what ever you find will probably be in better condition than yours lol do you want to be able to cut threads? looks like your half nut is fine (i said that at work and everyone gave me an odd look the same look when i said left hand thread...) thats good if you can find or get someone to make you that extra gear then it shouldn't be to bad also its not recommended but you can use that same threading half nut to feed the carriage but it would need to be very slow

good luck with getting this old girl up and running

Ok. In my earlier post I said it was similar to mine which is branded a McMillan. I have the original book that came with mine and it is a "Hondan" brand. (even though mine is badged McMillan). The book covers models L-560, L-850 and L-900. As far as I can tell from the book the main difference between the L-560 and the other 2 is the length. The L-560 is 440mm from the front face of the chuck jaws to the point of the dead centre with the end of the tailstock level with the end of the bed and the others this size is 802mm.
Strangely there is no information at all in the book about where the machine was made or by who.The inspection record that I have has Oct 1981 as the inspection date.
I believe the same basic machine was also sold as a "Lontaine" which some kind soul has scanned the book of and posted on the web.
www.metalillness.com :: View topic - Lantaine LAM-350BH Lathe Manual Online

I have seen quite a few of these machines (or at least pics of them) and they are all very similar. sometimes the motor switch is in a different place or the leadscrew engaging lever is on the top (like yours) instead of the front etc. But the basic machine looks the same.
Unfortunately I have a slow wirleess broadband connection (Thanks Vodafone) that recently has got down to near dial up speed so I'm not downloading these files. (most are around 7mb).
I can also scan my book but that will take me a couple of days.From memory I think its pretty much the same as whats at the link above.
regards
bollie7

Bollie7, I think you've nailed it. Looking at the line drawings in the manuals you linked, that's my baby. Now I have a name I'm getting somewhere with Google. Lots of reading to do. Thank you!

well one thing stands out......its not american....

pics on page 10 of the manual is identical to the pic you posted Bryan

Bryan, hi, is similar to the one I have, the bed mounting feet look very close to mine, have look at the back of the bed around the middle, mine has the initials KS cast on it, I think it stand for KIN SHIN, I read some where they were the manufacturers in Taiwan, mine is from the late seventies, I know because I bought it from work whe the motor died, and they replaced it with a crap one from you know where, if you like to check my web page, I have a some what documented clean up and re-spray,
Cheers, Richard.

Had a look at your site. That's some very tidy work there Richard. Don't know if I want to aspire to your standard. My starting point is a bit different I think. Keep finding more evidence of 'rougher than usual handling'. I should catalogue the horrors, just for laughs. But yes it's certainly similar. If anything mine would be slightly later I reckon. No initials though. Thanks for that.

Had a look at your site. That's some very tidy work there Richard. Don't know if I want to aspire to your standard

Thanks Bryan, appreciate the comment, my standard is at the bottom end of the scale compared to others in this group, any body can do it, all you need is for SWMBO, to let you do it, you have to enjoy doing it, and some patience to do it with,
cheers,
Richard.

Oh don't get me wrong, I can certainly relate to that type of restorative work; in different circumstances I'm be up it like the proverbial. It's just not where I'm at or where this project is at right now. I'm still grappling with fundamental issues of functionality.