All,

Many thanks as always for the input. I'm going to pick the lathe up Tuesday,
and a friend of mine who is a professional machinist is going with me, so
hopefully he'll spot anything obvious that I might have missed. But your
comments have helped to quell the little nagging voice that was saying, "But
what if this really is a lemon?" -- thanks!

And by the way, I promise to spell it Cincinnati from now on!

Andy

"Andrew H. Wakefield" wrote in message
...
I saw the Cincinatti Tray-Lathe yesterday. Here are some pictures:

http://www.metalworking.com/DropBox/TrayLathe1.jpg
http://www.metalworking.com/DropBox/TrayLathe2.jpg
http://www.metalworking.com/DropBox/TrayLathe3.jpg

The first picture shows most of the lathe from the front; the second is a
closeup of the feedscrew (attempting to show the wear in the keyway, but I
don't think I was overly successful); the third is a closer shot of the
apron and its controls. By the way, in the first and last picture you can
see why it is called a Tray-Lathe -- the top of the headstock is a large
tray, and the top of the tailstock is a small tray.

Here's what I found upon inspecting the lathe:

Bed and ways: There is some wear on the ways (a ridge on the backside at
the top). It was easy to feel with a finger. I don't have enough
experience to judge how much wear this is. There was a very slight film of
rust here and there that rubbed off with a finger. Otherwise, everything
seemed to be in good shape.

Headstock: everything seems to be in good condition with the exception of
the sight glass (see below). No play in the spindle. I was able to inspect
the gears to some degree, and they looked in very good shape -- no chips,
no excessive wear that I could see. The gear shifting mechanism works
smoothly and offers a range from 30 to 1200 rpm. The spindle is the type
that has the external taper and key (what do you call this??). I couldn't
get a very good look at the inside of the spindle, but it didn't seem to
have a taper -- could that be right??

Feedscrew and gears: Unlike other lathes I've seen, this one has the
change gears entirely enclosed with its own oil bath, so I couldn't
inspect them from below. I could not detect any problems when I turned the
spindle and selected different gears, but of course this might not tell me
much in any case. The forward/neutral/reverse seemed to be a bit
crochety -- at first I thought reverse wasn't working, but then tried
shifting it again and it slipped into gear. The keyway on the feedscrew
shows appreciable wear over the first 12" or so. I wish I had enough
experience with other lathes to know how that might compare ...

Carriage: The carriage crank is loose, as I was told, but it all seems to
move smoothly. The compound was not mounted, but as far as I could see
everything was in good shape. However, the tool holder seemed loose even
when tightened down; I would probably try to replace it anyway. The
powerfeed clutch engages easily, and the half-nuts engage with little
play. You pull out the knob (under the crossfeed crank in the last
picture) to select power crossfeed. However, it took a few tries to get it
to engage -- it seemed that it was sliding up to the gear, but had to be
just so to go into gear. There is one knob that I don't know what it
does -- in the last picture, you can see it low down on the apron, through
the carriage crank handle. It has a very small shaft. Some kind of oiler??

Tailstock: Seemed to be in good shape. Everything moved smoothly. It has a
#3 MT.

Accessories: Dead center; #3 to #2 MT adapter; Jacobs chuck; steady rest
(missing one of the fingers); taper jig; 3 jaw chuck; 4 jaw chuck;
faceplate. Includes both single phase 2 hp motor and original 3 phase 2 hp
motor. (I could not run either motor -- no power available.)

** Sightglasses: There are three sightglasses, one for the gear head, one
for the change gears, and one for the apron. Every one of these is dark
and distorted. The seller said he used it and just let oil leak around
them.

I had a good sense about the seller. He bought the lathe from a community
college and used it for a while in a basement garage. A few years ago he
built a separate garage and turned the basement garage into an office. He
never got the lathe set up in the new garage.

Okay, so here's the question: Would you buy this lathe for around $500,
based on the description above? How much should I worry about the crochety
forward/neutral/reverse and the similarly crochety knob to engage power
crossfeed? How much should I worry about the sightglasses -- can I replace
them easily? And of course, the $64,000 question -- how much bead wear can
I live with? (I'm thinking again about the Klunkers article on the mermac
site!)

Many, many thanks for the input already received and any yet to come!

Andy