Hello all,

Well, now I've gone and done it- I bought and loaded up a lathe today.
I won't say what I paid for it, but I could afford it, and I'm a po'
boy.

You might wonder why it's a neener, as we've all got lathes, but this
is a *big* one. Technically, this one's OT because it's an engine
lathe, but this is the only lathe forum going.

What I've got now is a gigantic Forster 6 station turret lathe, with 4
chucks, (at least some of the parts for) a bar feeder, and about
200-300 pounds of accessories, ranging from a box of tool bits to a
couple of boring bar holders bigger than I can recall ever seeing the
likes of. * note * the chucks I'm referring to aren't even remotely
in the class of a woodturning one- the one I'm looking at right now is
15" in diameter, and slightly under 4" thick, and has an eyebolt
threaded into it to lift it into place using a chain hoist. I didn't
measure it yet, but my rough estimate is that it's about 24" deep, and
about 6 feet long with the turret moved all the way forward (it was
locked in place for transport, so I didn't crank it out to see what
the full length capacity is.) The passthrough (also not measured
yet) is about 2" in diameter.

It's a heck of a neat old machine- evidently, it was decomissioned in
1945, and stored since then. There's some surface rust, but as far as
I could tell, everything moves freely and all of the essentials are
there, with the exception of a motor large enough to drive it. It's
one of the old kind that was driven with a 3" leather belt connected
to a series of pulleys (the pulley assembly is largely intact as well,
including the wall mounts for it) There is plenty of stuff that came
along with it that I haven't figured out yet, but I'm sure with a
little time and effort it will all become clear.

My intention is to get it up and running as a functional engine lathe,
but in the event that that is impossible for some reason (though I
really doubt that will be the case) It's going to make one heck of a
bowl turner.

Should be a fun project- I always like being able to restore something
that old and make it work again. I don't know if it's old enough to
be a museum piece, but it's certainly a remnant of bygone days.