I have been offered the following lathe for £400, it is a Dalton. Other than that and the picture I know very little else about it.
Has anyone any comments or advice? It would be much appreciated
Regards
I’m after a little advice, I’ve wanted a lather for years and looked into it many times but never actually gone through with it.
I have been offered the following lathe for £400, it is a Dalton. Other than that and the picture I know very little else about it.
Has anyone any comments or advice? It would be much appreciated
Regards
Some info on lathes.co.uk, but this looks like a later model.
The only thing I know about my lathe is that the company the made it went out of business in 1938! Old tools are cool. 
quote:
Originally posted by AdamR
Some info on lathes.co.uk, but this looks like a later model.
The only thing I know about my lathe is that the company the made it went out of business in 1938! Old tools are cool.
Its got an independently adjustable 4 jaw chuck which is nice, which also looks huge.
What's the through chuck diameter ?. Price wise, new for something of the same size your looking at £800 - £1000, so your in the right ball park
Check for wear in the controls and headstock. Its an old critter but in my book, old machines are good!
I've just noticed the chuck is mounted on a face plate. Not ideal but what other clobber is included?
[Edited on 25/5/11 by owelly]
I have no idea what the diameter of the chuck is, I'm hoping to go and see it next week to decide if I want it or not.
Should I be on the lookout for anything in particular?
What is not ideal about the chuck being mounted on a face plate? Does this cause some sort of probem?
[Edited on 25/5/11 by Daf]
It looks like a useful bit of kit - good for learning how to use a lathe, and probably substantial enough to do useful work.
It's got a 4-jaw chuck, but a 3-jaw is also useful.
Chucks usually have their own dedicated mounting plate - this is (usually) a cast iron disk with a threaded connection to the headstock spindle, with
the other side turned to fit the back of the chuck. Once this plate is bolted to the chuck then it stays put. If the lathe chucks don't have
these then castings can be bought and machined to do the job (I've done 2 for my old Zyto lathe). It would be an excellent first project!
Make sure that the lathe has a full set of change wheels (these go at the left side of the headstock, and various combinations are used to set the
speed that the carriage moves across the work). It would be very hard to replace any missing ones.
Doesn't look to have a screw cutting gearbox (aka "norton box" ) so you need a full set of gears (aka "change wheels " ) to
change the ratio of the lead screw to be able to cut threads, the 127 tooth wheel is very important as this is required to cut metric threads, so if
you want to cut threads check these carefully.
Not being able to the lead screw speed also means you'll probably do most of your cutting manually (or at the wrong travel speed) which sounds
fine but soon gets boring on long cuts or when roughing.
Also isn't a gap bed model, so the amount you can swing is restricted by the bed, you won't be able to fit discs or drums over the bed.
Looks to be single phase which is a bonus but I think you may have lost the reversing capability which isn't a show stopper but can be a pain now
and again.
Chuck being on a face plate isn't a problem but the further you move away from the headstock the more noticable any slack becomes and getting a
good finish becomes harder.
How much tooling is included? Tools soon start to add up to a lot of money if you have to buy them and you'll need a few different shaped tools
if you want to make anything more complex than a punch or clutch alignment tool. Things like steadies and centres are also handy.
I would be looking for something with a few more bells and whistles personally but it all depends what you want to use it for.
Cheers
Davie
[Edited on 25/5/11 by daviep]
quote:
Originally posted by David Jenkins
It's got a 4-jaw chuck, but a 3-jaw is also useful.
Can you elaborate on this?
"Also isn't a gap bed model, so the amount you can swing is restricted by the bed, you won't be able to fit discs or drums over the
bed."
Went over my head a little 
quote:
Originally posted by Daf
Can you elaborate on this?
"Also isn't a gap bed model, so the amount you can swing is restricted by the bed, you won't be able to fit discs or drums over the bed."
Went over my head a little
Look at the lathe bed, where the tool-slide slides left and right - you will see that the bed goes right up to the headstock. On bigger lathes the
bed stops some way short of the headstock - a gap - allowing bigger pieces to be bolted to the faceplate.
I wouldn't get too hung up on that though. This is a model-maker's lathe that would be ideal for learning how a lathe works. Once you get
the hang of things, and made the inevitable mistakes, then perhaps you can think about something more advanced.
I paid £50 for my first lathe - it was knackered, some aspects work oddly, but I did learn a lot while fettling it and making it work properly. If
this one isn't too worn out then it could be a good first lathe.
quote:
Originally posted by daviep
quote:
Originally posted by Daf
Can you elaborate on this?
"Also isn't a gap bed model, so the amount you can swing is restricted by the bed, you won't be able to fit discs or drums over the bed."
Went over my head a little
A gap bed lathe has the last 6 inches or so of bed missing under the chuck so that you can swing larger items if close to the chuck.
Swing does look quite useful but it's hard to tell from the picture.
Davie
Some cracking advice guys, many thanks. I will go and see it before I commit myeslf to anything.
I get the impression it is very important I check for wear. Is there any components in particular I should be checking for wear? If so how much is
classed as acceptable?
What kind of work do you intend to do with a lathe?
Davie
quote:
Originally posted by daviep
What kind of work do you intend to do with a lathe?
Davie