Member postings for Andrew Byron

Thanks Lee, i was back at the factory yesterday to collect the last of the tooling and cabinets i'd bought and had a chat with the retiring owner who told me that he'd had the Lang since he was a boy when his father was getting rid of it for a newer model so he rescued it for his own use in the works, i'd assumed they had just been doing rough jobs on it in the fab shop but apparently he said they'd done a job for toyota at Derby on it last year because it was easier than setting up the CNC machines to do the job, so it must still be pretty accurate.

He also said the Kerry lathe was a good machine, i've managed to find a manual for that on ebay

I got all the stuff cleared, but accidently left behind the broken piece of the pillar drill, the liquidators had the scrap men coming to clear the unsold stuff and general scrap that morning and the guy on site had put the cast piece aside for me so they didn't take it, trouble was we then forgot all about it and forgot to put it in at the end.

I was particularly pleased that i managed to get out the tooling cabinet in this photo

it had to come out down a flight of stairs with a 90 degree corner half way down, then we had to take the door handles off to get it through at the bottom. it appeared to be so heavy i couldn't move it, even with the draws out, but then i realised to was screwed to the floor

not had chance to do much yet with the Lang but i did spend small amount of time on it the other day with the degreaser and the headstock looks a bit better if nothing else.

i've been up at the site today trying to move the other tools, managed to get the kerry lathe out of the upstairs room, i eventually decided to get someone with a low loader to take my JCB miniscopic loader up to the site to lift it out, and it did it, just, but it was a bit hairy.

I also got the fly press and the shaper loaded without incident but the four gang drill beat me. it wouldn't move or jack up and it became clear that someone had concreted the base to the floor, poor photo but you can just about see

anyway, i got it out eventually, got it on the forks and strapped it on and it moved to the door, but the door was too low to go under, the shed it was in had been heavily modified and i think they'd built the shed around the drill.

So we had to jack it off the forks again, sit it flat on the floor and push it under the door frame and it went under with a fag paper to spare. I'd managed the hard part getting it out of the shed but it needed raised again to go back on the forks for loading and when i eased it up to go back on the wooden blocks it rocked on the uneven concrete and tipped over onto the fork frame i could see it happening in slow motion but i just couldn't get the forks up fast enough to 'catch' it. It hasn't actually damaged any of the drill units but it has broken the cast base that sits on the floor, the corner has broken off, it's also smashed the isolater box but that's not the end of the world. It could probably be repaired but i'll have to asses whether it's worth doing, i only gave for it including buyer's premium so i could just weigh it in for twice that, not a disaster financially but it seems a shame to scrap such a nice old machine. Could have been worse, i could have dropped the kerry lathe out of the first floor access hatch, i was so relieved to get that back on the ground.

Tomorrow i'm going back for the last of the tooling and the cupboards, they too are in a difficult location because they're up a flight of stairs with a 90 degree bend half way up, i'm not sure if all of them will come out, again i think they may have been out there and then the building altered around them. the whole place is a nightmare for access, several machines haven't been collected because the buyers have given up and abandoned them. there i a real;y nice ward capstan lathe in one of the upstairs rooms and the buyer came to look and has never been back, i can't see how it will elver come out or how they got it in there in the first place

Edited By Andrew Byron on 28/07/2022 23:02:18

I've just bought this beast at an auction

auction link

it was in use but in the fabrication part of the company so probably just used for basic rough work but it looks to be in decent condition under the grime.

It is extremely heavy, i went with a 100hp tractor to fetch it and the loader rated to 1.5 tonnes wouldn't lift it. it would lift it just enough to move it outside the shed but wouldn't pick it up more to go on the trailer so i ended up picking the headstock end with the tractor and the tailstock end with the forklift that was on site, then backing the trailer underneath the lifted lathe, i had to get someone to c0me with another tractor to move the trailer. currently it's still on the trailer while i decide what to do with it, i wondered if anyone had any info on the operation of the lathe, or if anyone has on themselves and could give me advice on using it and setting it up.

I have some other machines to fetch including a shaper a pillar drill a kerry lathe and a fly press which i've bought on behalf of my friend who wanted it.

I've still got these to move and the kerry lathe is in an upstairs room so that will be interesting. i did know this as a went to the viewing day, and ive got a plan to get it out but the guy who bought the herbert capstan lathe in the same room didn't realise it was upstairs and was not best pleased. I don't think he'll get it out myself.

ha, yes, 'boat anchor' was what i was thinking. A cursory google failed to find any second hand parts available in the UK, so i suspect the bits needed may be hard to come by, though i would think if you broke it up, for the current price there's got to be a bit of profit in it, and if it could be fixed it would be a decent lathe for the money.

OTOH it's buying work, and i've got plenty of that already without buying more. There's some decent looking triumph lathes in an i bidder sale ending this week, a chipmaster and some triumph 2000s. will be a fair bit more expensive and further to go and collect but might be easier in the long run.

Resurrecting the thread as there's on of these for sale on ebay at the moment, only scrap money, but it may well only be scrap as it's been dropped. damage looks to be limited to the leadscrew, the traverse wheel on the apron and the wheel on the cross slide.

