The root of all evil..

[Patrick Walsh]

Well Bruce I have blown up one of the old bulldogs. Then a new bulldog. Then a Makita, then another Makita.

But you know I used to build homes like big homes that often had one tinny little old section of house we could not knock down and would have to tie into. This type work required a arsenal of tools and at time days full of drilling hour upon hour.

Right now I simply have to drill like 15 holes in my foundation for 1/4 tapcons for a lumber storage rack. But man even though I know battery operated road art hammers are a huge no no for my task I sure wanted that sweet dewalt 20v max brushless number. Even though I also know any tool purchased at a big box store has junk internals.

The Makita I purchase with a stupid free angle grinder “don’t get me started I have a pile of free angle grinders that cam free with other tools” was $199. The dewalt was $299 tool only and I don’t own dewalt drills so it was another $119 for a battery and charger. Had I gone that route I would just purchase the $249 20v max brushless impact compact driver kit for $249. The result would had been exiting Home Depot $550 poorer plus tapcons plus a handful of bits.

I think I made a good choice. I could just purchase a real heavy duty lumber rack from McMaster Carr for $1000 so I couldn’t talk myself into $550 to drill 15 holes.

Yup I’m nuts..

Having used Bosch, Hilti, AEG, Skil( back when they made real tools,) I prefer Bosch. Hilti used to use a special style bit. I still have a couple bits in back of shop. Have an AEG that needs repacking. Have the kit, but it uses spline drive bits. My three Bosches use SDS bits. Oldest came from a former employer who closed up shop. Second (Bosch Bull Dog) was purchased used from local pawn shop for $45, and came with over a hundred bucks worth of bits. It did have a problem, which a new cord fixed. Last (another Bull Dog) in new condition from another pawn shop set me back $75. It was the last tool purchase I made while in business. Never saw one day of service, as other Bull Dog refused to die.

[Frederick Skelly]

Patrick, what the devil are you gonna do with a lathe that big? Make telephone poles?
(Ok. I get it. With a lathe that big you're gonna make anything you darn well want.)
But how often you actually gonna use it? And you gotta rent space for it?
Resist temptation man. Fight it!


Ok. I tried to help. Now. If you get it, you gotta post pictures so all the rest of us can drool. Dont leave us all hangin' man.

[Bill Dufour]

If that cost over $2,000 or so they should have bought a real lathe. A metal lathe of that size would probably go for scrap price. Only problem is a metal lathe would be RPM limited by headstock bearings. Would that size machine need a special foundation or is any slab good enough since it only needs wood accuracy?
How about nice Axelson made in California.
Bill

[Darcy Warner]

It's a fair price, I got a bit more with delivery out of the one I had, it had an outboard stand and 90% of the accessories with it, it was just ugly from sitting in a defunct pattern shop for 10 years or so. The outboard stands are worth over 1k. The guys that got mine are on IG if you want to see what they use theirs for.

Having a lathe like that, with capacity no one else has, let's you charge whatever you want for your work.

[Darcy Warner]

If that cost over $2,000 or so they should have bought a real lathe. A metal lathe of that size would probably go for scrap price. Only problem is a metal lathe would be RPM limited by headstock bearings. Would that size machine need a special foundation or is any slab good enough since it only needs wood accuracy?
How about nice Axelson made in California.
Bill

Real lathe? No one builds anything close to that machine.

15 feet between centers, 60" swing in the gap 72" long and over 8 feet outboard.

It's not the bearings on metal lathes that limited the speed on the older ones, it was the gear train in the headstock, tooling available at the time, but you don't need a lot of speed when you are turning a 14" diameter 48" long hunk of 1144. My 1944 Hendy runs Timken tapered roller bearings, bigger and rated for more speed than the ones in my trucks axles.

[Patrick Walsh]

You have a link.

I actually just made a Instagram account this week.

Yeah I have pretty much been late to the party for over a decade now.

You know you have to have a source for work on a machine like that “I don’t” but that’s a great point.

