The shop gets a lathe

Phil and I have had mill lathe fever for the past few months. Not sure what exactly we need these tools for but once you have a desire for a tool it is hard to not talk and day dream about it. After countless days on craigslist and other classified Phil found the perfect deal. There are a lot of lathes to be had but most of them were out of our price range. This one was had the perfect combination of age, soul, distance from us and price. 

The guy pictured is Ralph.  He was a really good dude. He had done so many different jobs in his life and was a wealth of cool stories. His shop was riddled with years of projects gone by. The piles of trim cut off stacked to the side or the bins of hand made tools were evident that this man was a maker and his hands had formed many unique items over the years.

Like all of us Ralph was getting older and looking to downsize. After an hour drive down to Richmond, Phil and Ralph were busy disassembling the lathe. The lath had been in place for the better part of 30 years.  

Back at the shop we had make the difficut dicision of where to put this beast. Initially it was decided to put it upstaire since it is a tool that will not get used daily. However it's beauty validated it placement in sight.

I am not sure what any of these things are used for but with it already being 100 years old, I figure I have some time to learn each of them.

A bag of screws later and these peices have a new home

We have no idea how to use this beast but no better way to get aquaited with a lady then to dive right in.

For starter we tested the maching by turning down a square stock of brass then experimented with the knurling tool. This thing is AWESOME!

So there she sits. Like a old friend that has made it's way into a new home. We are very happy to have here and look forward to maintaining her for her stay with us. With a machine like this it is fun to think of all the places it has been and all the items that have been created on it. This one machine could have been the heartbeat of a compnay 100 years ago or the bread winner for a family. Either way we will keep her safely until she moves on.