So I up n' gotst me a lathe

[jugadro]

A couple weekends ago, my father and I ventured up to Avon, Maine for an auction. It was the estate of an old machinist (more like a jack-of-ALL-trades), and in one word, it was "superb."

The place was on the edge of a small grassy air strip named Lindbergh field after the infamous pilot who had once stopped there to fuel up. Attendance was very low which made me very happy.
At the beginning of the auction, they announced that this was a cash only auction.
My happy heart sank. No cash. No checkbook. Just good ol' VISA. Luckily, my Dad had a wad on him.

Needless to say, stuff was going for peanuts. In some cases, less than peanuts. I saw a Cincinnati lathe go for $10.00.

In fact this mill, complete with a ton of tooling, indexing head, lathe attachment, horizontal head, and blah blah blah... $10.00


So as for me, I intended to bid on an old 32" Crescent bandsaw, but in the corner of the shop was a sweet old metalworking lathe and it was beautiful.

The bidding went down to $20 before we got in on it, and the final bid?... A whopping $100. I got the whole corner of the freakin' room for $100.
Lathe, pulleys, tons of tooling, steady rest, chucks, taper attachment, about 1.5 tons of raw stock (I need some Vidmars now, crzypete), and a hole lot of "I have no idea what this is's".

I forgot all about the bandsaw. And man, I shoulda bought more stuff!

So it is a David W. Pond lathe made in Worcester, Mass in probably the late 1800's.
Here are some pics (after we stripped the corner of all the tooling and a bunch of attachments).





And here are a couple unloading pics...




So here it will sit until the shop is ready. If anyone knows anything about these Pond lathes, please let me know. The most I've found is this sweet article about the Pond family and Machine Company. Boy was his Dad a sketchball.

I did figure I'd check it's accuracy and, as Richard Newman would say, it was "Dead Nuts". I guess you just can't beat old iron. Let the cleaning begin!

[mystry_tour]

WOW nice score. That looks so cool. Did you take the wheels from the cealing too. That would be so nice to work on haveing all that arn spinning and belts whizzing. I would like to see some pices of it as your useing it after you get it up and going. I wish I would have been in the neighborhood.....might have cost a little more money J/K
That is sooooooooooooooo cool thanks for the pics

[crzypete]

Hey Jared, that is quite a lathe you got there. Was the whole shop based on antiques like that, or was there a mix of new and old?

You are lucky to have a bunch of accessories for that machine. Machines of that vintage often have unique tapers and threads on and in the spindles and tailstocks.

Most auctions are cash only- I have rarely encountered one that isn't. Some will take a bank letter of guarantee and a check. Sometimes a 25% deposit at the day of the auction with additional funds to be paid in full shortly thereafter. Often a certified check, but probably less so at this point.

It looks like the lathe has either no micrometer dials or very small ones, and I can't tell if it has a leadscrew and change gears for threading. My assessment is that it will probably serve you better as a wood lathe than a metal lathe.

From what it sounds like I would easily give the $100 for the metal sitting next to the machine, so consider this a free lathe, and take the liberties a free machine offer. I would be more concerned with getting it operational than clean.

I'm curious as a cincinnati owner what the cinci lathe was? Same vintage as this one?

Pete

[jugadro]

crzypete,

I think I'm turning into a Machine Junkie.

I only have 2 but I need more...

MORE!

[crzypete]

Yea, It's a tough urge to resist, especially at the prices that quality iron can be had these days.

Pete