FS: Astoba universal bench mill / lathe

[Bob Farr]

SOLD 7/18/2010

I've moved on to some larger dedicated free-standing machines so it's time to sell my Astoba benchtop universal mill & lathe, made in Switerland. I'd like $3,500. Here is some info from Tony's site (in fact, my machine is pictured there): http://www.lathes.co.uk/meyerburger/page3.html

It is substantially indentical to the Hommel machine, though the Hommel was made in Germany and I'm not sure which preceeded the other. Here's another link from Tony's site: http://www.lathes.co.uk/hommel/

My machine is well tooled. It comes with an indexing rotary table, both metric and english collet sets, metric and english thread cutting plates (and all the necessary gears), milling table, attachment for power longitudinal feed, graver t-rest, rear mount cutoff tool holder, boring bars, milling vise, fly cutters, three jaw chuck, four jaw chuck, two drill chucks (one on a spindle arbor, one on a tailstock arbor), steady rest, draw bar collet work stops, face plates (x3), grinding table, grinding wheel, lathe dogs, knurling cutters and bars, slotting cutters and bars, hold down clamps, 4-position cutting tool holders (x2), end mills, and

[WHEW ...]

the head stock bearing pin spanner, horizontal mill headstock arbors (x2), headstock drill, extra chuck arbors (x2, in addition to one already mounted to a chuck), tailstock drill chuck arbor (one, in addition to the one already mounted to a chuck), tailstock dead centers (x4, two long two short), tailstock V-arbor, tailstock flat plates (x3, I’ve used these to start a die straight), headstock centers for metal (x2), headstock centers for wood (x2, they have pointed center pin and two sharpened dogs).

Bob Farr
(313) 673-6679 cell
[email protected] or PM me here

Pics of my machine:

 

[Bob Farr]

Here are some more specific details:

Lathe: With the spindle mounted on the bed it turns 7" over the bed, 4" over the cross slide, and 8" between centers. With the spindle mounted horizontally on the milling column the machine can face material much larger than 7". Set it up like this for turning large diameter workpieces:

Mill: The column is 20" tall. There is 7-1/2" of daylight between the milling table and the spindle face in the vertical configuration. The spindle can also be laid over at 90-degrees to work like a horisontal mill or grinder. The spindle does not have a traditional internal quill. However, it does have downfeed via the column rack lever, and even has a metric micrometer downfeed feature. The mill table has metric scales cut into the surfaces, and has resetable metric handwheels:

Collets: The metric range is 2mm-10mm. The English range is 3/32"-3/8". The spindle through bore diameter is 14mm/.55".

Chucks: One 5-inch four jaw chuck with reversible jaws mounted on a degreed back plate; one 3-inch three jaw chuck with two sets of jaws (inner and outer) mounted on a degreed back plate; two 5-inch faceplates with t-slots and threaded dog holes both mounted on degreed back plates; one 6-inch faceplate with t-slots mounted on a plain back plate (no degree marks).

Threading: The metric threading range is 0.5-2.0mm in 10 steps. The English threading range is 28-8 TPI in 11 steps. Threading is done manually via change gears on end plates and a handwheel: a sliding universal driveshaft runs up to the compound table to coordinate movement of the threading cutter:

In this picture I was using the Astoba to make a new acme leadscrew for the cross feed of a 12" Atlas/Craftsman lathe. The Astoba handled the whole project. It turned several diameters, cut two different threads and milled the key slot, all on a shaft that was longer than its between-centers capacity (the small end fit into the spindle bore):

 

[Bob Farr]

Dimensions: The machine is 20" wide, the column is 20" tall, and the base is 12" deep. The column is removable, so the machine can be broke down for shipping into a package that is about 20"x12"x8" (plus crating). I have not weighed it, but everything is made of quality case iron or steel and I'd guestimate the whole package at 120-150 lbs. I do have a comprehensive owner's / operator's manual that goes with the machine.

Here's a last few pictures of some tooling. The brown tint you see on the gears at the left of this first pisture is not rust, it's oil goo I have not cleaned off yet: