I am just wondering if someone has an approximate idea: how much does
a lathe rebuild (just a bed and cross slide regrind and Moglice)
cost.

Transportation of the machine is not a problem.

Sizes are 16x30 or 16x54 for the two lathes in question.

i

Ignoramus26334 wrote:

I am just wondering if someone has an approximate idea: how much does
a lathe rebuild (just a bed and cross slide regrind and Moglice)
cost.

Transportation of the machine is not a problem.

Sizes are 16x30 or 16x54 for the two lathes in question.

i
Wow! No idea at all. I'd sure like to hear how much I saved
by "doing it myself". On a machine this size, it may be more
practical to use a bedway grinder that attaches to the lathe and
runs a grinding head down the bed than to put it on a huge
surface grinder.

Jon

On Mon, 13 Feb 2012 22:04:48 -0600, Ignoramus26334
wrote:

I am just wondering if someone has an approximate idea: how much does
a lathe rebuild (just a bed and cross slide regrind and Moglice)
cost.

Transportation of the machine is not a problem.

Sizes are 16x30 or 16x54 for the two lathes in question.

i

The question is labor cost. I rebuild for cheap cause I pay myself
nothing. Real easy to spend 200+ hours on something like this. If you
paid somebody 15-20 an hour, it could easy go over $10K. There's a
reason industry just scraps an old machine.

Karl

On 2012-02-15, Karl Townsend wrote:
On Mon, 13 Feb 2012 22:04:48 -0600, Ignoramus26334
wrote:

I am just wondering if someone has an approximate idea: how much does
a lathe rebuild (just a bed and cross slide regrind and Moglice)
cost.

Transportation of the machine is not a problem.

Sizes are 16x30 or 16x54 for the two lathes in question.

i

The question is labor cost. I rebuild for cheap cause I pay myself
nothing. Real easy to spend 200+ hours on something like this. If you
paid somebody 15-20 an hour, it could easy go over $10K. There's a
reason industry just scraps an old machine.

Karl, as you know, I trust and respect you, but I wonder why a rebuild
should involve 200 hours, if good equipment is available. I thought that
it is abous indicating and grinding the bed and cross slide, building
up with epoxy, and reassembling everything. I can see how it could
take a long time in the absence of a proper grinder etc. But would it
be time consuming to do myself. I personally would never undertake
such a project personally.

On 2012-02-15, Ignoramus10095 wrote:
On 2012-02-15, Karl Townsend wrote:
On Mon, 13 Feb 2012 22:04:48 -0600, Ignoramus26334
wrote:

I am just wondering if someone has an approximate idea: how much does
a lathe rebuild (just a bed and cross slide regrind and Moglice)
cost.

Transportation of the machine is not a problem.

Sizes are 16x30 or 16x54 for the two lathes in question.

i

The question is labor cost. I rebuild for cheap cause I pay myself
nothing. Real easy to spend 200+ hours on something like this. If you
paid somebody 15-20 an hour, it could easy go over $10K. There's a
reason industry just scraps an old machine.

Karl, as you know, I trust and respect you, but I wonder why a rebuild
should involve 200 hours, if good equipment is available. I thought that
it is abous indicating and grinding the bed and cross slide, building
up with epoxy, and reassembling everything. I can see how it could
take a long time in the absence of a proper grinder etc. But would it
be time consuming to do myself. I personally would never undertake
such a project personally.

I wanted to say ", but it would be time consuming to do myself".

"Ignoramus10095" wrote in message
...
On 2012-02-15, Ignoramus10095 wrote:
On 2012-02-15, Karl Townsend wrote:
On Mon, 13 Feb 2012 22:04:48 -0600, Ignoramus26334
wrote:

I am just wondering if someone has an approximate idea: how much does
a lathe rebuild (just a bed and cross slide regrind and Moglice)
cost.

Transportation of the machine is not a problem.

Sizes are 16x30 or 16x54 for the two lathes in question.

i

The question is labor cost. I rebuild for cheap cause I pay myself
nothing. Real easy to spend 200+ hours on something like this. If you
paid somebody 15-20 an hour, it could easy go over $10K. There's a
reason industry just scraps an old machine.

Karl, as you know, I trust and respect you, but I wonder why a rebuild
should involve 200 hours, if good equipment is available. I thought that
it is abous indicating and grinding the bed and cross slide, building
up with epoxy, and reassembling everything. I can see how it could
take a long time in the absence of a proper grinder etc. But would it
be time consuming to do myself. I personally would never undertake
such a project personally.

I wanted to say ", but it would be time consuming to do myself".

I have a friend that has a 10 ft stroke surface grinder and fresh paint
don't make them cut any more accurately.

The question is labor cost. I rebuild for cheap cause I pay myself
nothing. Real easy to spend 200+ hours on something like this. If you
paid somebody 15-20 an hour, it could easy go over $10K. There's a
reason industry just scraps an old machine.

Karl, as you know, I trust and respect you, but I wonder why a rebuild
should involve 200 hours, if good equipment is available. I thought that
it is abous indicating and grinding the bed and cross slide, building
up with epoxy, and reassembling everything. I can see how it could
take a long time in the absence of a proper grinder etc. But would it
be time consuming to do myself. I personally would never undertake
such a project personally.

I wanted to say ", but it would be time consuming to do myself".

I can only speak for myself. I've done a 10EE, a Hardinge CHNC, a
Mazak M4, an Excello 602, and I'm in the middle of a Matsuura
1000-VDC.

The huge time part is do to never having done that exact unit before,
and broken ****. There's a huge learning curve on this stuff. You end
up calling everywhere and/or fabricating items. For me, there is also
the Midas syndrome. While its apart you midas well to this, you midas
well do that, yada, yada.

