On 2008-06-27, Ignoramus5355 wrote:
Someone wants to sell it, supposedly a 12x48 Clausing. Looks a little
too rusted to my taste.

http://igor.chudov.com/tmp/Clausing-Lathe/

Hmm ... where is the 48"? Judging by what I can make out of the
steps of the folding rule, that is closer to a 24" one between centers.
Did he measure the full length of the bed instead of the distance between
centers?

And the spindle bore looks a bit small for a lathe of that size,
suggesting that it is an older one. You want a bore of at least 1-3/8"
to allow mounting of 5C collets. This looks a lot smaller than that.

Has anyone ever restored lathes in similar condition, how much time
did it take?

The points which I mentioned above should be sufficient to
reject it. But I also don't particularly like the looks of the bottom
quarter of that 4-jaw chuck. It looks as though the whole machine sat
out in the rain for a while, and the chip pan filled with water to rust
the part of the chuck which was thus submerged.

Not enough detail on the ways -- but the center section does
look badly rusted.

Also -- the design of the traveling steady (follower rest)
looks as though it is for an older lathe than mine -- if it is truly for
a Clausing at all. That one appears to bolt onto the side of the
carriage between the ways, while the later ones (my model 5418 for
example) have a flat bottom on the steady which bolt onto the flat tops
of the left arms of the carriage -- much easier to get to, and more
rigid.

Also *one* replacement half-nut makes me wonder what happened to
the machine. They normally come in pairs.

I would suggest skip it.

Enjoy,
DoN.

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