So what did I get? I honestly didn't know what I bought until I had it home and did some research on the internet and had some help from Tony. Turns out this lathe is a rebadged Coronet PLN-5, named a "Rhino Precision" originally made for the American market in the 1960ies and 1970ies. Quite honestly, unlike what you might expect from the afore mentioned facts, it looks quite well built. At the very least, she's a lady with quite a bit of gravity to her.
That first picture, due to lack of comparison, doesn't look too bad...
... but that old Volvo isn't exactly a small car and neither was the trailer.
As such only very few pictures were taken from the actual offloading process. (To be honest, just one.) The engine hoist was making some very unhappy noises and I reduced the amount of working wheels on one of my trolley, when trying to get the lathe into the workshop.
The second question, when buying old machinery, once you solved the classic "how the f*ck am I supposed to get this into the shop"-question, is did I get a bargain or a genuine high-quality... turd.
One of the reasons this lathe was within budget was the fact that it has spent the last 40 to 50 years on a farm and covered in a mix of dust and rust.
When I first saw the lathe, I moved the apron a bit and bare metal became visible, so after three days of marinating the lathe with diesel and a good two hours of scrubbing she's nowhere near pristine, but the bed and all the ways are clean again.
As that came out quite respectable, the next steps will be to get stuck into the electrical side of things, swap out the motor and belts and install a new switch and I guess then it's well about time to find out what the old girl can do.
No comments:
Post a Comment