Thoughts on potential Lathe purchase

[JonasB]

Hello everyone, I found an ad online where someone is selling a Boley 8mm lathe (everything in photo for 600EUR).
It looks like it's missing some pieces (motor, compound, vertical milling attachment, indexing/gear cutting plate etc), but it also comes with a bunch of other tools (depth, staking etc). From the info, it seems that the lathe is well aligned, no damage to the table or functional defects.

I have been browsing ebay and it seems that it is reasonably easy to find parts for a 8mm Boley lathe, but I wanted to get the community's thoughts on this? I guess the first project could be to restore it, which seems like a perfect little task to get to know the lathe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Opinions and advice is much appreciated, thank you

[8lackie]

1 hour ago, JonasB said:

Hello everyone, I found an ad online where someone is selling a Boley 8mm lathe (everything in photo for 600EUR).
It looks like it's missing some pieces (motor, compound, vertical milling attachment, indexing/gear cutting plate etc), but it also comes with a bunch of other tools (depth, staking etc). From the info, it seems that the lathe is well aligned, no damage to the table or functional defects.

I have been browsing ebay and it seems that it is reasonably easy to find parts for a 8mm Boley lathe, but I wanted to get the community's thoughts on this? I guess the first project could be to restore it, which seems like a perfect little task to get to know the lathe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Opinions and advice is much appreciated, thank you

A lot of stuff there. Hard to tell what is good and what is junk. As you point out you'll need a motor, not sure what else it's missing, Maybe ask for other pictures? Is that another lathe in the back or a table vise?

[JonasB]

2 hours ago, 8lackie said:

A lot of stuff there. Hard to tell what is good and what is junk. As you point out you'll need a motor, not sure what else it's missing, Maybe ask for other pictures? Is that another lathe in the back or a table vise?

Yeah, I think the parts in the back may mainly be junk… I’m hoping to get some info tomorrow, I’m mostly interested if there is a compound, any jaws that may come with and possibly a milling attachment.

 

 

[JonasB]

So as it turns out the date of production for this lathe is ~1920s. I will buy the rest of the parts as I need them, there seem to be a good amount of chucks and jaws available on ebay. The only thing that it's missing is indeed the compound which will be a major purchase. 

The first project will be to restore the lathe, I will clean up the rusty parts, replace the bearings and reassemble. It will be a good project for me and worst come to worst I can always sell it in a better state later.

[nickelsilver]

3 hours ago, JonasB said:

The first project will be to restore the lathe, I will clean up the rusty parts, replace the bearings and reassemble. It will be a good project for me and worst come to worst I can always sell it in a better state later.

The bearings on this are "plain" bearings, conical hard steel bearings on conical hard steel spindle parts. They are practically indestructable, so no worries. I've seen production machines with the same bearings that must have had many 10s of thousands of hours on them in fine shape.

 

The bed looks like the same profile as the Sincere/Vector lathes, if the dimensions are the same that would be the way to go for a slide rest. The original slides are 1) expensive, 2) not user friendly- on some of these old German machines the screws are reversed from all other lathes, i.e. backwards, and they sometimes are weird pitch (Lorch in particular, with 0.75mm pitch), and the thimbles are universally tiny and hard to read, and often not settable.

 

If the dimensions on the Sincere are different, I would imagine a machine shop could adapt it if you don't have access to a larger lathe/milling machine.

 

A big plus is it appears to have a collet holding tailstock. That's not so common on older machines, and really, really, handy.

[JonasB]

On 7/23/2022 at 2:53 AM, nickelsilver said:

The bearings on this are "plain" bearings, conical hard steel bearings on conical hard steel spindle parts. They are practically indestructable, so no worries. I've seen production machines with the same bearings that must have had many 10s of thousands of hours on them in fine shape.

 

The bed looks like the same profile as the Sincere/Vector lathes, if the dimensions are the same that would be the way to go for a slide rest. The original slides are 1) expensive, 2) not user friendly- on some of these old German machines the screws are reversed from all other lathes, i.e. backwards, and they sometimes are weird pitch (Lorch in particular, with 0.75mm pitch), and the thimbles are universally tiny and hard to read, and often not settable.

 

If the dimensions on the Sincere are different, I would imagine a machine shop could adapt it if you don't have access to a larger lathe/milling machine.

 

A big plus is it appears to have a collet holding tailstock. That's not so common on older machines, and really, really, handy.

Thank you so much Nick, indeed, I've been looking at cross slides and the prices range from 700-1000$. I think once I have the lathe in my hands, I will measure and see what is the best course of action.

The news about the bearings is great, I was actually a bit scared about that as replacements seem to be impossible to find. Will report back once I have the lathe with me as it will have to be shipped from Europe. I will likely first cleanup the rust on the major parts and give it a nice cleaning job before using it.

[Tore]

Not the same dimensions on this bed and collets as Sincere/vector. 

And i belive the lathe is newer than 1920s

[JonasB]

2 hours ago, Tore said:

Not the same dimensions on this bed and collets as Sincere/vector. 

And i belive the lathe is newer than 1920s

What makes you think so? I am relying on what the seller said so far, but it does not look a 100 years old indeed..

[JonasB]

Ok, so lathe seems to be in great shape. I was thinking about buying a cross slide - https://www.ebay.com/itm/304526277611 seems like a good fit. I have been trying to see what the width of the bed is to see if the cross slide would fit. (I'm not sure if bed is the right naming btw, not sure exactly what that is called)

As it turns out, the lathe came with a lot of extra tools. I can recognize the staking, jacot tool and the bow mill, but I do not know about the rest... I also suspect the lathe may be a 6.5mm and not 8mm (judging by what info I can find online), but I honestly don't care - I got a great deal and I think this will make for a pretty nice restoration.