On Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:11:21 -0600, Jon Elson
wrote:

Ned Simmons wrote:



Yes, D1-6. When I started looking I was surprised to see that the 30"
center distance was very common for that model, and space is tight
here. Many of the 61s must have been purchased for tool room work. The
other lathe I considered was the Okuma LS, but they're rare in short
beds, and even rarer with a short bed and D spindle. I do wish the
Monarch had a hole thru bigger than 1-9/16".

Interesting. My Sheldon R15-6 has a 2.25" spindle through hole with
a D1-6 mount. I guess the bearings on the Sheldon are bigger (they look
HUGE to me!)

If you look at the pic of the headstock guts you can see how the
spindle tail steps down to about 2-1/4" OD outside the headstock.
Between the step and the nose there's nothing to prevent the hole
being much larger. Maybe Monarch figured you should buy one of their
big lathes if you wanted a big hole thru. Excepting the 10EE, I think
this was the smallest lathe Monarch was building at the time.

The 6' bed on mine gives roughly 42" between centers.
I know the tailstock could be allowed to overhang a bit to get slightly
more, if I should ever need it.

Jon

36" would fit between centers in a pinch.

--
Ned Simmons