Hello all

[Ben WomersleyParticipant @benwomersley84254]

Hello everybody,

I have just joined so thought I would say hi. I am currently restoring a few Land Rovers; an early Series 2 and a 90. I am in the market for an lathe and thought this forum would be a great place to start.

Ben

[Ben WomersleyParticipant @benwomersley84254]

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Hello Ben,

Welcome to the forum.

Neil

[Chris Evans 6Participant @chrisevans6]

Welcome along Ben, I am an ex series Land Rover man having run them for over 35 years. On retirement the Landie had to go in favour of my first love, old motorcycles. I just could not justify keeping all the toys on a pension ! Good luck with your search for a lathe.

[Brian WoodParticipant @brianwood45127]

Hello Ben,

I was already equipped with my late father's old Myford ML4 lathe before I became a Landrover owner and later, the owner of a grey Ferguson tractor.

It is quite surprising what can be done with a small 3.5 inch centre height lathe with some improvisation; the biggest job I made it tackle was to bore out the front crankshaft oil seal pocket on the tractor timing chain housing to be able to accept available Landrover spares instead of the unobtainable fabric seals that Ferguson had used A rampant oil leak with it's attendant mess was thus cured

Don't be too swayed by the smaller imports and look for a good used lathe of, say, Myford or Boxford size on the basis that you never know what you may have to use it for to fix.

Regards Brian

Edited By Brian Wood on 16/12/2017 10:15:34

[JohnFParticipant @johnf59703]

Welcome Ben, you don't say where you are in your profile–always useful to other members and you never know there maybe someone close by who can offer help if needed.
Regarding a lathe goes it depends on what your budget is and how much space you have available, assuming you have the space etc and keeping in mind what you are working on I would look fo a 5 or 6 inch lathe possibly a Boxford, Harrison etc. Keep in mind the spindle bore better if its over 1" — in todays parley 35 to 40 mm would be useful.
As Brian says its amazing what can be achieved on a small lathe and it can be an advantage for small parts, I have a Myford as well as some larger machines, and use it a lot for small parts. However its much easier to machine large parts on a more suitably sized machine.
Metric or imperial — well I'm old school and use imperial, the onboard computer was programmed that way, even so I purchased a metric Boxford a couple of years ago because of having an increasing number of metric threads to cut and its a bit of a pain on an imperial machine. Keep in mind on old Landrover's I think the majority of threads will be imperial and not metric.
Regards John

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

Welcome!

Once you have a lathe, a whole new world (only one?) opens up for you.

Remember that you can do small work on a big lathe, but not the other way round.

A good British lathe may be within your budget, but if ex Industry may have been driven to death. Ex School / Tech College machines may be relatively unworn, but scarred from careless use.

The later Asian machines can be of quite reasonable quality (Hardened beds etc, and quite rigid).

If you are not sure about a possible machine: You will get a lot of first hand knowledge on here, but when going to look at a possible purchase, do take someone knowledgeable with you to examine and try out the machine.

(Which it is a good idea to give an indication of your whereabouts)

This Forum will provide lots of hints, tips, and advice on tooling, techniques and accessories.

Soon, you will be able to really enjoy restoring your landies!

Howard

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