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.

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

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