It's only just up the road from me and i'm almost tempted but common sense tells me it will end up being a expensive paper weight. I'd imagine the spares are hard to come by.

item number

373909747261

not long to go now.

Having said all that, if you get your arm caught in the mangle that Crompton gismo will be the best £200 you ever invested.

I worked for a guy a long time ago who got hit in the face on a Maskiner geared head radial drill of about the same size and vintage as this one, he had two false front teeth. He never told me the whole story.

My main job is farming, and it's often the case that when accidents happen to people it's because of complacency. These things are only dangerous if you fail to respect them, that said, with the best will in the world, there's always that time when you're in a hurry and think oh, it'll be ok. I've got a good machine vice for this and it certainly came with enough clamps to hold the workpiece steady, and in theory i won't be drilling anything in this that isn't properly secured, and i've got two free standing pillar drills for smaller work, one with an MT2 arbour and another with a 13mm jacobs chuck which can be used for smaller jobs.

The Crompton box was the cheapest i could find with a cursory search and i thought , bu**er that, it's more than i paid for the drill, but your final point is a very good one, if ever i made a mistake it would be very cheap indeed.

What i will probably do is work out what it needs to do the job and look out for something suitable at the right price. Having looked into it a bit following your suggestion it certainly sounds like a good safety feature to have on the drill, so thanks for the input.

so something like this?

i've seen those type of microswitches on machines, presumably they're designed to trip if the workpiece spins on the table.

I'm on a three phase supply i'll look at the breaker in the distro board to get an idea of the current rating. I've just backed to drill into the workshop on the trailer for now as i want to lift it off when there's two of us here but i shall be hopefully doing that tomorrow so i'll get the info off the drill then, there's just a singhle period DOL starter which i presume works the spindle and possibly also the coolant pump, i'm not sure if the coolant pump is working but i can't see a separate switch for it.

it was the right way up when i took it, but you get the idea, this are pictures showing the complete machine.

Thanks for the suggestion Simon, electronics is not my area of expertise so i'd be happy with any suggestions on safety and recommissioning etc. How would i go about fitting DC injection braking?

Fetched it today, took nearly three hours to get there but it was loaded with very little drama. we helped some guys move a surface grinder that was in front of the drill when we got there, and they loaded it onto my trailer with their hiab for me, i offered to pay for the lift but they said no, you've helped us so we'll help you, the drill was already standing on wooden blocks for some reason so we moved it to the door of the building with the onsite fork truck, and put a strap round both the drill and the mast of the forklift to prevent it falling off the forks.

with the table dropped right down, the head wound in and the arm locked, it rode fine in the trailer, i'm really pleased with it it's better than i expected and there was a load of stuff included with it. I'll stick some photos up. hopefully i should get it unloaded and in the workshop tomorrow,

Nick, yes when we helped the guy who got in a mess with one a couple of years ago we used the overhead crane to move it, the guy shifting it then was the driver of the lorry sent to fetch it by the buyer, fair play to him for having a go, a lot of drivers would have refused but he didn't have much idea, IIRC he hadn't locked the arm and it swung round. This one is in a low roofed building and there's no overhead, the only thing on site is an old forklift, there are a load of other machines that will be being moved also so it's highly likely there will be someone there with a hiab or similar, i'll take some cash with me and then if i can skate it out to a suitable lifting point i can always give someone with a suitable lifting rig some cash to lift it onto my trailer.

Peter, thanks, that's very helpful, it's what i was thinking from seeing the botched move on the other drill, getting it locked up and secured with straps seems to be the way to go.

Dave, thanks for that suggestion, i've never used a machine mover as i've always managed myself in the past but i was thinking it would need to be somewhere in that price range, it's not a ridiculous price considering the work and equipment involved. I've found the one tonne transport guy's facebook page, he's got all good reviews but i think this would be too heavy for his crane, he's limited to one tonne and this drill will be around 1.2 tonnes

Thanks David that's very helpful.

Nick is correct, i think the drill in his link is the same as the one i've bought,.the arm is at fixed height and the table is fastened to the column and moves up and down, this is relatively small for a radial drill, it's 'only' MT3 with a 1 1/4" capacity, it's still weighs 1.2 tonnes though. i was thinking to drop the table as low as it will go to lower the centre of gravity and then wind the head in as close to the column as it will go, as David suggests,

I've got public liability insurance so that's not an issue, but if they were going to be picky about that they'd be asking for method statements. I've moved machines before and i've got suitable tools, it's more a case of forewarned is forearmed if i can pick the brains of anyone else who has moved one of these.

I've found the building on street view, it's all one unit, studying the photos of the adjacent lots it looks like it is in the same space as the surface grinder and the turret mill so there should be space to get to it, the ceiling is low above the drill but it's an apex roof and it looks as if the drill in against the outside wall so under the lowest part of the building. it can be more difficult moving stuff in older buildings with multiple rooms and different floor levels, i don't think that will be the case here, so that's something

Hi Peter, yes, those contents of room lots re often the best ones, i bought the contents of a store room from a factory closure in birmingham, (birmingham machine tools, the same sale that the guy dropped the archdale drill when loading)there was a complete Rennishaw Ballbar system in a case buried under the rubbish

can you remember where you put the sling when the scrap men lifted the drill with the hiab?

