I got a new lathe

[Neverenoughwatches]

Hey all watch peeps, are we all well. So i went and did something silly, but we do silly things when we are in love. And I fell in love with this and now i dont know what to with her but she's gorgeous. She's an A3 Boley and Leinen production lathe from the 40's. Yes i know too big for watchmaking maybe unless i can get hold of some 15mm collets for her to munch on. But just think of all the other things i can make ?   Ideas anyone ? 

[oldhippy]

With a lathe that big you need to take up clock making. 

[watchweasol]

Serious metal working ahead.

[tomh207]

1 hour ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Hey all watch peeps, are we all well. So i went and did something silly, but we do silly things when we are in love. And I fell in love with this and now i dont know what to with her but she's gorgeous. She's an A3 Boley and Leinen production lathe from the 40's. Yes i know too big for watchmaking maybe unless i can get hold of some 15mm collets for her to munch on. But just think of all the other things i can make ?   Ideas anyone ? 

 

Just imagine all the stuff you can make to use on your baby lathe.

Tom

[Neverenoughwatches]

2 hours ago, oldhippy said:

With a lathe that big you need to take up clock making. 

Haha yep OH its what i call future Endeavor buying, just thinking ahead with my eyesight. I wanted something bigger ,Its above what i  really was after but at such a good buy only a touch over 200  as its a collection only and 40miles from me, i though an absolute bargain. 

[oldhippy]

That's almost a give away price. 

[Neverenoughwatches]

16 minutes ago, oldhippy said:

That's almost a give away price. 

I know H the starting price was 200, i knew someone would at least bid that plus a bit more. I made my max 302 and was quite surprised at it finishing up at 209. They are compared at least in size to  the Myford ML7 and these are knocking out at 12 -15  hundred. So i can only guess its worth roughly a grand. I will need some help sourcing some generic 15mm collets and a draw bar, i expect the originals are like rocking horseshit, so if anyone has ideas, much appreciated you guys.

[markr]

First thing you should build is a snap on back for my 1955 P812 LeCoultre.

[JohnR725]

5 hours ago, tomh207 said:

Just imagine all the stuff you can make

Actually the Lathe is big enough to make a watch. It should be big enough to turn the watch plates which sometimes would be hard to do with a smaller Lathe.

Then the link below might have some useful information somewhere

http://www.lathes.co.uk/boley/

 

[Neverenoughwatches]

1 hour ago, markr said:

First thing you should build is a snap on back for my 1955 P812 LeCoultre.

Ok, but first thing i should do before first thing i should build is figure out how it works. Hopefully picking it up next Monday as long as nothing goes pear-shaped. I want to pay cash on collection for it, Epay frown very much on this idea, i guess they worry about not getting their ( hard earned ) commission. Messages between buyer and seller containing addresses are strictly monitored. 

1 hour ago, JohnR725 said:

Actually the Lathe is big enough to make a watch. It should be big enough to turn the watch plates which sometimes would be hard to do with a smaller Lathe.

Then the link below might have some useful information somewhere

http://www.lathes.co.uk/boley/

 

Thanks John, thats were i got some of my information yesterday on the A3 model. I've been searching for the 15mm collets since then. 

[tomh207]

If I stumble across 15mm collets I’ll shout out Rich 

 

Tom

[Neverenoughwatches]

3 minutes ago, tomh207 said:

If I stumble across 15mm collets I’ll shout out Rich 

 

Tom

Absolutely Tom , i have eyes and ears open at the ready. I was going to name her Big Bertha, she weighs nearly as much as me, plenty to hold on to

[RichardHarris123]

Caliber specific moment holders. 

[Neverenoughwatches]

13 minutes ago, tomh207 said:

If I stumble across 15mm collets I’ll shout out Rich 

 

Tom

Out of interest the watchmaker's wolf cross slides I've been tailing on ebay for the past few months have been more than i paid for Big Bertha. 

[tomh207]

31 minutes ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Out of interest the watchmaker's wolf cross slides I've been tailing on ebay for the past few months have been more than i paid for Big Bertha. 

Yeah, tell me about it, I ended up paying most of the lathe cost for one mate.

 

Tom

[Neverenoughwatches]

12 hours ago, tomh207 said:

Yeah, tell me about it, I ended up paying most of the lathe cost for one mate.

