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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    Mallacoota,VIC,Australia
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    53
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    1,010

    Default Giant Vertical Lathe

    Large Vertical Lathe.jpgI just spotted this Vertical Lathe in an email from homemadetools and I thought I would share it on here as not everyone would be a member of homemadetools. I'm going to order one and make washers in the garden shed with it.
    All The Best steran50 Stewart

    The shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing at once.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    South of Adelaide
    Posts
    1,225

    Default

    That's been going around all the machining related social media for about a week or so. if you look closely at the pic you can see the slideways that the columns can move back on to give more swing, that is why the bridge looks so out of proportion to diameter of the table.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Location
    Sydney
    Posts
    505

    Default

    As illustrated, it was really designed for precision machined street intersection roundabouts.
    Nice kit, but postage from overseas may be a bit exe.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
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    Mallacoota,VIC,Australia
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    Default

    I searched online just now and found the same picture dated 1929. I looked at the picture again and your right Snapatap. I wonder what they machined on it. I was hoping the postage would be free - LOL. I just came across this website with pictures of other big machines Industrial History: Big Machine Tools
    All The Best steran50 Stewart

    The shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing at once.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jan 2016
    Location
    Wodonga Vic
    Age
    38
    Posts
    633

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by steran50 View Post
    I searched online just now and found the same picture dated 1929. I looked at the picture again and your right Snapatap. I wonder what they machined on it. I was hoping the postage would be free - LOL. I just came across this website with pictures of other big machines Industrial History: Big Machine Tools
    This one looks similar to a Craven I run at work, except for the extra saddle.

    Edit: Actually, it looks more like our Poreba
    17103624_10154140774226736_6344288306906126927_n.jpg

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Aug 2012
    Location
    Greenmount, W.A.
    Age
    70
    Posts
    272

    Default

    The Western Australian Government Railways had a huge manufacturing facility at Midland, known of course as the Midland Railways Workshop. In the mid to late 80's the government decided to close the workshop. My neighbour worked there. He told me a number of now ex staff wanted to buy some of the machinery and lease back some workshop space, and go into business making and repairing what they did before they became redundant. "NO" said the government and everything was scrapped! This included the largest horizontal lathe in the southern hemisphere, which was capable of turning the driving wheels for the the Flying Scotsmam, which I think are 16' in diameter! As anaside, the cost of maintaining rolling stock jumped to almost double the previous year. Also, as the Workshop trained apprentices, within 10 years we were importing "skilled" tradesmen from overseas to fill the gap. We still do this!

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Location
    Mackay North Qld
    Posts
    6,446

    Default

    When I worked at the Alumina refinery at Gladstone there was a smaller( in diameter) beastie in the machine shop.

    It was a couple of stories high and somewhere around 2.5m in diameter. You might get 2 minis on the table, closed up.

    However it was always referred to by machine shop fitters as a vertical borer, never as a lathe.

    Grahame

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Location
    York, North Yorkshire UK
    Posts
    6,439

    Default

    Hi Guys,

    What's in a name ! Boring or turning, its still a whopper of a machine.

    When I was much younger the local foundry that made wheels for colliery waggons and trains had a large vertical lathe that they used for turning wheel castings and Iron tires.
    Best Regards:
    Baron J.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    Narrabeen, Sydney NSW Australia
    Posts
    101

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by steran50 View Post
    Large Vertical Lathe.jpg...I'm going to order one and make washers in the garden shed with it.
    bigger-shed.jpg

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