Finally have a lathe -11" Rockwell

[cbacres]

You may of read in another thread about my search for a lathe, well search is over. I bought a Rockwell 11" , model 25-100 lathe the other day and brought it home yesterday. Included is a 3 & 4 jaw chuck, quick release tool post with various tool holders, steady rest, turret attachment, live and dead centers, Jacobs chuck, hand full of bits, older style tool holders and an assortment of wrenches. A collet closer is also in the mix. The motor is a three phase, I'm looking at phase converters wih VFD controls.
The seller says it sat for the past ten years, and I'd have to say the condition supports that. Everything seems to move and engage fine. Needs a good cleaning and lube job. I can't wait to get a converter so I can fire up and really check it out.





Another project to do, but I guess that's what a lot of us live for. I sill need to finish my roof extension for he shop among other things.

 

[Steinmetz]

Since it's an 11 inch lathe, it may be cheaper to put a single-phase motor on it.

 

[Steinmetz]

BTW, resist the impulse to tear it apart and paint it. If it has problems, new paint will not be solution to any of them.

 

[Steinmetz]

BTW2. You can't run it on roller skates. One of your first jobs should be to make a set of leveling feet, level it properly (a carpenter's level won't do here) and make some test cuts on a test bar.

 

[WWIIjeep]

Nice find. You've got the later-style cabinet, so between that and what I can see of the headstock, I think your lathe dates from the late-60s to mid-70s. If you post the serial number, the age can be narrowed to a single year.

The Enco turret tailstock is a nice bonus.

 

[zkling]

Congrats, looks like a good starting point. I hope you don't find many if any surprises.

 

[Ed ke6bnl]

look like you took a picture of my 11 Rockwell. came with turret, and kdk holder, etc and about the same cond. mine came with 120 volt motor and I had already made a rotory phase converter for my Rockwell variable speed drill press. enjoy I am still learning more about it.

 

[cbacres]

Steinmetz,
I can get a phase converter with a VFD for about $ 160.00. Main reason is to have more selection in speed, but I'm pricing motors also.
I'll get it going and make sure all is OK before it gets tore down and painted, I have 6 bench grinders, a bench, a roof, ....... To do before I even consider another rehab right now.
The roller skates are just for unloading from the trailer and until I find its final home. I plan on a final mount on casters, but with the leveling bolts, it'll be semi permenate.

WWIIjeep, I agree with your timeline, serial no. Is 1478971, didn't find anything on vintage, guessing on the range of numbers listed there.

Zkling, it's a great starting place for me, don't think I need to buy much. I'm hoping no big surprises myself.

Ed, could I trouble you for a motor type and frame? I don't know if you need a particular type motor for reversing, just havent got that far. Thanks

 

[WWIIjeep]

WWIIjeep, I agree with your timeline, serial no. Is 1478971, didn't find anything on vintage, guessing on the range of numbers listed there.

Your lathe was made in 1969.

 

[larry_g]

Steinmetz,
, I have 6 bench grinders, a bench, a roof, .......Thanks

That is an acceptable looking machine. I do have one thing to say though regarding the above statement, do not set the lathe up in the same room with any grinder if there is any way you can avoid it. Abrasive dust from grinding will soon render a lathe near useless. The abrasive gets in the ways and grinds them down, removing the precision from the lathe.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[drivesitfar]

Larry: great point about the grinders in the same room as your lathe. i bet a lot of guys have some close or in the same room as their lathes.

CB: instead of just a grinder stand for your Blocks maybe just make a nice office for them and have them all on a bench around the edge of it with a door to close off the flying debris and dust?

 

[Zeke]

BTW2. You can't run it on roller skates. One of your first jobs should be to make a set of leveling feet, level it properly (a carpenter's level won't do here) and make some test cuts on a test bar.

So, other than a standard high quality bubble level, what do you suggest? I could see an expensive laser set up if the machine was 20' long but it's not. And to me, the laser beam is thicker than the lines on a bubble.

 

[Steinmetz]

So, other than a standard high quality bubble level, what do you suggest? I could see an expensive laser set up if the machine was 20' long but it's not. And to me, the laser beam is thicker than the lines on a bubble.

