Help! with potential boat mooring.

[lynard]

I know they arnt firearms but they are related through work.
I have just baught a lathe the first i ever planed using i got it off ebay, its a turret lathe a EMI-MEC sprint /TR.26 model,I think they were made by GATE URASA in Spain but not sure, it cost 26 pounds +the diesel to colect it from warwickshire(30 pounds about 90 dollars i think probably twice its worth i realy dont know
First off i am a motor enginer and work at a tech coll teaching day reliese fitters i am no engineer .
I am not that experienced with lathes having not used one in anger since i left school, i want to learn on this one its in good order and has some tools with it i have no manual as yet i was told by some lads on a hunting site to throw it in the river it was useles for what i want not presice enough, Turn it into a boat mooring , Are they right??? i dont understand very much at all about lathes i dont even understand how the chuck will fit on with those collet things and what type of fitting it is.
Do many of you have your own lathes and if so what types and uses do you put them to? and any pictures etc of them and tooling etc, i need all the help and advice i can get believe me if you can help me please i whould be greatfull. :D :D
I want it to turn up swinging arm bushes for motorcycles and shafts wheel spindles and Roll turn over heads for shotshell reloading + suport dies, it has no chuck at the moment i realy am green on lathes i have a DTI and a digital vernier but no micrometers yet.
It runs coolant its on a cast bed and stand with adjusters on the bottom and has a chip pan like built into it, and has two speeds on the button and a three speed box and a reverse again on the button. i am considering converting it to single phase but not sure yet.
The throat i dont honestly knoiw how to measure it and tell you what size it is it has a plate that bolts around the spindle what it is for i am clueless it may be for a bar feed it has a casting behind the head stock for a bar feed to live on.
I will take a few pics and post them up give you some idea what i am on about, sorry i am not much help, i realy want to learn but my uncle who i could have learned from died and i never bothered spending time with him and learning when i had the chance.
Some pictures,This is the type of things i want to make with this lathe, suport dies for shotgun cases and RTO heads shot and powder bushings like the blanks in this picture . how does this lathe differ from the old ward my uncle used to use that was a turret lath just the same.This is one reason i got it.

[aametalmaster]

Your lathe is an industrial turret, although a good lathe not much suited for the average home shop but you can make do with it and i wouldn't have passed it up either. I don't know about finding a chuck for it or where to find the collets. But join my yahoo south bend lathe group for some good how to do pics and ideas....Bob http://groups.yahoo.com/group/southbend10k/

[lynard]

Will do BOb thank you, the collets are i think can be got from Pratt/burnered over here. funny you should mention South bend lathes, i have the remains of a Seuth bend 10L lathe here with no sadle lead screw or tail stock, the headstock and bed are fine, getting the other bits will be a nightmare, i was told Boxford parts are the same as south bend is thisa true or just hear say.

[aametalmaster]

Lynard,
Here is a good link on lathes with alot of makers in it.
http://www.lathes.co.uk/
The Boxfords were copies of the SB 9", yours being a "heavy 10" or 10L is a bit heavier duty. Parts bring good dollars on ebay so don't throw it out, parts are also easy to find on ebay if you want to run it again. Good luck, and see you at the SB10K group. Oh and one other thing, get with Tony and have him add some pics of your turret on his lathes uk site since we haven't seen any over here....Bob

[lynard]

Well i have an update to my first ever complete lathe,.......I have scraped it, i made money acctualy. and kept a few bits off it as well.

Now the new lathe,.. Its a Colchester triumph (around 1965 ) its known to you guys over the ditch as a clausing 15 inch i think, it has a 48 inch centre to centre, is complete, with some tools etc. i paid 200 pounds for it and it was local as well.

I whould have realy wanted a bit smaller model the 13 inch x36 inch bed model whould have been nicer i think but i have enough room so i am not grumbling too much, a mate has a colchester master in the 13 inch its vertualy the same machine just dimentions .

Now it is three phase i only have single phase here, i was toying with the idea of a converter or a motor swap, so far the motor swap sounds the cheapest option and the most practical long term, any advice on this please, and what if any thoughts do you guys have on this my choice of machine, have i got off on the right foot this time do you think. ???