Mark Henberry linked me to a thread on PM this morning to a very slick gap bed Wadkin restoration. I don’t think that machine was quite as large but it was still very big and slick as hell all gear driven. Honestly it was much more suited to my needs.

I think I need to just buy a piece of crap land way up in Maine or something with a heated metal building. If I go far enough up I could probably get something for like $75k and just go up there and either find a way to survive or let myself die surrounded by my precious machines..

Down here I’ll never be able to have a machine like that and it will always bother me as it’s really short money for the kinda kicks I’d get out of it.

Point of reference. My new employer spends $4k for 3500 foot 25 minutes west of Boston plus heat and electricity. I can’t afford anything like that ever.

It's a fair price, I got a bit more with delivery out of the one I had, it had an outboard stand and 90% of the accessories with it, it was just ugly from sitting in a defunct pattern shop for 10 years or so. The outboard stands are worth over 1k. The guys that got mine are on IG if you want to see what they use theirs for.

Having a lathe like that, with capacity no one else has, let's you charge whatever you want for your work.

[Patrick Walsh]

Darcy,

While I have your attention.

What can you tell me about this machine. Namely is it good for wood. We drill tons of holes at work and need something variable speed that is high quality.

Form what I can google it seems this is a very nice machine. I just don’t know if it’s suited to wood or only metal. Like I said I need slow speeds for large bits and high for tiny bits.

And zero runout would be nice.

[Patrick Walsh]

I’m not gonna get it that’s the point. I just want it real bad.

And yeah the point is I could turn whatever the hell I wanted.

The other point is like some people like cars organs whatever I like old machines cuz I’m a grumpy old guy mad at a world that has become accepting that everything has a shelf. Few care and nobody expects even relative quality nevermind something that could stand a couple lifetimes of consistent use. People don’t even know the difference between crap and good anymore.

I’m with Darcy on the people complaint about the cost of a contractor a cabinet maker or a mechanic but don’t bats eye to but the dam Tesla or the house in the right neighborhood.

Last kitchen I installed was in a $15 million dollar house. I know the boss did the job for pennies crying to us the whole way through he couldn’t have gotten more. It was easily a $90k project he got $56k for. The kicker was installing the kitchen the contractor told us the island I spend a month building would have a $17k chandler over it. Same house had a full size indoor pool but bleeding my boss for a $100k kitchen for $56k was ok with them.

It’s my previous employers fault for taking the job and not holding him self or us as more valuable but you know that’s what he believe and he believed he could not get more. Non the less pass and dint let people take advantage of you like that. But I’ll be people giving hard working guys a hard time over feeling entitled to a decent life themself.

It’s the same argument as the Pella door thread. I’m not gonna buy the Pella I’m gonna work around the clock give away every ounce of my free time to do so because I can’t sit still and I’m not gonn succumb to this disposable society.

Patrick, what the devil are you gonna do with a lathe that big? Make telephone poles?
(Ok. I get it. With a lathe that big you're gonna make anything you darn well want.)
But how often you actually gonna use it? And you gotta rent space for it?
Resist temptation man. Fight it!


Ok. I tried to help. Now. If you get it, you gotta post pictures so all the rest of us can drool. Dont leave us all hangin' man.

[Randy Viellenave]

Patrick,

Don't view this as a sickness! If it were, the world would be awfully sick. Woodpeckers makes their living off of providing "pretty" tools that many want for little other reason than they are cool looking (myself included). When I worked for a system integrator and a customer pointed out something that was not in the documentation, I would explain it as an undocumented "feature". But since they didn't want it I would happily have the feature removed in the next build.

Try to think about this aspect of yourself in a more positive light such as:
Personal Detail
Positive Trait
Sound Quality
Virtuous Feature
Envied Facet
Quality Characteristic

Once you have accomplished that, then go buy the thing, bring it home and tuck it in, then sleep well knowing you have rescued this lonely old machine that obviously has as much character as you do. Just think of all the stories it could tell!

PS: Those of you with BS meters need to disable them before reading this...

[Bill Dufour]

Real lathe? No one builds anything close to that machine.

