pen-turning lathe

It's worth more than $530 funnymoney as scrap. It would probably cost many (many) times that to move it though. I wonder if it'll even fit through the door.

I think even King Kong might find the pen turned on that lathe to be too big.

It's for this:

Looke like a kind of sad story. Says it's a "retirement auction". So some guy built a business that could afford that kind of equipment and the power to run it and the shop space to hold it, and he's retiring, and there isn't anybody to take it over. Wonder how many people are losing their jobs?

There might be a few weeks work for a few millwrights - if they don't mind the travel to China - which is what my next-door-neighbour did when the factory closed .. John T.

That's the kind of lathe that will kill a machinist 3 apprentices, and the supervisor across the room in an instant.

I really like that full 4 jaw chuck instead of a spider on the outboard side of the head. I've thought about something like that for my "big" (for me) lathe. Maybe not quite so big. LOL. The safety cage around it is awesome. I bet lifting the chuck key will put some muscles on you.

Man I would love to have that thing in my shop if I could power it. Probably cost more to have it delivered than my 14x40 cost brand new.

I think I actually found the company that owned it. Feher Machine and Manufacturing. Address matches the location in the auction listing, their web site is down, and the property is for sale.

They will likely get less than scrap price for it due to the cost of dismantling and transpoerting it to the scrap yard - SAD. A friend worked on one a bit bigger than that until retirement last year - it had a 40 or 42 inch chuck and a 12 foot bed.- and a tool post grinder that required a crane to install.

"retirement auction" Or more likely a going out of business auction. Going out of business due to low sales. Not because there is no one new to buy or take over the business, if it was profitable. As stated in another post, most of those type industrial jobs are now going to China or SE Asia. So except for custom work, there might not be much activity in the USA. Any regular repeat work is sourced from Asia. And I suspect there are new lathes that are CNC that do the same job this one does. So going forward, there might not be much use for this type of lathe.

Now I know what they used to machine train wheels. ;)

Bob La Londe snipped-for-privacy@none.com on Mon, 9 Nov 2020 08:06:33 -0700 typed in rec.woodworking the following:

Any machine can do that.

It looks a tad smaller than the one at my first job, that one had a much longer bed. (turning 30 foot drilling thing-gummies. Final product ha a 2.5in bore the length of it, with a 6in OD centered on the bore.)

All depends on what you consider "large" :-)

Don't forget the accessories. Like the overhead cranes to load stock into it, remove finished parts. "It's not the initial expense, it's the accessories."