A Larger Than HSM Lathe

They forgot to tell the operator that Crescent jaws should always face in the direction of the pull...

Show of hands... How many did not know that? Class.... ?

Heck, that lice center is bigger than my whole lathe.

It'd fit in my barn just fine, although it would sort of "take over" the shop. But I don't think I could stand all that bit chatter. That would drive me nuts!

LLoyd

This one is not quite as big but the shipping charges would be a lot less.

Didn't he put the force on the moving jaw against it's shortest lever arm? That looks right to me...

--Winston

This place has some fairly large machines. No lathes as big as the one on liveleak, but some that are still impressive.

I attended that auction, appx 3 years ago iirc...pretty sure that particular abortion sold at appx 15% of scrap value.

I'd be willing to bet that it's still sitting in the exact same spot..

WHy would it be sitting in the same spot if it was sold?

Ignoramus15919 fired this volley in news:-4idnWED6rwQbVzQnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

Because very often machines like that are "bundled" into a lot of otherwise attractive stuff. If the cost of cutting it up and hauling it as scrap is more than its scrap value, the winning bidder often just abandons the piece.

It happens all the time in government vehicle auctions. A guy'll bid on a "lot", and only take what he wanted in the first place, leaving the rest for the bulldozers to crush and pile.

LLoyd

I had a friend with one of those - diagonal placed in his shop.

He also had two other lathes for smaller work. :-)

Saw another in a store front shop - It was very deep store but narrow - hard to rent - but the lathe fit.

I got to see a ship - Battle ship that is barrel turning lathe once. Big. Then another member of this group pointed to one that a man could climb up on the tool post. That was very very big!

Mart>>

every auction around here always states you MUST take all items with you, if you do not, they will be removed at your expense.

"Lathes that handle up to a 350,000 lb. capacity. Lengths up to 43-feet (center to center) and swing up to 180 inches are no problem."

WW

I leave stuff at auction all the time. I just tell the auction guy, put it on craigsilst for $25, someone will come, take this item and kiss your feet. And it is true.

in

I've picked up steel bar stock and several good tools cheap by horsetraded for unwanted parts of lots after the auction. Some came from helping people load their vehicles in return for stuff they didn't want. Pay attention to who wins the bid when you lose.

jsw

I picked up trailer loads of metal and electronics at one auction that had either been left behind, or didn't sell. They had rented a large warehouse to hold the auction, and only had one day left to clean it out or pay the owner to do it.

Costs too much to move, relative to it's scrap value and also when compared to it's revenue-producing potential....cheaper to pay a small monthly space rental and keep it in place where there is material handling equipment such as heavy duty overhead cranes etc. already in place.

Plenty of large lathes boring mills etc still exist, underutilized, in the US--sitting in shipyard towns etc and almost all of them are today seriously under-utilized--it's been that way basically since Reagan, even more so since the cold war ended...most of them are seldom actually put to use these days...many of them probably never will...

IOW, unless you own and operate a heavy rigging company, they are generally not an asset....rather, oftentimes they can actually end up becoming more of a liability instead...

FWIW, in the early 80's, the Chinese Gov was quite busy buying up large, dinosaur vintage machine tools at US auctions and shipping them abroad--but pretty sure those days are long gone.

Yep, same here, on both sides of the deal.