Can you tell me about this lathe?

Delta gap-bed...

Rod Peterson -- Ormond Beach

>...if memory serves�don't know the model number. I'm no expert in either lathes or old machinery, but I had a friend years ago who had one and did marvelous work on it. At the time I was either still dinking around on my home made lathe or had just gotten a Craftsman. Either way, his Delta was a whole lot better than whatever I had.

It may be underpowered a bit, and the bearings would certainly be something to think about looking at, but that gap gives you some extra capacity for when (not if) you start turning bowls, although maybe not much by the time you put a chuck on it�

But it's Delta iron from a while back, so quality wise, it's better than Sears, better than Grizzly, certainly better than Harbor Freight, probably the equal of Jet. It'll be more lathe than the minis at less than a mini price.

Keep in mind, however, that I'm no expert in either lathes or old machinery.

Good luck.

Rod

Re: Can you tell me about this lathe?

john Lucas

>Bruce

My best friend and his dad turned on these things professionally for years. I'd go for it. In fact Randy has turned some remarkable things for the last 5 years on his. He just upgraded to a Powermatic. John

Re: Can you tell me about this lathe?

Wally Dickerman at Green Valley, Az.

>I had a lathe just like this one perhaps 30 or more years ago. It's all cast iron and built better than many low end lathes today. With a 1/2 HP motor it's very much under powered. I'm sure that mine had a larger motor. At $150 it's still a good buy if the bearings are okay. Perhaps you could find a used motor in 3/4 or better yet, 1 HP, at a good price.

Wally

Re: Can you tell me about this lathe?

Arch

>Bruce, IMO that's no consolation, that's a very good spindle lathe, with an adequate motor and stand for its purposes. It may even be the same lathe you turned on 19 years ago. The gap is worthless, but grab that solid old Delta before somebody sells their HF for $12 and buys it. Good iron and steel iron isn't getting any cheaper. If I lived in your town, I'd pay more than $150 for that setup. Did I hear someone say "yeah, you'd pay $150.75". :)

Turn to Safety, Arch

Grab It

John McAtee

>I'd grab it, Bruce. That's a fine, older spindle lathe and you should be able to readily replace the bearings and/or motor if need be. As others have said, "They don't make em like that any more." and it appears to be in great shape.

Re: Can you tell me about this lathe? *LINK*

Larry Hancock, Ardmore,OK

>Bruce,

I turned on one of these lathes for a while. Mine was a Rockwell/Delt but it looks like it stayed the same. I bought one used for $600 dollars about 20 years. It is a solid made lathe with the option of adding a bed extention in the middle where the bed bolts together. The tailstock takes #1 morse taper and the headstock does not have a morse taper, it has 7/8" by 14 RH threads on the inboard side and 3/4" by 16 LH threads on the outboard side. For $150 it is probably a good buy and will be fine for spindle turning. Getting a chuck for the 7/8" threads is a little harder but you can get one. Not having a morse taper in the headstock limits the use of jacobs chucks and pen turning mandrels also but that can be worked around. The tool rest post is a 5/8" diameter and not intended for heavy cuts while bowl turning but you mentioned spindle turning was your main interest so you are all right there.

I built a heavier stand for my lathe and to get it up to a more comfortable height for me to turn on. There are a couple of pictures of the lathe I owned at the link below.

Larry


Rockwell/Delta Lathe

Re: Can you tell me about this lathe?

Bruce Zelt

>Thank you to everyone with the great information! Just what I was looking for.

Bruce

Re: Can you tell me about this lathe?

Arch

>Wally, I think they had different horses when we upgraded to sleeve bearing Dunlap lathes with split phase 1/4 hp motors. :)

Larry, I have an old Beaver with a 7/8" solid head spindle and integral dead tail center. IIRC, most early 'pure Deltas' did sport female tapered spindes and 1X8 threads. I hope this one has them.

Regards to both of you,

Turn to Safety, Arch

Re: Can you tell me about this lathe?

Wally Dickerman at Green Valley, Az.

>Mine had a 1 x 8 thread spindle, and had MT #2 in both headstock and tailstock. I think that the motor was 3/4 HP. It's swing was 11 inches, as this one is. The gap is only good for turning platters.

Wally