Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Harrison Lathe

["Dan H." <Jumachine@comcast.net>]

James,

I've run into Harrison before, but I can't remember where.  There were a lot 
of companies making shop machinery back in the forties and fifties.  Most 
are out of business but they made some pretty rugged machines.

Your old lathe is a 1920's - 30's belt drive with what looks to be spindle 
bushings, not ball bearings.  It's OLD technology and not made to handle 
modern tooling and speeds.  Also, the spindle is not of a very large 
diameter which allows it to flex minutely, set up vibrations and ultimately 
chatter marks in the piece if you taking heavier cuts or turning a heavier 
piece of steel.  Even too large of a chuck can make these old machines 
unstable.

The machine your looking at is a gear head drive which is much more rugged. 
It probably has a ball barring spindle and a larger diameter spindle with a 
larger through the spindle hole.   If it's not totally worn out, it's 
defiantly a better machine then what you had.  If you can, take a chunk of 
stock with you and give it a try before purchasing it.

It doesn't matter what it looks like.  Any machine that old won't look good 
unless someone cleaned it up and maybe repainted it.  Look deeper.  Lift the 
spindle up and down and try to push it in and out.  If there is any play at 
all it either out of adjustment or more probably, worn out.  Try the same 
with the carriage to see if the gibs are tight or all floppy.  They may be 
tight where it doesn't get used and floppy where it does.  If so, it worn 
pretty bad but can still be used if you want to readjust the gibbs for the 
area your using the slides in.  That's a pain.

Best of all is to try it on a chunk of stock and then on a foot long steel 
bar.  If it handles the chunk without chattering, great.  If you can turn a 
foot long bar without making an hour glass shape or the opposite, that's 
fine.  If your making a consistent taper, that only means the tail stock is 
out of adjustment.  That's easy to realign.

Hope it works out for you.   Even if it's not totally what you want after 
you get it, you should be able to resell it.
Dan H.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "James Frankland" <james@guernseysubmarine.com>
To: <personal_submersibles@psubs.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 02, 2008 11:43 AM
Subject: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Harrison Lathe


Hi All.

Having just spent ages getting my own lathe fixed (Myford ML7) i have the 
oppertunity to get another.

I havent seen it yet, only these pictures and it looks pretty battered.

http://guernseysubmarine.wordpress.com/

I think i've tracked it down to be a Harrison L5 Mk 3

Scroll down to the 5th picture on this site. 
http://www.lathes.co.uk/harrison/page22.html

The guy wants GBP 150 for it.  Not sure its even worth that, plus i'd have 
to find somewhere to put it.

But, these things are scarce especially on my little island, so i'm very 
tempted.  Not sure on the swing until ive seen it.

What do you think?  Anyone have any experience with these?
James





----- Original Message -----
From: James Frankland [mailto:james@guernseysubmarine.com]
To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org
Sent: Thu, 2 Oct 2008 13:49:23 +0100
Subject: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Drug Sub Legislation

Hi All.

Another drug sub article, but this one seems to mention some new legislation 
in the states?

"To boost efforts to crack down on drug-sub use, Congress last night passed 
legislation making it illegal for anyone to operate a "stateless" mini-sub 
on an international voyage."

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/09/drug-runners-st.html

James






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