15 feet between centers, 60" swing in the gap 72" long and over 8 feet outboard.

It's not the bearings on metal lathes that limited the speed on the older ones, it was the gear train in the headstock, tooling available at the time, but you don't need a lot of speed when you are turning a 14" diameter 48" long hunk of 1144. My 1944 Hendy runs Timken tapered roller bearings, bigger and rated for more speed than the ones in my trucks axles.

Buy an old metal working lathe that size and disable the gear train to increase the rpm. Might be nice to make a separate powerfeed for the apron to turn straight work. That 40" axelson is max 500 rpm. The company is not that old so I am sure they used roller bearings only. Never using solid bearings.
If you are not using the geartrain it becomes much easier to block up the headstock and tailstock by a foot or two. This was done at th factory by many makers but keeping things aligned and the gears all working makes it difficult.
Bill D

[Patrick Walsh]

Rick are you trying to suggest to me that I’m blowing smoke up my own rear on this one

Cuz I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what your saying.

Of course there is no place in reality where I need or have any use for this thing. This is just like the guy who walks buy the Tesla store at the mall and the door opens on its own and the husband goes. Oh hunny I think we need one.

In all reality I have everything I need.

Patrick,

Don't view this as a sickness! If it were, the world would be awfully sick. Woodpeckers makes their living off of providing "pretty" tools that many want for little other reason than they are cool looking (myself included). When I worked for a system integrator and a customer pointed out something that was not in the documentation, I would explain it as an undocumented "feature". But since they didn't want it I would happily have the feature removed in the next build.

Try to think about this aspect of yourself in a more positive light such as:
Personal Detail
Positive Trait
Sound Quality
Virtuous Feature
Envied Facet
Quality Characteristic

Once you have accomplished that, then go buy the thing, bring it home and tuck it in, then sleep well knowing you have rescued this lonely old machine that obviously has as much character as you do. Just think of all the stories it could tell!

PS: Those of you with BS meters need to disable them before reading this...

[Darcy Warner]

Darcy,

While I have your attention.

What can you tell me about this machine. Namely is it good for wood. We drill tons of holes at work and need something variable speed that is high quality.

Form what I can google it seems this is a very nice machine. I just don’t know if it’s suited to wood or only metal. Like I said I need slow speeds for large bits and high for tiny bits.

And zero runout would be nice.

https://boston.craigslist.org/sob/tl...055824329.html

I have no idea how fast my two old delta 17" DP run, changing the belt to another step on the pulley is too much effort.

Yes, that is a wonderfully built DP, I think 3600 top speed is satisfactory, it goes down to a crawl. My favorite DP is my ca. 1900 Cincinnati with power feed.

Classicwoodworks_mi has that 26c.

[Darcy Warner]

Buy an old metal working lathe that size and disable the gear train to increase the rpm. Might be nice to make a separate powerfeed for the apron to turn straight work. That 40" axelson is max 500 rpm. The company is not that old so I am sure they used roller bearings only. Never using solid bearings.
Bill D

Most of these big pattern lathes had power feeds as well.

Have you seen the prices of big metal lathes? Not many have that kind of swing and if you find one, it weighs 20k pounds minimum.

[Darcy Warner]

The wadkin RS is a nice lathe, but I believe they are a bit overpriced compared to other similar comparable machines. The RUs bring good money because there are not many, but the Oliver 26c makes an RU look like a toy. Heck the oliver 66 does too.

The oliver 25 varieties were super nice lathes, I believe lathes were the best thing oliver made, next to their straightoplane.

[Patrick Walsh]

All good info Darcy you sure know your machines.

The same seller has a 26 but it’s not q00% complete. Good enough to use but. And honestly I could even get it in and fit in in my shop. I’m sawing 12pm for one lol.

The wadkin RS is a nice lathe, but I believe they are a bit overpriced compared to other similar comparable machines. The RUs bring good money because there are not many, but the Oliver 26c makes an RU look like a toy. Heck the oliver 66 does too.

The oliver 25 varieties were super nice lathes, I believe lathes were the best thing oliver made, next to their straightoplane.