My name is Dustin and I have an old iron addiction

[averagef250]

More pictures

[Redcap]

Nice! How big is the throat? I mean, what diameter piece can it take?

[averagef250]

The spindle hole is about 2". The US "heavy iron" didn't usually have large spindle holes. This lathe was high tech for RP when they designed it in the 30's. The design is actually pretty cool because thier selling point wasn't being the fanciest lathe out there (Monarch and American Machine had that down pretty good) RP just took some of the best points, kept spindle speed reasonable for the times and made a lathe that was very user friendly, especially for threading, and above all else was easy to fix when it broke. The way this machine is actually built and assembled makes it straightforward to keep running and in adjustment. The government and especially the military ate these things up. Most of the RP's ever sold went to the US Navy. I think the Navy also liked them for shipboard use because they gearboxes are reasonably oil tight and the way the carraige is designed you can run these things at any angle, upside down if you had to.

[FreakysFords]

A thing of beauty man (said jealously )

Frank

[bb429power]

Hi, my name is Justin.
Crowd (sighing)- Hiiiiiiiii Justin
And I'm addicted to iron.

[averagef250]

I didn't get as far as I'd hoped on it today. I had a really hard time getting the clutch bar, lead and feed screws out so I could remove the apron. When the machine was rebuilt or at some other time, many of the tapered pins that hold everything together were installed backwards, meaning I couldn't get to them without taking other pieces off the machine first. I was hoping to send the apron and carraige in to be hot tanked together. The shop I'd expected to hot tank the pieces for me doesn't want to do it for any price. I was pretty surprised about this, been doing business with them for 12 years and they've done far worse than this for me. Anybody know a shop in portland with a good hot tank? If I can't find a shop tomorrow morning I will buy some iron cleaning solution to run in my big washer, wash this stuff then dump it and switch it back to the aluminum wash I have to run for business.

[OldRedFord]

How did you get it off the trailer? I see some chain and a engine crane. But that cant be all .

[averagef250]

How did you get it off the trailer? I see some chain and a engine crane. But that cant be all .

I drug the lathe, tailstock end picked by the cherry picker with my chainfall on the ground and the trailer tires chalked. I put toe jacks under each side of the rear part of the trailer. When the headstock end was about 3" from falling off I placed a level across the ways and started dropping the toe jacks 1/4" at a time, keeping the machine level as it went down to avoid toppling it. I set both ends of the lathe down on about 12" of wood cribbage. I have two points of contact under the headstock and one under the tailstock. You always want 3 points under heavy machinery, not 4. 4 points is fine if it's just sitting there, but it can give a false sense of stability because 4 points are never equally loaded under a machine that hasn't been properly leveled.

I want to clean and paint everything that's hard to get to when the lathe is set against the wall while it's easy to get to. Once I have the backside of the machine cleaned and painted I will lift it off the cribbage with 3 toe jacks and lower it down with two levels on the ways 1/4" at a click per jack onto machine skates and roll it into place. Then I'll lift it off the skates with the toe jacks. I will lower it down onto 3 stacks of 1/4" plywood just high enough to get the toe jacks out when the jacks are bottomed out. To get the plywood out I'll use my 8' bertha bar lowering each stack one piece of plywood at a time. Actually, I'll probably use the cherry picker on the tailstock end to lower it.

The biggest thing guys mess up with is not using the level to judge where the machine is at. Most lathes have a really high center of gravity. This RP is really front heavy, I bet there's 2500 lbs under the tailstock end, 2500 under the rear of the headstock and 4000 under the front of the headstock. If I let it tip more than a few degrees to the front it would topple.

[hdpusher]

Ok, try this. If it works it should show a pic of the F.E.Reed lathe. These pics are about 6 years old.

http://members.cox.net/lineshaft/Lineshaft_Photos.htm

Very Nice!!

By looking at your shop I guess you whould have to know how to pour Babbit.

[averagef250]

I spoke with the shop with the good hot tank again this morning and got them to do the tanking for me. Yesterday was just an off day for the owner, not related to this at all. The parts are soaking now and they're going to leave them in until tuesday for me. 4 days in there and the pieces will be like new when they come out. Tomorrow morning I'll be moving my big Mazak with the help of some friends to make room for this little Reed Prentice. The Mazak is only a 22X60, but weighs 13,000 and has twice the footprint of the RP.

[OldRedFord]

Keep us updated. I want to see how this goes.

[shizal]

i wish i could afford habits like that... beer and cigs are more down my street...or my ford.. but, i love working with metal...you know your good when your a craftsmen.. instead of a tradesmen...i have worked with metal almost everyday for almost 15 years.. which isn't that long for some of you. but, i'm 28..


i'm really just glad you guys decide to be metal junkies. instead of... well, you know...


happy trails..

[averagef250]

i wish i could afford habits like that... beer and cigs are more down my street...or my ford.. but, i love working with metal...you know your good when your a craftsmen.. instead of a tradesmen...i have worked with metal almost everyday for almost 15 years.. which isn't that long for some of you. but, i'm 28..


i'm really just glad you guys decide to be metal junkies. instead of... well, you know...


happy trails..

I share the same view about it. There's far worse things I could do with my time and money. The work I do is my life, it's what I truely enjoy doing. If I couldn't use my hands everyday I'd have a rough go of it.

Truthfully, this stuff doesn't cost all that much. I paid $1200 for this Reed Prentice, the chucks and toolpost are worth most if not more than that at fair craigslist price. #1 prepared scrap iron price is way more than that for this. I paid less than scrap for it. I paid $600 and 12 pack of beer for my 22X60 Mazak M4 CNC, the same lathe is on ebay for $32,000 right now. These machines can easily pay for themselves in one job. An old Ford truck can do the same thing. Anyway, I bought this Reed Prentice because I've been using a southbend 10K for most of the turning in my business in the last 3 years and it is not a "real lathe" it's a hobby machine. I've got the Southbend for sale and will sell it for most of the cost of the reed. I'll have a few hundred bucks tyed up in cleaning and painting costs for the reed. But, on the same turn I have driveline jobs lined up for this lathe already. I should average $50 profit per driveline job, probably do atleast a few every month. Doesn't take long to start paying the bills with this stuff.

[R.Smith]

Did it have any War Ordinace Board plaques on it? I've plucked more than a few of those off of doomed machines over the years. "Paint for this machine approved by the War Ordinance Board" ect... Ifound one on an old Cincinnati horz mill about a month ago from the "Naval Artillary and Ordinance Board".

My favorite tag was actually a brass oil hole cover off the apron on the FE Reed. It looked like a flat round key fob and had "Oil the Worm" cast into it. I had a friend make several castings of it for key chains.

[R.Smith]

Another tip for anyone thinking of getting into machine tools and such, an old WW2 navy machinist gave me one of the best books written if you're just getting into it and plan on using pre CNC machines...and it's site appropriate! It's the machinists textbook from the Henry Ford Technical School. Mine was printed in 1941. You can still find them on the net. I think it's called "Shop Theory".

I've also got some machinsts books circa 1900. Interesting reading. Apparently whale oil mixed with mineral spirits was a good cutting fluid. Throw in some "potash" and it's great for treating burns.