Look what followed me home this past weekend! I feel truly privileged to have this thing, this is one of a handful of lathes that I have absolutely revered over the years. She's going to clean up beautifully (some of the accessories are going to take some effort though).
I don't know if any of you guys have tried moving one of these before, but the bed itself is about twice as heavy as you'd think, looking at it. I read on an old forum post somewhere where someone claimed the bed by itself weighs 225 pounds... I believe it. When my back recovers, I'll get it up onto an old metal lathe bench and get some power to it. I've got a 1/2hp 3 phase motor and will be running it with a VFD.
Most of the important bits - don't know if I'm missing any change gears but a buddy of mine offered to let me borrow the correct gear cutters to make new ones if necessary.
Some of the extras, including 4NS collets (in varying states of neglect, from nearly new to nearly unusable), nice little independent 4 jaw chuck, faceplate, etc.
Also have a lever collet closer in addition to the drawtube. If you look, you'll see the cross slide has a corner broken off the bottom half of the top slide... thus the replacement shown in the picture.
A closer view of the back-geared headstock:
Obviously this one doesn't have the dynamite little quick change gear box (was that even offered before they became 608s? I'm not sure), but it has power cross feed, which will be a new thing for me. I love the separate power feed mechanism, preserving the leadscrew for threading. The rack for manual traverse is tucked away, hidden underneath the bed. It has a nifty little carriage stop that engages with the feed clutch on the apron, to disengage the clutch automatically - I've never used a machine with that, either.
What really blows me away about this thing is that, with the exception of the change gears, every single piece of the machine, even down to every screw, shows no evidence of manufacture. There's not a machining or tool mark (except for the scraped surfaces, obviously) to be seen anywhere. Each piece looks as though it was simply willed into existence, rather than manufactured. Just incredible. I e-mailed Tony Griffith, because his page on the 8" Precision / 608 says he'd like to hear from any 8" Precision owners. I was especially curious to know if he had any way to date the machine. The fellow I bought it from thought it was from 1908, but I'm not sure what that was based on (he's kind of a Rivett fanatic, so I don't have much reason to doubt him). The only serial number reference I've seen goes back to the beginning of the 608s, and no earlier. I'm not sure if this thing even has a serial number - I haven't inspected the whole of the bed yet.
If you couldn't tell, I'm pretty excited!
I don't know if any of you guys have tried moving one of these before, but the bed itself is about twice as heavy as you'd think, looking at it. I read on an old forum post somewhere where someone claimed the bed by itself weighs 225 pounds... I believe it. When my back recovers, I'll get it up onto an old metal lathe bench and get some power to it. I've got a 1/2hp 3 phase motor and will be running it with a VFD.
Most of the important bits - don't know if I'm missing any change gears but a buddy of mine offered to let me borrow the correct gear cutters to make new ones if necessary.
Some of the extras, including 4NS collets (in varying states of neglect, from nearly new to nearly unusable), nice little independent 4 jaw chuck, faceplate, etc.
Also have a lever collet closer in addition to the drawtube. If you look, you'll see the cross slide has a corner broken off the bottom half of the top slide... thus the replacement shown in the picture.
A closer view of the back-geared headstock:
Obviously this one doesn't have the dynamite little quick change gear box (was that even offered before they became 608s? I'm not sure), but it has power cross feed, which will be a new thing for me. I love the separate power feed mechanism, preserving the leadscrew for threading. The rack for manual traverse is tucked away, hidden underneath the bed. It has a nifty little carriage stop that engages with the feed clutch on the apron, to disengage the clutch automatically - I've never used a machine with that, either.
What really blows me away about this thing is that, with the exception of the change gears, every single piece of the machine, even down to every screw, shows no evidence of manufacture. There's not a machining or tool mark (except for the scraped surfaces, obviously) to be seen anywhere. Each piece looks as though it was simply willed into existence, rather than manufactured. Just incredible. I e-mailed Tony Griffith, because his page on the 8" Precision / 608 says he'd like to hear from any 8" Precision owners. I was especially curious to know if he had any way to date the machine. The fellow I bought it from thought it was from 1908, but I'm not sure what that was based on (he's kind of a Rivett fanatic, so I don't have much reason to doubt him). The only serial number reference I've seen goes back to the beginning of the 608s, and no earlier. I'm not sure if this thing even has a serial number - I haven't inspected the whole of the bed yet.
If you couldn't tell, I'm pretty excited!
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