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Rick Moyer
03-23-2009, 7:21 AM
I may soon take possession of an old Sears metal lathe model 109.20630 that was my late uncle's. I am very intrigued by this lathe and wondered if any of you have or have used similar. Unfortunately I don't know much about metal lathes, but expect it could be very useful (plus fun to play with;)). I don't even know what items in his shop go with the lathe, beyond the measuring tools.
I have sent for the 7 page manual and also a book regarding the use of a metal lathe. I just thought someone here may have some insight as well.

David G Baker
03-23-2009, 10:05 AM
I have a heavy duty 10 inch South Bend lathe and I love it. I don't use it as often as I would like to but it is there if I need it. I do not do a lot of tight tolerance stuff, in fact most of my lathe work is cutting the metal until it fits. I also use it to do a lot of plastic cutting. There are a few sights on the Internet that have quite a bit of information on them that could help you out. If I can trigger my aging memory as to what the site locations are I will get back to you. Tooling is where the cost is, not unlike woodworking. Think you will have a lot of fun cutting on metal. Unlike wood, if you bring metal shavings into the house you will be in deep doo doo cause they can cut and are very uncomfortable on bare feet. :D
I would really like to have a much bigger lathe. I spend a lot of time on Craigslist hoping to find one in my area that is larger than 13 inches. Michigan has or had a lot of retired auto industry tool and die guys so the equipment is out there.
I looked up your model number and found one on Ebay for sale. It is a cute little thing. It is smaller than I thought it would be but you can still do a lot of work with it if you are interested. Be careful, cutting metal is as addictive as cutting wood and just as much fun.

Mike Wilkins
03-23-2009, 10:15 AM
I have a Sears Craftsman Lathe, model number 109-21270, but I have yet to get is set up and running. One missing gear on the main drive.
You can go to the old woodworking machines web site, OWWM and download a manual and parts diagram for some of these smaller lathes.
There is also a source of parts for these machines. I hope it does'nt violate the terms of the creek by posting this: homeshopsupply.com.
After I get this small beauty up and running, I plan to use it to make some small parts such as brass knobs and maybe even some jig parts.
Good luck and watch those fingers.

Jason Beam
03-23-2009, 11:56 AM
Mine isn't old iron, but it's a mini lathe, nonetheless :D

In december I got a Grizzly 7x12 metal lathe. It came with the chuck, both sets of jaws, a steady rest and a few other things. I've been having a blast with it these last few months learning how to tune it up and such.

The first thing I spent some effort on was learning the proper names for stuff. Cross slide, compound, saddle, carriage, tool post, tool holder... there's lotsa new jargon with these little guys.

They sure are fun to muck around with. I've not made much in the way of useful stuff yet, but I have managed to turn a few threads and got familliar with the gears and such.

There are a boatload of yahoo groups for this stuff, and I also suggest checking out mini-lathe.com as well. Even though it isn't about your lathe in particular, you can still get lots of useful information from there like tool position, feed rates, speeds, etc etc.

Congrats! :)

P.S. Don't turn it on with the chuck key in place!

Kyle Kraft
03-23-2009, 12:20 PM
I also have a Sears lathe made by Atlas here in good ol' Kalamazoo. The machine has been gone through (by me) and fully restored/repainted. It works good for emergency projects at home, but if I need some accurate threading I have it done elsewhere. Mine has a nifty little vertical slide that mounts on the cross slide and is supposed to be a milling attachment. It works like a horizontal boring mill. The cutter mounts on the lathe spindle and the workpiece on the slide.

Keith Outten
03-23-2009, 12:53 PM
I have a South Bend 9 that it took me 20 years to find. I was looking for one that was in pristine condition with all the accessories. I found it about 5 years ago and made my on "L" shaped steel bench for it.

Yesterday I bought the little Unimat metal lathe that Marty Purselley had for sale on our Classified Forum here. The Unimat is destined to go to the shop at CNU for small repairs, sign work and maybe a little pen turning. It's so small it is basically a portable machine so it should come in very handy.

Mike, Sears is pretty good about stocking parts for their metal lathes. I owned a couple of the Sears metal lathes in the past and ordered parts frequently.
.

Rick Moyer
03-23-2009, 2:57 PM
Mike, I have spoken with Bill there at homeshopsupply. Thanks anyway for the link.
To all, I don't even know what I can do with a small metal lathe. I am interested in what things people have done or made who have them. This is a small lathe but seems to be very well made.

Dave Lehnert
03-23-2009, 8:45 PM
I may soon take possession of an old Sears metal lathe model 109.20630 that was my late uncle's. I am very intrigued by this lathe and wondered if any of you have or have used similar. Unfortunately I don't know much about metal lathes, but expect it could be very useful (plus fun to play with;)). I don't even know what items in his shop go with the lathe, beyond the measuring tools.
I have sent for the 7 page manual and also a book regarding the use of a metal lathe. I just thought someone here may have some insight as well.

Here is a link to an owners manual for that lathe.

http://www.owwm.com/mfgIndex/pubdetail.aspx?id=2112