New Old lathe, worth keeping?

Hi all, my son's grandpa showed up a couple days ago with an old heavy lathe on a trailer asking if I had a use for it. He is an incredible scrounger and come up with all manner of gems.
I don't know if this is a gem or a lump of coal.
http://www.lsstuff.com/temp/old-lathe-01.jpg
Cast in the base is Roster MACH CO.
Ilkhart IND U.S.A

It doesn't look like it has any power feed to it. It does have several screws pokeing out the back that I assume is for setting different depth cuts?

Is this worth keeping? I'm thinking that there isn't much to start with. It would need a chuck. It doesn't have any cross table of any kind. It only goes in and out.

Thoughts?
The wife isn't too pleased about it sitting in the driveway when I still haven't finished our windmill.

Thats some sort of turret lathe. Without a crossfeed, tail stock, etc. it's going to be pretty much limited in use. Think of it as a small capacity horizontal drill press.

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Originally Posted by Tpr. Bret

Thats some sort of turret lathe. Without a crossfeed, tail stock, etc. it's going to be pretty much limited in use. Think of it as a small capacity horizontal drill press.

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Was it or is it for turning brake drums??????????
I'm sure it could be put to good use. Things like turning jags, nose punchs and
doing milling and drilling.
There far better on the board than I to give advice.

lar; Even when these old machines are fairly complete they can become "money mines", since this one is not complete and we are not sure what it's intended use is, it would be worse.
I'm just finishng my third lathe "rehab" (16"x60" Putnam, 6"x18" craftsman, 12"x36" craftsman), all were in reasonable shape, and complete, and still took lots of time and more money than i planned to get them back.
As a packrat i'd have to find a use for it, but not likely as a lathe!!!
Nick

A turret lathe like that is generally set up in a production line for a specific purpose and left that way. They are used when there are multiple operations that need to be performed on the end of something. I ran one in a barrel factory that would trim to length (with a simple cross slide), face, chamfer, and countersink the ends of octagonal m/l barrels, but that is just one way to use them. They are not a versatile tool for a home shop, they won't cut threads, and you may or may not be able to find a chuck or a crossslide to fit it. In any event, it would be, depending on how you look at it, either a labor of love or a royal PITA, and you still would be left with a tool that is only marginally useful for gun work. I'd put it on ebay.

and put the word vintage in big letters in the add........Dean

I'm thinking that I will just take it to the recycle yard for scrap.
I was thinking that maybe I could use it for makeing loading dies. I'd probably be way more time and money ahead to find a complete used one instead.
Thanks for the input.

To bad you are so far away . I would give you something for it just because I am a sucker for old lathes.

..................That is what's known (or was known) as a "Speed Lathe". It may date from the 1880's to teh 1920's. It's a production machine. It utilized collets and it looks like it has the collet closer through the headstock, or it may be a barfeed. The turret holds various tools to be indexed in sequence to perform various operations. Off the right end of the sliding portion of the turret bed, there should be threaded rods, one for each position on the turret. These are for limiting travel. If no threaded rods, there should be SOME mechanism for accomplishing it.

In such a lathe you feed in parts that were for the most part completely turned already. It did not come with a carriage, cross slide or compound. All the tools were held in the turret, hense no power feeds. The turret slide should have a handle or wheel to advance and retract it, or provision for same.

With such a lathe you could center drill, drill, bore, knurl, cut shoulders, or thread with a threading head, ID or OD, or polish OD's, and hone ID's. Or the tirret could hold a live center for freehand turning, just like on a woodlathe ( the handheld tools are similar but longer (for leverage). As on a wood lathe, one end rests on a "T" rest. The other end is usually, unlike a wood lathe, clamped under your arm and body.

If you had a use for such a device It is probably still capable of good work. It looks to have 3/4" holes for the tool holders (still available) and if you wanted to go to 1" holes you'd just bore then directly into the turret from the headstock.

.................Buckshot

lar45:

Also, it is set up for an overhead lineshaft and belt drive.

floodgate

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Originally Posted by floodgate

lar45:

Also, it is set up for an overhead lineshaft and belt drive.

floodgate

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............Yup, that's right. So to do it right you're gonna need a steam engine and a few other misc parts :-)

Of course a half horse electric motor and a handfull of pullys might get you underway.

..................Buckshot

Buckshot is right, "a handfull of pulleys and a half horse motor".[smilie=1: On my old lineshaft Putnum lathe there is a big cone pulley, 3 "V" pulleys, two shafts and bearings and about 40 lb of iron to mount it all to the lathe.........Yep....simple!!
Only about 125 lb of iron hangin' up there but it does work.[smilie=1:
Nick

Might make a darn good anchor for a DE, or light cruiser.

Jim :mrgreen:

Or a heck of a start on a rifling machine. If you're bent that way.