One of the tools I use a lot for my work is a metal lathe. For many years I have owned a beautiful behemoth from 1959 made by Cincinnati You can do a lot of work with a big lathe, but it is not as convenient for smaller pieces. I have had my eye on a smaller machine to complement my big Cincinnati for the last year. I finally was able to purchase one- where? of course, eBay!
The lathe was located in Worcester Massachusetts. It had been owned by the recently closed United Screw Machine Products Inc. The son of the original owner was on hand and said their business had been primarily with Stanley in Connecticut. As Stanley has moved more and more manufacturing overseas, their business slowly shrank. The building was a beautiful classic brick factory.
The Loading was done by a professional rigger who was on hand to load the rest of the machines which had been sold as a lot. I actually bought my lathe from the dealer who had bought the entire inventory of machines. Here the rigger backs down a steep ramp to get to my truck.
My truck is loaded! Aside from the lathe, a drill press, maple work bench and a few other grimy goodies make it on the load. It actually turns out to be quite a load!
The trip back to the shop is easy and I quickly offload it with my much smaller forklift. Here it is on the ground.
…..And moved into place in the metal shop. You can just see the end of my bigger lathe in the lower left of this photo. The size of the Hardinge Lathe is just one thing. The real advantage is that it is set-up to do small runs of production parts. It features a rotating turret that allows you to rapidly move through numerous tools and perform different operations without changing tooling. It is going to be perfect to make the rod ends for pieces like my Callisto Table. I can’t wait to use it!
