New to me monster lathe

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McKenzie Penworks

McKenzie Penworks

Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2012
Messages
847
Location
Fuquay Varina, NC
A week or so ago I noticed a listing on a local Facebook page that showed a rather large lathe. I could just barely make out the model number on it, which wasn't in the listing anywhere, and realized what it was. The price was great, but it was over two hours away and I didn't have a way to transport a 1500lb machine easily. (Yep... that's heavy)

I joked with the person that listed it that they were just far enough to save me from myself... which was great... until they reached out a few days ago offering to deliver it to me for the same price.

SOOO.... now I have this little thing in my shop. It's a Serious Toolworks SL2542. Weighing a mere 1580lbs, it was really fun to get off the trailer and into the shop. It does have wheels but the one on the tailstock isn't quite holding the weight (have to adjust the stationary foot later) so I used my gantry crane to get it in a temporary spot while I clean it up a bit. It sat for 2 years in storage so the entire lathe bed was rusty. Couldn't have that so I already cleaned it up. Now I'm waiting on MT3 accessories and a 1.5" x 8 wood turning chuck to get here so I can turn with it. That is NOT a size that gives you a bunch of choices in wood turning chucks!

Only thing I can think of that I might do with this thing is turn a drum shell or two... I used to build drums before going all in on pen stuff but never had a lathe big enough to do stave/segmented drum shells. The really funny thing is 99% of the time this will just be used to drill 3" lengths of 3/4" maple for our laserlinez blanks. But by golly I've got 6" of tailstock travel to do it with!

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bsshog40 said:
That is heavy duty! Lol Looks like it cleaned up nicely! Hope it works out for you!
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It's coming along... The darn tailstock has to weigh like 70lbs so I wanted to get the bed cleaned up so I could throw my back out lifting it up and onto the thing and then clean it up too. REALLY hoping that chuck isn't stuck on there... best guess it's been on there for 2 years while sitting in storage so I may need to find my can of PB Blaster before tackling that.
 
MRDucks2 said:
Nice find. My first thought was, "oh, that tail stock is gonna be heavy".
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I didn't want to carry it far enough to put on the scale... guessing at least 60-70lbs. Funny thing is I messaged the previous owner because I thought the bottom part that holds it to the bed was missing. Figured out I had these two round pieces of steel with threads that happened to fit in the ways under the rails perfectly. I'm just not used to using a 1" bolt to hold things so I didn't realize what they were at first. 😆 Need to grab a different plug tomorrow, clean up the rest a bit, and get the motor back aligned and I'll be in business. Well that and I'll need to move it to a permanent spot. Which means getting the gantry crane back out... Once I have this where it's going to be it stays there, forever.
 
My uncle who was a metal worker. had a LARGE metal lathe. The chuck weighed at least 70 lbs. He had a "hoist" behind the lathe to move metal work pieces or remove the chuck. To remove the chuck he had a welded sideways "U" shaped piece of metal. The bottom of the "U" was round stock and the top was flat with a 1/2" eye bolt in it. Clamp the round stock in the chuck with the chuck jaws and attach the hoist to the eye bolt in the top. The thing was sized to fit and balance the chuck when hung from the hoist. Take the weight of the chuck up with the hoist and unscrew the chuck.
 
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