Anticipating the most appropriate sentiments sincerely evoked by this
post, I'll
let Shakespeare admit for me that "Where the bee sucks, there suck I."

A good friend sold me an 18" Levin turret lathe, an older,
gray-painted model
with motor, table and some accessories. That he was later offered 5
times more than
the price we agreed on after we sealed the simple promise of payment
on the
arrangement, says too much for him and just a bit for the value.

I got a generic PDF lathe manual from Levin. A call to them had me
leave a message
praying for a parts schematic. The machine looks clean and unruffled
but operation will
tell if there are any issues that need addressing outside of new
belts.

DAG but no hits came up for any user groups and though there were a
few ownership
acknowledgements on a Sherline lathe group on Yahoo. A search for a
spec
manual reaped nada.

If anyone has references to websites, user groups, helpful books,
schematic sources
or manuals directly for this elder Levin or kindred lathes in general,
I would be in your
debt for the notice.

No model number or designation more informative than the maker's name
is obviously
visible on the unit.

Thanks for the help.

Regards,

Edward Hennessey

If they don't call back, try again. If you get someone on the phone,
unless things have changed, you will find them friendly and helpful.

I had a Levin turret lathe about 10 years ago. It wasn't in the best of
shape for a Levin, but at the time I was doing a LOT of small shaft work
and it beat the holy heck out of the 16" engine lathe I also had at the
time! Didn't have the leadscrew cross slide/compound, just the dual
lever acting cross slide setup. I modified the end plates of the cross
slide to accept small Starrett micrometer heads, which made dialing in
snap ring grooves very easy.

Be sure to be sitting down if you need to order any parts. They are very
very expensive! I would recommend setting up an ebay search on Levin,
tweak filtering until you get most of the unrelated stuff out, and save
it with email notifications for new listings. Just keep watching, deals
will come along now and then.

I found the lathe a joy to use, while I had work for it. Hated to sell
it, but it was really useless for me once the small diameter work went away.

Instead of looking for Levin groups, look for watchmaking groups. Might
have to poke around some to find one with some Levin owners. The guy I
bought mine from lived in Fresno, first name was Dave, but I don't
recall his last name and all emails from that era were lost in a HD
failure. He had a whole room full of watchmakers lathes, tooling, and
accessories. One machine he had that I was just drooling over was a very
small horizontal mill. Forget the maker, but it was just the cutest
danged thing I have ever seen. Had a ton of accessories for it, and all
slides were tight and smooth as glass. Anyway, if you can locate this
guy, he would likely be of assistance.

FWIW, talking about stand up people... I sold the lathe to Performance
Machine Tools in Fremont (California). They made me an offer over the
phone, around $3k IIRC. I had sent some pictures, but didn't have a good
digital, so it was hard to judge the condition. It was tight and very
servicable, but wasn't pretty. I loaded it up in Dad's van and took it
down. The owner was busy when I got there, so I wandered around looking
at machines. In the front showroom, they had a totally pristine Levin, I
mean virtually unused. When you consider markup, they have to make
money..., it wasn't selling for that much more than the offer on mine. I
felt maybe I'd been offered too much. When I finally met with the owner,
I asked if he didn't want to see the lathe before settling on the price.
He assured me that his offer was firm. So we unloaded. I could see by
the look on his face that he regretted his comment. But he cut the check
without a single word of complaint. I'm sure he made money on it, but
not what he'd thought he would. Stand up guy...


Jon

Ed,

On a lark I went and checked my files, I have a few brochures from
Levin, maybe what you already have, but I also have a parts price list,
dated 1994. Shoot me your address, my email is valid, and I'll drop them
in the mail to you.


Jon

"Jon Anderson" wrote in message
...
Ed,

On a lark I went and checked my files, I have a few brochures from
Levin, maybe what you already have, but I also have a parts price
list, dated 1994. Shoot me your address, my email is valid, and I'll
drop them in the mail to you.


Jon

Jon:

The email will wing out in a minute. Thank you kindly for the favor.
I'll
cover you on the cost. But...if you're reading any topic I have extra
books
on, give me a notion of the subjects and there may be something
otherwise
I can do.

Regards,

Ed