Appears to be in excellent condition. How big of a motor are you driving this with? Have you ever tried to grind anything in it?
That quick change tool post doesn't look 1932 vintage. That tells Elroy this thing must get used. Neat machine.
Just out of curiosity, are change gears available to chase metric thread?
The motor im using is a 1/2 horsepower old dayton. The motor mount drive unit is not original to the machine, but it did come with it when I bought it. The original is long gone, or maybe the machine was powered off a shops central drive system. It is in excellent condition, the V ways on the bed are excellent, and the compound slide and cross slide ways were re-scraped by a guy who's a second generation tool scraper.
I thought about repainting it at one time, but the original paint is in such good condition considering its age, I think it would be a crime to remove what 75+ years worth of owners took such good care of.
I have never done any grinding on it. I have been sort of keeping an eye out for a tool post grinder, but finding a real USA made one for a little 8" lathe seems very challenging.
I have the lamp post style tool holder it came with, but as you noticed, since I do make good use of the machine, the quick chance makes things much easier for me.
I have the change gears for SAE threading, but I dont know of anyone that sells them for doing metric.
What is the background story on it? Did you purchase it new? If so, props to you. 