 

Tom

Haha i remember,  you got all caught up in a bidding frenzy and it was going to be yours no matter what

[tomh207]

51 minutes ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Haha i remember,  you got all caught up in a bidding frenzy and it was going to be yours no matter what

Funnier though is all the WJ cross slides I have seen since go for considerably more than I paid so buyer’s remorse has eased somewhat

 

Tom

[Neverenoughwatches]

16 minutes ago, tomh207 said:

Funnier though is all the WJ cross slides I have seen since go for considerably more than I paid so buyer’s remorse has eased somewhat

 

Tom

Big Bertha already has a cross slide, a biiggggg one

[Neverenoughwatches]

As i dont know much about metal working lathes i have the question of, does precision wane as the lathe gets bigger ? Or just the ability to make smaller things ?

Edited September 19, 2023 by Neverenoughwatches

[nickelsilver]

10 minutes ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

As i dont know much about metal working lathes i have the question of, does precision wane as the lathe gets bigger ? Or just the ability to make smaller things ?

No, it just becomes less convenient to make smaller things. I have a Schaublin 102, comparable to your Leinen there, and have made many parts for customers on it with tolerances of +- 3 microns. But if the part can be made more coveniently on my little Leinen (50mm center height, "standard" watchmaker lathe), I do it there. When the part diameter gets above what I can hold in a collet on the little Leinen (around 6mm), it goes to the Schaublin usually.

 

There are larger (10-11" swing) lathes that can easily hold the precision or better than the best watchmaker lathes, for example the Monarch 10ee or Hardinge HLV-H. In many ways the extra stability and mass of the larger machines makes higher precision easier.

[Neverenoughwatches]

8 minutes ago, nickelsilver said:

No, it just becomes less convenient to make smaller things. I have a Schaublin 102, comparable to your Leinen there, and have made many parts for customers on it with tolerances of +- 3 microns. But if the part can be made more coveniently on my little Leinen (50mm center height, "standard" watchmaker lathe), I do it there. When the part diameter gets above what I can hold in a collet on the little Leinen (around 6mm), it goes to the Schaublin usually.

 

There are larger (10-11" swing) lathes that can easily hold the precision or better than the best watchmaker lathes, for example the Monarch 10ee or Hardinge HLV-H. In many ways the extra stability and mass of the larger machines makes higher precision easier.

Thanks Nicklesilver,  thats instilled me with some confidence with my use of it.  The entire  buy was cheaper than a just cross slide for the watchmaker's lathe. Hopefully i come across some collets for it, so far the literature I've found states a maximum holding of 8mm, i thought it would be much higher from a 15mm collet. 

[RichardHarris123]

I don't know much about lathes but could a collet be made on one? 

[Neverenoughwatches]

37 minutes ago, RichardHarris123 said:

I don't know much about lathes but could a collet be made on one? 

I was thinking the same, potentially maybe but likely not within my capability or the lathe's. The collet has to be accurately bored, shaped to fit the cone, keywayed and threaded. Not sure how the collet would be split either They would also need to be hardened way beyond something amateurish i could attempt .

Edited September 19, 2023 by Neverenoughwatches

[nickelsilver]

42 minutes ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Thanks Nicklesilver,  thats instilled me with some confidence with my use of it.  The entire  buy was cheaper than a just cross slide for the watchmaker's lathe. Hopefully i come across some collets for it, so far the literature I've found states a maximum holding of 8mm, i thought it would be much higher from a 15mm collet. 

There's the through-bore size and the reduced bore size. On a Schaublin w12 collet, 12mm body, max through is 8mm, but they're pushing it. On a standard Swiss 8mm collet it's 4mm, for most other 8mm it's 5mm. A w20 collet, 20mm body, it's 14mm. So 8mm through bore for a 15 mm collet is about right. On my little lathe (8mm collet), I can fit 6mm rod in a reduced bore collet 12-15mm deep. So in some cases, where maybe I want to make a part with an OD of 10mm, but work it in my Leinen, I'll turn a 6mm spigot on the stock on the 102, then hold it for final working in the Leinen.

[Neverenoughwatches]

1 hour ago, nickelsilver said:

There's the through-bore size and the reduced bore size. On a Schaublin w12 collet, 12mm body, max through is 8mm, but they're pushing it. On a standard Swiss 8mm collet it's 4mm, for most other 8mm it's 5mm. A w20 collet, 20mm body, it's 14mm. So 8mm through bore for a 15 mm collet is about right. On my little lathe (8mm collet), I can fit 6mm rod in a reduced bore collet 12-15mm deep. So in some cases, where maybe I want to make a part with an OD of 10mm, but work it in my Leinen, I'll turn a 6mm spigot on the stock on the 102, then hold it for final working in the Leinen.

Thanks for the information Nicklesilver. Whats the minimum rod you would  chuck up in an adjustable if you had to . This thing has a new 80 mm 3 jaw.