We have a Harrison 12" L6 lathe that we have owned since new (circa
1966). Recently a co-op student from a local engineering school was allowed to use the lathe while making some prototype hardware and it appears that the carriage ran into the work/chuck/end stop with the result of bending the rack pinion and shaft along with breaking the boss on the back side of the apron. We have found a source for the rack pinion and bushing but the apron doesn't seem to be available. My questions are:1) Does anyone know a source for a new/used apron for this lathe?
2) We feel that we can make a new boss and have it oven brazed to the apron, rebore the pinion shaft mounting holes and have a lathe pretty much like the old lathe (somewhat tired). Does anyone see anything objectionable to this solution?3) Now comes the kicker. I know this subject has probably come up so many times that you all are probably sick of it but being a jerk has never stopped me before so here goes. If we do all of the above we'll spend a fair amount of money and engineering time (also money) we don't have technicians only engineers. This is not a production house, Hardinge quality would be wasted on us, duty cycle is about 4 hours/week on average and the users will be mostly engineers (you know what that means). What inexpensive lathe in the 9"-12" x 24"-36" is out there? How good or bad are the lathes sold by Grizzley et al? We have considerable tooling for the old Harrison including Buck chucks, 5-c collets, closer and a myriad of chucks, live centers, tool holders, etc. We don't want to rebuy all this stuff so is there a solution?
OK go ahead and tell me where I'm being stupid (nomex pants donned)
Gary Thomas