1958 Monarch 10EE. I believe I'm the 4th owner. My friend (3rd owner) had it for 20 yrs. He made a trip from Oregon to Arizona in 1995 to buy it out of a machinery sales flyer. The 2nd owner called himself "The Fanatic" and had owned it for almost 30 yrs. He had inherited a bunch of rare Porsche engines and was meticulously rebuilding and selling them off for income. He sold this lathe because he had found a 10EE x 30" centers that was English/Metric. He also had a govt owned Rivett 1030 with all the tooling ever made, including a new replacement hardened bed section, as was a Rivett feature. My lathe has never done production in its life and only shows .0012" of bed wear. It has the electric leadscrew reverse, full inch indicating cross feed dial, 3 turn cross feed positive stop for rapid threading, and a few other less than standard features. It is a "Works-In-A-Drawer" tube rectifier DC drive that operates on 220V single phase input. The spindle speed is continuously variable 0-3000 rpm with a "backgear" reduction box that is shifted in with one lever movement. This drive is renown for its ability to maintain a set spindle speed regardless of cutting load. It was designed specifically for nuclear work during WWII and the cold war after. The govt basically issued a blank check for monarch to create a machine that would allow the turning of pits under ideal conditions for the cutting tools available at the time.
This is the "big" lathe I have at work. 1950 Monarch series 61 16x78. It's worn and beat up, but still holds .001 easily. A true workhorse and a pleasure to operate.
This is the 3rd lathe I ever owned (and still do). 1964 South Bend 9A x 4 1/2 with a taper attachment. I thought I was in heaven when I found it. I was only 18 at the time and cutting my teeth on old junk lathes I scrounged. I rarely use it now, as I have gotten spoiled by nicer machines. It is still a totally relevant machine in my opinion. There's a reason they were the #1 most sold lathe of all time.
This was the 1st lathe I ever owned. I bought it when I was like 15 (I was an odd child). It is also one of the oldest lathes I've ever seen in person. It had a rise and fall crosslide, a concept from the birth of metal lathes. I believe it dated to 1865. It was a Shepherd lathe built in Cincinnati, Ohio. Whoever came to look at the machine before I bought it had tried to engage the backgears while it was running and stripped them. It was a shame a machine had lived complete that long only to be messed up by an idiot in a second. I never made any gear repairs on it, but learned much of the basic machining knowledge I use today by trial and error on the machine.
This SB 9A just boomaranged back to me. I got it with a bunch of other equipment I bought and had given it to a friend. He just gave it back a couple weeks ago. It will find a new home one of these days.
There were/are many more lathes in my life. I may post more later.
