Boyes & Emmes lathe info needed Please!

[flylo]

They just keep getting bigger. I'm looking at a 22"x96" '70s model Boyes & Emmes lathe 15HP wired now for 460V 3 phase. It has an electic clutch appears in good shape, was working when the plant closed. It's a Beast. I can get it delivered for about scrap price. Can anyone tell me about these? It's more lathe than I need but the price is right, delivery is free comes with basic tooling & it looks & appears in nice shape. Any & all help appeciated. Thanks! Eric

[Weston Bye]

They just keep getting bigger...

What next, locomotives?

[aboard_epsilon]

15 hp !!!

just imagine turning the smallest weeny-est bit of metal in it...even cutting a small screw thread ..then imagine your electric bill to do it.

all the best.markj

[flylo]

I'll always have my Atlas 618 for that,or the 13x40, or the Leblond. Lately mills & lathes have just been following me home like puppies, I can't help it! Honest Mom.

[RussZHC]

Guessing you already know about them but if not, there are a few threads over on PM and as well over there I would suggest contacting John Oder as he either has or has access to a lot of information on older/larger lathes...from what I quickly read about, those are HUGE and rpms can be in the single digit range

Edit to add: from what I read, 70s is quite modern, there is a little bit from early 1900s on Tony's site and some of the PM threads are war years or just after, could not find anything much more recent

[flylo]

Russ, thanks for helping. I never even heard of these. It's huge & appears to be in good shape from an auto plant closing.

[H8Allegheny]

Hmmm, "Boye and Emmes" was the 3rd or 4th re-organization of a company that had its origins in the mid-1800's.

A partnership between Ernst A. Schumacher and Frederick W. Boye, "Schumacher and Boye," was formed in 1899 as a reorganization of "Dietz, Schumacher & Boye." The firm continued to specialize in large, belt driven engine lathes with swings from 18" to 32". A new fangled 28" electrically driven lathe were introduced in 1900 with a variable speed motor mounted in place of the belt driven cone pulley.

By 1903 production included 18" to 42" engine lathes. All were massive, heavy beasts with low end rpms in the single digits offered with quick change feed gearboxes. These QCGB's had been patented on August 26 and October 28,1902 by W.T. Emmes. A 48" triple geared engine lathe with quick change feed gear boxes was introduced in 1904.

Sometime around 1904, Emmes put his foot down and wanted recognition and the company became "Schumacher, Boye and Emmes." By 1912 or so, Schumacher was out of the picture, so a machine marked simply "Boye and Emmes" would be post-1912.

I can find NO evidence of B&E lathes produced after 1952.

There are several pieces of dirty paper on the Vintage Machinery website from the 1940's:

http://vintagemachinery.org/mfgindex/detail.aspx?id=2236&tab=3

One of them is a lathe brochure from 1948 - you may want to see if your lathe is in there.

Brian

[Dr Stan]

I Googled Boye & Emmes lathe and had 165,000 hits including info at lathes.uk which is where I'd start.

[Mcgyver]

WOW, you've got it bad I think its good there are guys will to take that home, but holy crow, 22x96"



forget electricity, wait until you get the first bill for a piece of metal that'll tax its size. And are the overhead crane certs are up to date, you only need a small one, maybe 2-3ton.

Is yours a business or home shop? Business I can see, but home? What are you going to do with it?

While I nothing approaching that size, personally I dislike larger jobs. Each operation takes forever and big hunks of material are expensive.

Don't forget the pic!

[Weston Bye]

You might as well fabricate a decent bench top to fit the last 5' of the ways for the monster, removable of course, for the rare occasions when you need the extra length. The bed ways will accumulate all manner of *stuff*, so why not formalize it with a bench top?

[beckley23]

This may help, scroll down to Boye & Emmes.

http://pounceatron.dreamhosters.com/docs/index.html

Do a search on PM, there are few B&E owners over there.
Harry

[flylo]

Better in my hanger than ground up & sent to China. I found 2 close to it for sale 1 for $10K, the other for $17.5K. I just wondered if anyone had used or had much 1st hand knoledge of them from this era. I think it's like tractors, older large ones go for much less than older smaller ones. I like big tractors also. "Go big or go home" as they say.

[justanengineer]

Better in my hanger than ground up & sent to China. I found 2 close to it for sale 1 for $10K, the other for $17.5K. I just wondered if anyone had used or had much 1st hand knoledge of them from this era. I think it's like tractors, older large ones go for much less than older smaller ones. I like big tractors also. "Go big or go home" as they say.

And neither lathe is likely to sell for much more than scrap IMHO if these are truly as old as H8Allegheny thinks they are. My grandfather's ~WW1'ish American is an absolutely massive beast, and Im sure in its day was a fine lathe but after almost a century of regular use its mostly a paperweight due to wear despite numerous rebuilds. It gets used occasionally, but is a PITA compared to the American-Pacemaker as you really do want modern features like a powered tailstock for even occasional use (unless youre He-Man).

If you want a truly massive lathe and have the room, look for a Pacemaker or other modern lathe from the 70s or newer. I am more nostalgic than most, but some things simply arent worth saving IMHO.

I would also question how many lathes and mills a hobbyist realistically should own. Its nice to have a ton of capability, but if you never use it, its pointless. If it was me, I would be using the scrap lathe money on other machines like a tool and cutter grinder, professional quality drill sharpener (not a Drill Dr POS), surface grinders, shapers, or wire EDMs.

[H8Allegheny]

If you want a truly massive engine lathe, there are two main brands to consider: American Pacemakers and Axelsons.

I have used a 24" Pacemaker - what a monster. But even more stout is the Axelson. Axelson made their bones during WWII - they made massive lathes for boring the barrels on battleships - think 60" diameter by 60' (yes, sixty feet) between centers.

I have one of the smaller Axelsons - a 16" x 60" or thereabouts - it was almost more than an 8,000# forklift could handle!

I saw a midsized Axelson for sale several years ago at a machinery dealer in Providence, RI - a 24" x 144" monster that was over 30,000#. It sat there for years and was finally sold to some guy in Chicago for $2,500 or so. The rigging and shipping was over $4k. In retrospect, I should have bought it - not so much for the lathe but for the tooling that came with it; it had an Aloris EA tool post with over 100 tool holders and probably a ton (literally) of 1-1/4" tool bits along with some of the most massive boring bars (one was 5 or 6" in diameter and probably 60" long - I couldn't lift it), huge drill chucks and live centers like you've never seen.

Brian

[Arthur.Marks]

I would also question how many lathes and mills a hobbyist realistically should own. Its nice to have a ton of capability, but if you never use it, its pointless. If it was me, I would be using the scrap lathe money on other machines like a tool and cutter grinder, professional quality drill sharpener... surface grinders, shapers, or wire EDMs.

+1 sound advice here.