Our New Lathe Arrived This Morning.

[jackie schmidt]

The truck with our new Lathe and two machinery movers showed up at 6:00 AM this morning. The movers came equipped with a 100,000 lb fork truck, a 10,000 pound fork truck, and a couple of machinery rollers.

They moved the old Lathe out ito position in the shopThey then put the new Lathe on the truck that brought in the fork trucks. They lifted the old Lathe, drove the truck under it, and he was loaded and ready to head back to Chicago.
They then drove the truck with the new Lathe on board into the shop and picked it up and set it right down where we wanted it.

Watching these two guys work was a pleasure. They knew exactly what they were doing. The entire loading and moving was done by noon.

I’m going to level the Lathe tomorrow, my brothers will hook it up, and have it running.

Here are some pictures.

http://benchrest.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=23159&stc=1&d=1575592823

 

[jackie schmidt]

http://benchrest.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=23161&stc=1&d=1575593233

http://benchrest.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=23162&stc=1&d=1575593308

http://benchrest.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=23163&stc=1&d=1575593832

If you notice the precision Starret transit in the last picture, that is what we use to shoot the Lathe in. A precision level across the ways keeps it level across the bed.

 

[alinwa]

fantastic Jackie..... thank you!

Now, how do you keep it from banana'ing side to side? Do you finalize the setup by making cuts up and down a full-length piece of bar stock and jacking to cut? Or is that frame rigid enough to set down fairly straight?

 

[jackie schmidt]

fantastic Jackie..... thank you!

Now, how do you keep it from banana'ing side to side? Do you finalize the setup by making cuts up and down a full-length piece of bar stock and jacking to cut? Or is that frame rigid enough to set down fairly straight?

Al, you lay a precision straightedge across the ways at each foot with a high resolution level. This gets each foot level side to side.

The lengthwise level is done with the transit. You simply place a steel rule on the bed and check the number on the transit crosshairs. You move the rule to each foot and adjust until each is exactly the same height on the transit crosshairs. While adjusting the jacking bolts on the feet, you keep checking with the level to keep any twist out.

We check all of our log bed lathes periodically to Keep them reasonably level.

 

[alinwa]

What I am trying to ask is..... does something that long try to curve sideways, like a road. Like if someone ran into the tailstock with the forklift ...... or big temperature swings...... heck we work on scales that size and they stretch/shrink an inch from dawn to noon, out in the sun.

 

[jackie schmidt]

What I am trying to ask is..... does something that long try to curve sideways, like a road. Like if someone ran into the tailstock with the forklift ...... or big temperature swings...... heck we work on scales that size and they stretch/shrink an inch from dawn to noon, out in the sun.

Al, in my experience, the answer is no. These lathes are quite substantial in the amount cast iron employed in their construction, making the bed quit stiff.

I finished leveling this morning. These pictures show the process. You work each end , getting level and getting the twist out, then the six middle feet, going back and double checking and torquing each jacking bolt to 50 ft lbs.

http://benchrest.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=23164&stc=1&d=1575645465

http://benchrest.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=23165&stc=1&d=1575645551

http://benchrest.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=23166&stc=1&d=1575645704

 

[Jim Kobe]

Earlier in my life, we put in a number of newer machines, not too unlike yours. Doing it required us to lay a new, separate concrete slab under each machine. Is that no longer considered necessary? I remember once levelling up a big American someone opened the shop door and the level went crazy. It was something like -30F outside.

 

[Fotheringill]

Where do you put the case neck?

 

[blades]

many years ago a customer called and complained about his newly installed lathe- intermittent rough cuts and intermittent out round spots in longer length cuts. He could not quite grasp the thought of the drop forge next door causing his difficulties. Took quite a bit to isolate the lathe from the ground shock waves. Way back when that area was pretty much a big bog filled in over the years with anything and every thing. So in some cases setting up an independent pad for a machine is needed and in some cases it is necessary to excavate a fair depth and build back up from that point to accomplish the isolation.

 

[rsmithsr]

or when near the ocean, to worry about tides and water table.
a tool not in use in high tides!

many years ago a customer called and complained about his newly installed lathe- intermittent rough cuts and intermittent out round spots in longer length cuts. He could not quite grasp the thought of the drop forge next door causing his difficulties. Took quite a bit to isolate the lathe from the ground shock waves. Way back when that area was pretty much a big bog filled in over the years with anything and every thing. So in some cases setting up an independent pad for a machine is needed and in some cases it is necessary to excavate a fair depth and build back up from that point to accomplish the isolation.

 

[jackie schmidt]

Earlier in my life, we put in a number of newer machines, not too unlike yours. Doing it required us to lay a new, separate concrete slab under each machine. Is that no longer considered necessary? I remember once levelling up a big American someone opened the shop door and the level went crazy. It was something like -30F outside.

Jim, that lathe, like all of our large machines, sits on a independent pad.

The floor of the shop is 12 inches. The 50 foot x 8 foot wide pad that the Lathe sits on is 4 ft thick with pliiars.

In Two of our older buildings, we had to bust out the floor and have similar pad poured for a 28 ft LeBlond we bought 10 years ago and the 32 ft Leeman we bought 25 years ago.

Even on such a substantial pad, we still periodically check the long machines, because we are still sitting on what is a reclaimed swamp.

 

[brickeyee]

Years ago we had to install a larger vibration table.

The older 1050s model (even with upgraded control and drive electronics) just could not handle the weight of larger newer satellite equipment.
We needed reliability demonstration on equipment over temp.

Months of testing for vibration and hot/cold (-55C to +125 C) cycles.

And then we had to add heating and cooling equipment to the spacecraft to make sure we stayed in those limits.

If you want a high Confidence Interval it takes a huge number of hours.

Satellites with an hourly orbit are a nightmare.

 

[michaeljp65]

Can i ask what are you going to be using that lathe for? What sort of manufacturing do you do?

 

[Zebra13]

Jackie,

Once you get that thing all dialed in, what kind of tolerances can you expect when turning something the length, or thereabouts, of the bed?

Justin

 

[alinwa]

Can i ask what are you going to be using that lathe for? What sort of manufacturing do you do?

and please Jackie..... include those pix of you and your men machining those walk-through crankshaft journals

 

[jackie schmidt]

Can i ask what are you going to be using that lathe for? What sort of manufacturing do you do?

We are in the Marine Machine Shop Business. We will do anything that comes out of a shipyard, but our specialty is new construction and repair on Prop Shafts, Rudder Stocks, Steering Systems and Shaft and Rudder Bearings for Inland Tugboats. We also specialize in align boring the shaft bearing fits in various vessels.

The typical shafts we machine are between 24 and 36 feet long, 6” to 10” in diameter.

 

[michaeljp65]

We are in the Marine Machine Shop Business. We will do anything that comes out of a shipyard, but our specialty is new construction and repair on Prop Shafts, Rudder Stocks, Steering Systems and Shaft and Rudder Bearings for Inland Tugboats. We also specialize in align boring the shaft bearing fits in various vessels.

The typical shafts we machine are between 24 and 36 feet long, 6” to 10” in diameter.

Thanks for your reply. that would be incredible to see in action. Have you any videos of you machining a shaft of that diameter?

 

[jackie schmidt]

Thanks for your reply. that would be incredible to see in action. Have you any videos of you machining a shaft of that diameter?

I have some, but while I can download pictures, the sight will not take videos unless put on YouTube.

 

[michaeljp65]

All good thanks mate.

 

[Tim Oltersdorf]

Tight fit through the spindle

Yeah, but will it chamber an unlimited barrel? Tim