My current project is in a different field, but the rule is holding.
I'm going to have 100 hours into rebuilding a Browning 1919
machinegun. I'm doing a second one, with all parts on hand this time,
and should knock it out in 15 hours. I got 1/2 way yesterday.

Karl

....

I have a friend that has a 10 ft stroke surface grinder and fresh paint
don't make them cut any more accurately.

if you're selling it, paint is the most cost effective thing you can
do. Especially a "taken apart" paint job. many folks know to shy away
from a quickie over the top painting.

"Karl Townsend" wrote in message
...
...

I have a friend that has a 10 ft stroke surface grinder and fresh paint
don't make them cut any more accurately.

if you're selling it, paint is the most cost effective thing you can
do.

Yes you'll probably fetch at least a slightly higher price, perhaps
especially so if the buyer happens to be someone who is rarely if ever going
to actually operate it.

Otherwise, you've just added another overpriced used machine tool to the
market.

Especially a "taken apart" paint job. many folks know to shy away
from a quickie over the top painting.

--I'm in the business of USING not SELLING...as such I'd rather the original
paint simply be left intact

On Wed, 15 Feb 2012 08:10:55 -0800, "PrecisionmachinisT"
wrote:


"Karl Townsend" wrote in message
.. .
...

I have a friend that has a 10 ft stroke surface grinder and fresh paint
don't make them cut any more accurately.

if you're selling it, paint is the most cost effective thing you can
do.

Yes you'll probably fetch at least a slightly higher price, perhaps
especially so if the buyer happens to be someone who is rarely if ever going
to actually operate it.

Otherwise, you've just added another overpriced used machine tool to the
market.

Especially a "taken apart" paint job. many folks know to shy away
from a quickie over the top painting.

--I'm in the business of USING not SELLING...as such I'd rather the original
paint simply be left intact

I've seen little pricing information in this thread, and I'm 'way out
of touch with this, but re-scraping an entire machine does indeed
approach the cost of a new machine -- or the cost when it was new.

When Turcite, and then Moglice came on the scene, the general estimate
was that a rebuild using those materials would cost roughly 1/2 as
much. I don't know if that assumed that the bed was reground, but a
ground bed was not the last word, anyway. Unless it's done by a
machine-tool expert, grinding a bed was always considered to be a
second choice. I used to watch Leblond grind their lathe beds, and
their surface grinding machine was not only big, it was also tailored
for the job, with big floods of coolant and very small bites on each
pass. That was for new machines.

A first-class job involving grinding still required final scraping-in.
You probably know there are contoversies surrounding milling and
grinding lathe beds, having to do with supposed stresses introduced by
the machining, but that was a long time ago. Lots of quality machine
tools have ground beds these days. With pressure lubricant, they don't
even go for the "frosting," which is a kind of ersatz scraping
intended to hold more oil on the ways.

Anyway, unless the machine is worth it, re-machining and fitting the
whole works, whether you do it by scraping the iron or by using the
plastics, is likely to be problematic in terms of costs.

BTW, the 1917 Taylor & Fenn knee mill that I just scrapped last summer
was re-scraped in 1968, for $900. But that old guy was doing it mostly
for a hobby at that point. It would have cost twice that, even then,
to have it done in a regular commercial rebuilding shop.

--
Ed Huntress

On Wed, 15 Feb 2012 08:10:55 -0800, "PrecisionmachinisT"
wrote:


"Karl Townsend" wrote in message
.. .
...

I have a friend that has a 10 ft stroke surface grinder and fresh paint
don't make them cut any more accurately.

if you're selling it, paint is the most cost effective thing you can
do.

Yes you'll probably fetch at least a slightly higher price, perhaps
especially so if the buyer happens to be someone who is rarely if ever going
to actually operate it.

Otherwise, you've just added another overpriced used machine tool to the
market.

Especially a "taken apart" paint job. many folks know to shy away
from a quickie over the top painting.

--I'm in the business of USING not SELLING...as such I'd rather the original
paint simply be left intact

I see some prices around the Web. To regrind a Monarch 10EE, $3,500.
To scrape-in the headstock, saddle, and tailstock was another $4,000.
That was *by* Monarch. I also saw some figures for a SB 10K. Around
$1,000 to re-grind the bed and scrape the saddle to the bed. That was
from South Bend itself. Plus transportation.

One assumes These are high-quality, new-machine-like jobs. That was
around 10 years ago.

--
Ed Huntress

Ignoramus10095 wrote:



Karl, as you know, I trust and respect you, but I wonder why a rebuild
should involve 200 hours, if good equipment is available. I thought that
it is abous indicating and grinding the bed and cross slide, building
up with epoxy, and reassembling everything. I can see how it could
take a long time in the absence of a proper grinder etc. But would it
be time consuming to do myself. I personally would never undertake
such a project personally.
Well, I have done this the HARD way, without a grinding machine. So, that
part took WAY longer than it ought to, but I didn't want to assault my
back yard with any more heavy vehicles mired to the axles. The Moglice
job on the carriage should have been simple, but I tried to get by without
machining the carriage. There was too little wear there, so it ended
up too high, and I had to scrape the Moglice down quite a bit to get
the important stuff to line up. But, if I had had the bed ground on
proper equipment, it would not have been that big a job.

Oh, one trick I came up with to get it close was to rig the compound slide
to an angle bracket and put it on the bottom half of the tailstock.
I then mounted a toolpost grinder to the compound, and towed this rig
down the bed with a gearmotor and a cable. This did a really good job of
cleaning up the main bed ways, and I very likely could have just used the
lathe after this.

Jon