Standard Modern Lathe opinions?

Hi all - I'm looking into a Standard Modern lathe that's for sale (13" x 40" with a 17" gap). I have not actually seen this one yet. I have never heard anything bad about SM's, and the ones I've seen seemed solid. However, they were all pretty old. This one is mid 70's. (not so old in 'lathe-years' in my book anyway). There is one on eBay (not the one I'm looking at buying) which is also 1970's vintage, and it looks alot like the far east lathes I'd prefer not to buy if I can find something better. That is, from the photo it looks a bit 'tinkier' (short, not very massive gear box) than the SM's I remember.

So the question is, can anyone tell me if the quality of these lathes changed drastically around or before this time frame, or all things being equal is this still liable to be a decently built lathe? (Normal wear etc on this particular specimen taken into account of course.)

TIA

Mickey

Reply to
Mickey Feldman
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Standard Modern from what i saw of their products make and have made pretty solid stuff the whole way through their life. I'm almost positive they are still based in Missisauga (Technically they are Canadian iron not American iron)

I keep seeing them Canadian Govt surplus and well govt is not known for buying crap. Overpaying for good stuff is one thing. Once i get my shop built and a mill in I plan to pick one up and recondition it using the mill and my old atlas 10" then likely sell the atlas and keep the standard

I Cant say i've seen one that looked like a poorly built machine (Worn out is a different story of course) But as for "Looking far east" the CLausing 8520 and 8530 technically "Look" far east too

Because the far east 1000 pound mill is almost always a clausing copy

Reply to
Brent

So when I actually saw the lathe it turned out not to be a Standard Modern after all.

It is a 'Western', and looks very nicely built and in good shape so far as I could tell, but is nearly bare naked of tooling. There was a

3-jaw chuck and a drive plate. That's it. Not so much as a dead center or wrench. The spindle is neither camlock nor threaded, but has a steep keyed taper and a threaded collar which draws the chuck up tight. I'm sure I've seen these, but don't recall what they're called. They seem to be scarce enough around here that I decided to pass on the lathe for now. I've already had a lathe with an oddball spindle and spent a couple of years of not finding anything that fit.

Anyone else on Vancouver Island looking for stuff he's closing up his shop in Courtney and also has a largish (24in? x 72in?) lathe that's looking for a home, and a bunch of odds & ends.

Mickey

Reply to
Mickey Feldman

That sounds like the long taper "L" series spindle nose, L00 et al.

Most tool sales places have (or can get) adaptor plates for them.

Not as common as the D series camlocks, but not altogether rare.

Cheers Trevor Jones

Reply to
Trevor Jones

Wish i had enough room to spare for a 5 ton machine but i doubt i could even afford the toolling for a monster like that let alone my being in ottawa

Reply to
Brent

Those monsters generally go for less than scrap price here in Southern Ontario. Anything over about a 10" swing and 42 inch bed is a "specialty" item and not too many hobbyists or small shop owners want them. And if someone offers you a big standard modern CNC lathe, RUN THE OTHER WAY!!! What a troublesome piece of scrap!!

Reply to
clare at snyder.on.ca

Thats an L 0 or L00 taper. VERY nice and pretty common.

"Liberalism is a philosophy of consolation for Western civilization as it commits suicide"

- James Burnham

Reply to
Gunner

commits suicide"

Quoting Trotskyists now? LOL

Reply to
Ed

We had one in our shop.

Amen to that.

It was not that the machine was bad, it was that the controller(centurion pc based, IIRC) was not well set up. I doubt that ours had 20 hours of run time on it, and most of that was while one tech or another was trying to get it to work as advertised.

When it left out shop it was not worn at all, and it was not missed. Either it went on to a carrer as engine blocks, or it had a retrofitted control. Dunno, but not our problem anymore.

Cheers Trevor Jones

Reply to
Trevor Jones

I spent almost 60 hours trying to get one to make 20 identical parts in a row. That darn thing was all overthe map. I eventually got it from about 45 good parts out of 100 to abount 96. It's still in use, but I'm waiting for it to be available to make some slat rollers for my Pegazair - part payment for fixing (sorta) the P.O.S.

Reply to
clare at snyder.on.ca

It's not a Kestrel 17" that came from Crown Assets is it? :-)

About two years back?

Cheers Trevor Jones

Reply to
Trevor Jones

No, it's a Kestrel that was purchaced brand new just before the beggars went T.U. Factory service was non-existant.It was over 3 years ago that I played around with it over the course of a month or two and got it tamed down to the point it was almost usefull.

Reply to
clare at snyder.on.ca

Hmm...

Just wonderin where the one out of our shop ended up. It's a small world, so you never do know.

Cheers Trevor Jones

Reply to
Trevor Jones

If there is any justice in the world it's been melted down into a chinese machine tool by now. It was pretty close to a Hu Flung Dung to start with!!!

Reply to
clare at snyder.on.ca

I thought the basic iron looked OK. Couldn't form an opinion on how durable it was, though. :-) I know the one we had looked like a new machine when we got shut of it.

The auto tool changer on ours was a sequential unit, that barely worked for us and poorly when it did, even when the instructions were followed to the letter.

The controller was based on a 286 or 386 computer board, with all the attendant age issues. Few in our shop spent enough time near it to program it directly, even poorly, and the post processor that we got for it seemed to be OK, but...who knows for sure.

The one that got it sent out the door was when it started randomly rapiding the carriage either towards or away from the headstock during ops. Messy.

Cheers Trevor Jones

Reply to
Trevor Jones

It's favorite trick was to change tangetial tool position randomly anywhere from half a thou to 10 thou at a time, one way or the other at the end of every (random number) of passes. One part the right diameter, two 4 thou too small, 5 the right size 2, one thou too big,

2 one thou two small, one the right size, one one under, ten good ones, 3 one over, 5 10 thou under - you get the picture.
Reply to
clare at snyder.on.ca

I did see something similar looking on eBay that called itself an 'L

1', but I'll need to dig up the dimensions of each of these to know which is which. Does 'VERY' mean you have specific reasons for prefering it to the alternatives?

commits suicide"

Reply to
Mickey Feldman

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Reply to
Tom

Aha! Thank you.

Mickey

Reply to
Mickey Feldman

Generally how ARE the machines crown assets lists? I mean i see some that get beat right up or tools stored outdoors and stupidity like that but has anyone bought or inspected one?

Reply to
Brent

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