My Delta Lathe Gloat

[Nick Fisher]

So I bought this lathe from a guy who had bought a large number of tools from a school auction. It's a Delta 46-612. The lathe would turn on, but would only turn at one speed. The cable was undone, and we thought it may have just been that, but even after hooking up the cable together, it still only turned at one speed. I decided to buy it anyway hoping that it was a small fix, and not a problem that was connected with the reeves drive(I knew very little about how a reeves drive worked at this point, I only knew that if the drive system was messed up, I would not be able to afford to replace it). I bought it for $150 and got his 2 large sons to help me load it. After I had it sitting in my shop for a couple of weeks, I decided to take a look at the problem. I had a diagram in hand and was trying to figure out what was missing. I checked it all over not understanding what the problem was until after I turned it on and moved the reeves drive by hand. Then it all clicked. The reeves drive wasn't connected to the cable. One quick trip to Lowes, and about $0.45 later, I had installed the bolt and washer and BAM, working lathe! It still ran with a little vibration, but it would turn at all speeds. I was stoked! I then thought about the belts, and decided to switch them out for some segmented belts that I had laying around. After a couple of minutes of work, I had the belts installed and was ready to go. I turned it on and couldn't believe how smooth it ran. I'm now able to balance a nickel on it's side on the bed of the lathe while it's running and it won't fall over. I couldn't believe my luck. Not bad for $150.45. :)
210124

[Joe Adams]

Great score! Very nice lathe and you can't beat the price.

[Joseph Tarantino]

a lathe is the last stationary tool i'd like for my home shop. you scored a GREAT deal. truly gloatworthy and deserving of a YOU SUCK.

[Terry Beadle]

WhooooooowaH! Major suckage !

[Don Jarvie]

People like you make me sick :)

[Phil Thien]

It looks to be in great condition!

[Bruce Page]

That would go for $2000 on our local CL. They’d never sell it but they’d never stop trying... :rolleyes:

Congrats! That was a sweet deal.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Congrats. That was one great deal.

[John Keeton]

Nick, you really lucked out on that deal - sweet lathe! Congrats! Apparently, that makes at least two lathes for you judging from the pic.

[Baxter Smith]

Great price on a very good lathe! You may someday get a bigger lathe, but I can't imagine a better buy.

[David DeCristoforo]

That lathe looks to be in great condition. For $150, you STOLE IT!!! Mine is just like it and it's a great machine. The unfortunate thing is not the Reeves drive which I happen to really like. It's the fact that this machine is heavy enough to handle much bigger pieces than you can actually mount on it. The 12" max capacity is OK but if you have to get the banjo under the stock. you are down to 10" max. It has a 16" swing at the gap but the gap is almost useless if you want to use a chuck. Nevertheless, it's a great machine and more than sufficiently robust to handle anything you can fit on it.

[charlie knighton]

good gloat, great price, good that you could figure out what was missing

[Bob Bergstrom]

I turned on one just like it for over 15yrs. The Reeves drive is bullet proof. If you want to slow it down some more you can install a jack shaft behind the motor. I fliped the motor around so the pulley was on the right instead of the original position. The jack shaft was mounted on behind the motor on some aluminum square tubing. The jack shaft then drives the lathe. Speed came down to a little over 150 rpms. I also built a outboard table to turn 24". The only problem I ran into was the belt slippage. I sprayed the belts with belting dressing and that helped. Here's some pics
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn274/bbergst/IMG_0616.jpg

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn274/bbergst/IMG_0302.jpg