I'm near stoke so mansfield isn't that far away from me, i am tempted to get a machine mover in but it's a short notice job to shift it, and i would probably still have to go down myself anyway to sort all the bits and pieces out.

rough ball park figure, does anyone have an idea of what machine movers usually charge for moving a single machine?

Thanks Dave, it looks bigger in the photo than it actually is, i think, the auction photos aren't great, you can't really tell if it's rusty or painted in a dark colour, or a bit of both, but there is a fair bit of additional tooling with it including the various angle plates on the table, what looks like some sort of dividing head and the cabinet behind it with it's contents.

I noticed the low ceiling as well, which is not good, suggests it might be in an annex but like you say, it went in, so it should come out.

i'll try and take some better photos of it, it looks like an interesting machine and i'm looking forward to getting it but i have a certain amount of trepidation regarding moving it.

I've bought an Archdale radial drill at an online factory auction. This**LINK** is the drill in question.

hopefully if that has worked you'll be able to see that it's a smaller type drill with the MT3 spindle and rise and fall table. I once saw someone trying to move a similar drill at another sale i was collecting from and they dropped it, which didn't end well. there is a forklift on site but the guy i spoke to at the auctioneer's office had never been to the site and couldn't tell me if you could get to the drill to move it with the forks. can anyone offer advice on the best way to go about moving the drill, can it easily be broken down into easier to handle components?, i'll have a four or five hour window to move and load it but i'm likely to be on my own and no one on site will help with loading.

My initial thoughts were to are to try and jack it up and get it onto a large pallet that i would reinforce by screwing a piece of 3/4 ply on the top, then pass a ratchet strap through the middle of the pallet and over the drill's table and ratchet to drill to the pallet to make it more stable. I could possibly lift the drill with a chain winch to get it onto the pallet but this is dependent on their being a suitable overhead beam and also a suitable lifting point on the drill.

I remember we helped out the guy who dropped the similar Archdale at the other auction, myself and the guy helping me load my stuff fired up the overhead crane and got the drill back upright and on a pallet for him, i can't quite remember how we did it though but i do remember that the reason he dropped it was something to do with picking it up in the wrong place. IIRC the arm swung round and messed up the way the weight was distributed, and then it all went horribly wrong.

As Howard says, this is a useable lathe, i certainly use mine. I paid 325 for my lathe on ebay, in a similar condition, i'd say yours might make between 250 and 400. the series 7 lathes are much more sought after than the M series lathes as they're more user friendly and can do more stuff. people will still want the M series though and old lathes always seem to make a decent price, here are a couple that sold recently

link

link

the bits and pieces might well be worth more than the lathe, but the main thing is to identify what they are so that you can have an accurate title on the listing and people can find them by searching. the best thing would be to put some photos up, i'm sure someone on here will identify what things are.

Condolences on your father, it's a sad fact that tools tend to outlive their owners, it's a good thing that they are passed on to people who can use and appreciate them though.

Edited By Andrew Byron on 08/05/2021 18:56:44

I think the majority of people get what they order, it's just that judging by their ebay feedback lots don't and when that happens they aren't bothered about rectifying the matter.

When you sell stuff on line, things go wrong, stuff gets lost or broken in the post, sometimes you make a mistake, what marks a good business out from a bad one is not that the issue has happened, but how it is dealt with. It appears that this company have decided not to bother with this aspect of their business, either because they lack the aptitude or the inclination, or because they've judged they can get by just fine by not bothering.

If you pay for your order via paypal or a credit card, you'll likely get your money back so if they happen to be the cheapest, one may judge that it's worth the gamble. You can soon waste a lot of time chasing stuff that hasn't arrived and filing claims through pay pal etc though, and i'd also prefer to give my money to a company that doesn't hold me in contempt by messing me about and then not bothering to make any attempt to rectify this.

you pays your money, you takes your choice, as they say.

I had two goes at buying some phosphor bronze round bar from these guys on ebay and they failed to deliver on both occasions, on the first occasion i managed to get someone on the phone who assured me they'd send a replacement item by next day courier, they cancelled and refunded instead, so i gave them another go, this time i failed to get hold of them by phone, and the item still didn't show up, i ended up getting a refund through ebay.

My impression is they have a sack it high sell it cheap mentality but are incredibly badly organised and don't care enough to try and improve their customer service or make the business more user friendly. Their google reviews are all bad, and i note they have deleted the company facebook account, probably because they were getting lots of bad facebook reviews and company's can't edit or delete reviews as i understand it.

both their ebay accounts are high feedback with lots of negs but they're obviously still selling stuff because for the most part they seem cheap, i eventually brought the bar i wanted from another supplier but it was half as much again price wise, it did exist though and arrived as promised, which was an improvement, i suspect they have a high volume of sales and are making money despite the terrible service and think why change?

my advice would be to avoid them and pay a bit more to someone who actually cares whether you get what you ordered or not.

problems with hermes being discussed on radio 4's you and your right now.