A level providing about 10 arc-seconds per division is regarded as sufficiently accurate for aligning/leveling machinery. It's what I use.

 

[Zeke]

A level providing about 10 arc-seconds per division is regarded as sufficiently accurate for aligning/leveling machinery. It's what I use.

Thank you. I searched for that type of level and learned something.

 

[Ed ke6bnl]

Steinmetz,
I can get a phase converter with a VFD for about $ 160.00. Main reason is to have more selection in speed, but I'm pricing motors also.
I'll get it going and make sure all is OK before it gets tore down and painted, I have 6 bench grinders, a bench, a roof, ....... To do before I even consider another rehab right now.
The roller skates are just for unloading from the trailer and until I find its final home. I plan on a final mount on casters, but with the leveling bolts, it'll be semi permenate.

WWIIjeep, I agree with your timeline, serial no. Is 1478971, didn't find anything on vintage, guessing on the range of numbers listed there.

Zkling, it's a great starting place for me, don't think I need to buy much. I'm hoping no big surprises myself.

Ed, could I trouble you for a motor type and frame? I don't know if you need a particular type motor for reversing, just havent got that far. Thanks

about the best I could do on the motor had to take a load of grease/dirt off the tag and hold the phone it there. Hope that helps put it away for my reference in the future

 

[cbacres]

Your lathe was made in 1969.

Thanks WWII, where did you find that?

That is an acceptable looking machine. I do have one thing to say though regarding the above statement, do not set the lathe up in the same room with any grinder if there is any way you can avoid it. Abrasive dust from grinding will soon render a lathe near useless. The abrasive gets in the ways and grinds them down, removing the precision from the lathe.

lg
no neat sig line

The grinders won't be right by it, but its a good point. Was already thinking of a cover just due to the open eves of my shop, dust just drifts in.

Larry: great point about the grinders in the same room as your lathe. i bet a lot of guys have some close or in the same room as their lathes.

CB: instead of just a grinder stand for your Blocks maybe just make a nice office for them and have them all on a bench around the edge of it with a door to close off the flying debris and dust?

No room for a room in this shop, if I did, it would not be for he grinders

Thank you. I searched for that type of level and learned something.

Thanks Zeke and Stein, I've learned a little more also, I heard of using a precision level, never looked into it.

Ed, thanks for the photo, exact type and motor that I have. The "R" in the type is for reversible.

I think I going to stay with the three phase motor, from reading up on it, it's a stout, high torque one and a comparable one would likely cost a little. I'm researching the phase converters. I'll let you what I find.

Craig

 

[Kevin54]

The lathe and tooling looks great, but I have yet to see any chips

 

[WWIIjeep]

Thanks WWII, where did you find that?

I found it on a printed list I got from Rockwell years ago, but it's also available on the Delta wiki at vintagemachinery.org

 

[gus1962]

That's decent deal. The lathe looks great. Goodluck and enjoy.

 

[cbacres]

Update, I hooked up the VFD/ phase converter today. I bought a Teco brand, $ 158.00 shipped. This thing is neat. It's 220 volt single phase input, 220 three phase out. I've been reading other forums on these and there's a lot you can do with it. It has remote contacts for forward, reverse, speed control and emergency stop. Right now I'm just using it set at 60 cycles to power the motor. The built in reversing switch works fine.
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Here's a shot of testing on a piece of stainless pipe. I don't really know the particular angles and positions of setting the bit to the work, but the first cuts were decent. No chatter whatsoever.
[URL=http://s1244.photobucket.com/user/cbacres/media/imagejpg1-7.jpg.html]
Since I posted the last time, after digging into the lathe some, I found that the bull and pulley gear had missing teeth. It still runs in the back gear setting, I tried it with the VFD turned way down. I have a bull gear coming and will weld and file the teeth back to shape on the other.


I should of taken the time to pull the headstock cover when I looked at it. Everything seems to work on it now that I powered it up. It has a viberation, more so when i turn up the speed with the variable speed control. I can feel it in the handle, seems to be coming from the belts. Im thinking the belts have set spots in them from setting a long time? Some adjustments need to be made , a few bushings and bearings need to be replaced. It'll work just fine for me.Maybe I'll actually learn how to use it some day.

