I'd been planning to order grizzly's new 22" lathe, but checked craigslist one last time before calling to order. And lo and behold, there was a 1960s Oliver No 20a Patternmakers lathe. I'd missed one a month or two ago for around $1200 and had been somewhat regretting it. Since there was no price posted, I offered $500, and was thrilled when he only countered $600, so all 1900 pounds of it followed me home
It's in better shape than I was expecting - motor runs fine, bearings seem ok, pb blaster freed up all the moving parts pretty easily; probably could use it as-is. Wanting to do a full restore on it though, so pulling everything apart currently so I can soak the metal bits in evaporust and have the cast iron sandblasted before repainting (I'm thinking dark red so far). Figure I might as well replace the bearings while I'm at it - they seem ok, but don't want to have to pull it back apart if that's not the case, so might as well do it now.
The only downside, is its likely going to cost me a lot of money in the future... The seller said he'll give me a call whenever he comes across more old iron like this
It's in better shape than I was expecting - motor runs fine, bearings seem ok, pb blaster freed up all the moving parts pretty easily; probably could use it as-is. Wanting to do a full restore on it though, so pulling everything apart currently so I can soak the metal bits in evaporust and have the cast iron sandblasted before repainting (I'm thinking dark red so far). Figure I might as well replace the bearings while I'm at it - they seem ok, but don't want to have to pull it back apart if that's not the case, so might as well do it now.
The only downside, is its likely going to cost me a lot of money in the future... The seller said he'll give me a call whenever he comes across more old iron like this