# When Machinist's Had to WORK!



## rake60 (Feb 17, 2012)

You have to love the new generation of machinists.

Just listen to them!

_*"This machine is over 5 years old!
It tapers .002" in a foot and I have to compensate for that in every program I write. 
This is BULL$#!T!!!"*_

OK son, we have a machine that has been *proven* to do far better than that.







You just lazy on back in that comfortable commanders seat.
Surface speed is foot control and the feed rate is controlled by your left hand.
If it happens to taper, your right hand may need to come into play.

Just think of the wear and tear that will be saved on your fingertips and the keyboard.

AND, if the power goes out, you won't lose your place. 

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I had the opportunity to try a one of those old foot powered lathes once.
It was fun to try, *ONCE!* 

It takes some serious pedaling to get it from a dead stop up to speed.
My legs were hurting after 3 minutes, the finish was terrible and the size wasn't even close.

I can't even imagine doing that every day.

Rick


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## steamer (Feb 17, 2012)

Hey Rick,

I tried to cut an internal thread for a faceplate ...a 1 1/32 x 12 ( no not a typo) on my FE Reed. It has a rise and fall cross slide.  NO COMPOUND....I had it easy...ran by a line shaft!

The only way to take a cut on this kind of lathe which predates lathe with compounds ( this one is about 1884) is to take the cut on both sides of the tool.

NO threading clock!

Change gears

When the tool hits the part, it jumps and then settles...so the first half turn of the thread doesn't have a constant pitch....so you have to leave stock there to face off later back to the good threads

Why 1 1/32 x 12 ?  I don't know other than Reed wanted you to buy their tooling

OH YEAH PIECE OF CAKE! :fan:

No I can't imangine doing that all day for 40 years....

Dave


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## cfellows (Feb 17, 2012)

steamer  said:
			
		

> Hey Rick,
> 
> I tried to cut an internal thread for a faceplate ...a 1 1/32 x 12 ( no not a typo) on my FE Reed. It has a rise and fall cross slide. NO COMPOUND....I had it easy...ran by a line shaft!
> 
> ...



Hey Dave, my first lathe was an FE Reed, only mine had a compound. It had a 14" swing and a 4 foot bed. Had 2" flat belt pulleys and babbitt bearings in the head stock. At one time I powered it with a small, 2HP briggs & stratton gas engine mounted on the overhead carrier behind the counter shaft.


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## steamer (Feb 17, 2012)

Hey Chuck,


"Victoria" as I like to call her is a stately old girl.  I use her for pattern work now.....She doesn't need to work hard in her old age......


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## Deanofid (Feb 18, 2012)

Goodness! Lets see some more of that one, Dave. What gorgeous gal!

Dean


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## steamer (Feb 18, 2012)

Here's a few Dean

















She's a sweet old girl....but she's not easy to thread with.



Dave


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## Tinkerer58 (Feb 18, 2012)

Wow she sure looks like marriage material, they don't make them like that anymore. Look at the love that was put into the design, shape and manufacture of that machine. This is where society has gone wrong, there is no more pride in workmanship in business, it's all about the quick buck, and a lot of the young blokes have a don't care attitude because it's not their business or product. It's blokes like us on here who have pride in their work that have to make sure that at least some of this attitude is past on to future generations. And may I say from what I have seen on here you should all stand and applaud yourselves, for your skills, dedication and mateship with people you have never met or probably never will. And all this for the love and passion of a hobby. :bow:


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## bezalel2000 (Feb 18, 2012)

steamer  said:
			
		

> Here's a few Dean
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I see She's a local girl, is that why you bought it?

Bez


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## mcostello (Feb 18, 2012)

If that was all they had back then that would be all you know. Might have been an exaultated position to have as everything might have been worse. ;D


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## oilmac (Feb 18, 2012)

Steamer,
        What a lovely old machine, reminiscent of the days when engineering craftsmen were artists Every department of the engineering works had the same work ethos* pride!*

   Times for the worker, and living conditions generaly were hard, by todays standard, But how it must have been a satisfying way of life to despite these difficulties


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## Deanofid (Feb 18, 2012)

Thanks for those, Dave. Beautiful! She's got curves in all the right places. ; )


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## steamer (Feb 18, 2012)

Bez, oilmac,Tinker, Mcostello, Bez and Dean

Thank you for your support!

Location is relative right Bez!? ;D

She's a sweet old girl and she has a soft spot with me. Can't really afford the room for her, but I don't want her to end up a chinese food processor....

Dave


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## steamer (Feb 18, 2012)

By the way....when I bought her....she was ROUGH.....just some TLC.

It would appear she was originally this color....as it was the only color on her when I got her.

I matched the paint and repainted her. I also put new tumbler gears in, repaired the banjo bracket and put in a new stud gear.  

I also put in a new lever on the back gear.

Dave


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## rake60 (Feb 18, 2012)

Damn, That's is truly a "sweet old girl"!!!

Thanks for posting the pics of it Dave.

I'd love to see her at work!

Rick


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## steamer (Feb 19, 2012)

Well now that I've well and truly highjacked this thread..... : Sorry Rick.

This lathe was a new product for Reed...I could tell by two tell tail signs.

The bare iron castings still showed "brush marks" in the iron. When you made a pattern, they were sealed with varnish or shellac. Oftem times the pattern had brush marks from this coating. Often times this would telegraph into the parts for a while, then the repeated use would wear the brush marks off the patterns. They were visible on Vicky.

The tumbler gears are located internal to the headstock. In the "ahead" direction, all is well and there is proper clearance, in the reverse position however, there was an obvious interference between the gears and the headstock casting. Some designer engineer missed this in the drafting shop!....laid out the drawing one way, but never the other way! :big:....I laugh as I've been guilty of that as well as many of my co-workers....human nature hasn't changed much

The solution was that someone, with some skill chiseled clearance into the casting for the gears....if you didn't have the Headstock apart you wouldn't see it....

These two pieces of "evidence" lead me to believe that this was a new lathe for Reed with all the usual teething problems of a new product..... :big:

Dave


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## Tin Falcon (Feb 19, 2012)

A piece of history you have.Tin


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## steamer (Feb 19, 2012)

OK Rick...why 3 peddles?.....and the rest of ya remember this a family forum! :big:

Dave


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## rake60 (Feb 19, 2012)

steamer  said:
			
		

> Well now that I've well and truly highjacked this thread..... : Sorry Rick.



Not at all! I'm loving the pictures and history of your lathe.

The 3 pedal set up on this lathe was there to allow another person to help pedal from 
the other side of the machine. 

Rick


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## steamer (Feb 19, 2012)

Cool!

Reed offered the 10" with a peddle.  Some of the lathes have the holes in the legs for the peddles, but the peddle is long gone.....Talk about Telling!

http://www.marcdatabase.com/~lemur/...achine-shop/reedlathes/reedlathes-03-2000.jpg

Dave


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## steamer (Feb 19, 2012)

Here's a guy with a duplicate machine he has running in his shop....amazingly the same color too!

Dave


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGsj2FUxtMY[/ame]


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