Morris Minor Owners Club

Hello,

I want to get a lathe. I'm mildly obsessed with the things and am keen to learn as much as I can. All I can think of that I might use it for with my traveller is to machine a drift for replacing valve guides. What other uses are there for a lathe when it comes to working on classic cars?

Make a set of pistons? Lighten the flywheel? Skim brake drums ? Machine away excessive length on camshaft sprockets when the cam endfloat is excessive

Rear seal plugs for front and rear damper refurbisment
After spending 20+ years as a centre lathe turner I have lost count of the amount of "guvvy" jobs I have done for people in my lunch hour.
I think the best one I did was to machine a bearing housing and shaft for a model gyrocopter my father was building. The bearing housing was made from plastic with a silver steel shaft.
Wish I had room for one in the garage

Once you have a lathe you can do and manufacture all sorts of things (including camshaft sprockets ha, ha and still no feedback from Mowog). You will wonder how you ever managed without one.
If you want to do a Minor flywheel you will need a lathe with a min of 11" swing.
If you do buy a lathe you do not have to buy a expensive modern one to do the business.
There are lots of good old ones on 'e' bay or even private sales and so long as you do not mind exposed gearing and possible flat belting you can pick up a good one for £200 - £300 or even less.
The basics principles of the old and new lathes are the same.
The old ones usually come with lots of extras which have been built up and added to over many years.
My latest lathe purchase is over 100 years old, came with an interesting history (500cc motorcycle and F3 racing), has an 16" swing (really useful) and lots of extras, is in excellent condition (no bed or headstock bearing wear) having had little hard use so is still accurate; and having been in preservation for many years and was owned by a retired engineer for over 60 years and was under £200.
A good place to find and learn out about lathes is http://www.lathes.co.uk/page3.html
Best of luck in your search.

If it comes with a faceplate (and sufficient swing - some come with a removable slide section) - you can skim cylinder heads too!

I will second and third that, there are a million and one uses for a lathe, and you will wonder how you did without one.

I have a 1954 Boxford, which is a very popular lathe and is very good for the home workshop, being fairly compact, you wont get a flywheel in it but none the less a very useful tool, I was lucky enough to be given it on one of the "it has to disappear over the weekend" schemes, which it did .

I also have a Tom Senior M1 mill in the workshop, that's the next most useful versatile machine I have.

Lucky you!

So basically making parts from scratch?

A crankshaft could be a bit of a challenge....

Will you get the use from it? I had a super 7 for over 10 years and used it once. I then bought an ML10 and never used it, it was 3 phase and needed converting, eventually sold that as well! If you've not got many jobs in mind, weigh up the cost of the lathe against the price of getting the odd job done elsewhere. I'm quids in!

Thanks to everyone for the help

Les has a point. If I didn't have access to a good lathe then I would either buy new bits or buy a few pints for a friend who has a lathe. Both of which a cheaper in the longrun than the outlay for a good lathe. Being able to use a lathe/mill well is a good skill to have but weigh up the usage angainst cost first.

Ah but now you're talking logic and rationalism...basically I want to get a lathe for no better reason than....I want to get a lathe so I'm trying to justify it to myself by thinking "just look at all those jobs it'll be good for" Not much rationalism here I'm afraid

You can use it to make a replacement eyebolt to give negative camber:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHvjjFawfj0

Oh yes - I had forgotten that one. In fact you could make LOTS of them - and sell them to the rest of us!

All very old school, why not get a nice computer controlled one?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Colchester-CN ... 2c8a9c8499

Where's the fun in that....?

That's quite good value

I think that this lathe or similar would serve your needs just as well and will do all the turning that you would require for a Minor and if you decide that you do not need a lathe you can always sell it on without loosing lots of money.
http://www.lathes.co.uk/advertphoto/140502eta/
It has a gap bed, has the chucks you require and a faceplate. It has adjustable headstock bearings, a must and it looks all ready to go; and the price is not extortionate at £275.

If only I had somewhere to put a lathe like that....