 

[Fretters]

I should of taken the time to pull the headstock cover when I looked at it.

Wouldn't worry too much about it; it happens. It's not uncommon to find an odd shredded tooth or two on some gear or other. It's nowt which isn't easily sorted, with a bit of time and patience. There's usually someone will try engaging gears on the fly and do that trick. That looks a beast of a machine. Nice machine.

 

[longlivepunk]

Oh man, I'm so glad I found this thread!! I recently bought the same machine, but the very base-model (no accessories, threaded spindle, etc.)

I've been tearing into it slowly but surely. Cleaning it up in sub-assemblies (I don't want to take it down to nuts and bolts until I can ensure that it runs well) and so far it's awesome. Next to come off is the head-stock, only hiccup is that there's sort of a paper-ish guard to keep chips from getting over to the belts but it seems to be sort of stuck on. Have you had the head-stock off to change the belts by any chance? I'm thinking just a gasket scraper ought to do the trick...

I've tried looking around on the Yahoo group, but it seems tough to find anything. It's kind of a weird set-up, not a regular forum.

Here's a link to a thread I have about it on another forum if anyone's interested.
http://canadianhobbymetalworkers.com/threads/rockwell-11-lathe.176/

 

[My Old Tools]

Try not to break anything. Parts for Rockwell lathes are made of unobtainium. Joe at Plaza sometimes has a few parts, but they are harder to find than more mainstream lathes like South Bend, Logan, etc. The lathes themselves are pretty good in their size range, but not a lot of support.

 

[longlivepunk]

Oh, I know. Parts are next to impossible to find. Luckily I'm a machinist, and 3 of my neighbors are/were machinists for the University Chemistry and Physics departments. I can pretty much make anything I might need or get it made by someone I know. Otherwise I never would have bought this lathe.

EDIT: By the way, if anyone here could tell me what year my machine is, my serial # is 1474665

 

[cbacres]

Picked up another -11" Rockwell lathe

Test

 

[Ed ke6bnl]

I have had my 11 Rockwell about 20 years got if for $450 and it has been working great for all these years. Cleaned it a bit but no paint. I was able to sell a few of the extra parts that came with for the price I paid for the lathe. I put on some inexpensive DRO readouts with strong hard drive magnets and its information is sent by bluetooth (yuriy's dro arduino) that I made and have no idea of how it works but followed the plans to a small tablet. I guess if something major goes I will again pay for it by parting out the lathe.

 

[cbacres]

I picked up another 11” Rockwell. This one doesn’t suffer from dental problems on the gears.

This is a slightly different model (25-0X6)than the first one (25-100), haven’t figured out what the differences are.
I figured for the going price of one of the gears ($400), that paying $1000 for this one was justified, and it seems to be ready to go. I know the gears can be welded and the profiles ground to shape, l just have enough projects as is.


The lathe was inside a house, we were able to roll through the house as the PO was nice enough to of set the lathe on some nice steel frame dollies. The casters are all swivels so moving it was pretty easy.

I blocked up the ramp on the trailer, used a old bench top to clear the threshold and we blocked up the difference.

My trailer has a boat winch on it and it was priceless in using to pull lathe up onto trailer.

Wrapped up with about 200’ of shrink-wrap for the wet ride home.

The dollies that came with it.

I’ll build a better fitting frame and will have adjustable bolts to the floor when I go to set up.
Here’s some of the accessories that came with it.


I bought some extra face plates and misc.


Also found a taper attachment, but missing some pieces.

I found the taper behind a cab in between scrap wood. I had a old Rockwell brochure to reference the accessories. I was missing one of the pieces and went back in and found between some more wood!!

It has a single phase motor, so that’s one less thing to buy a inverter for.

I’ll go through and do a quick clean and checkout. Then I need to figure out the lubricant types. I think it’s been discussed over on the Yahoo Rockwell page.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[930dreamer]

Nice find on the second lathe.