Monarch Lathes

Anonymous-0 · Aug 8, 2013

I have been looking for a small lathe. On my neighbor's estate sale that will be a Month lathe about the size I would like to have. Any comments. It has not been abused. About 10-12 inch swing and about 30 inches between centers. (I did not take my tape measure along when I looked)

petetx · Aug 8, 2013

Grab it very good lathe ran one for years in machine shop.

Ultradog MN · Aug 8, 2013

The Navy had a bunch of Monarchs and LeBlonds on the 2 ships I was on.
Both were WWII ships and the equipment in the machine shop was probably original from when they were built.
Lot of young kids straight out of machine shop school running them for 30 years so they didn't have easy lives.
But working on nuclear subs required some pretty close tolerances - often in tenths.
We did do frequent maintenance on them, kept them spotless clean and prettyfied such that you would have thought they were rarely used.
But we did use them and used them hard every day.
Those old Monarchs were still very much up to the task.
I would love to have one but about 15" swing by 5' though.

NCWayne · Aug 8, 2013

Like others have stated, the Monarchs are good machines. One thing to check is the wear on the bed/ways. Most lathes are used mainly with the carriage in the first two feet or so of the chuck and the bed gets worn in that area. To see how much wear there is run the carriage all the way forward, toward the chuck. Once there tighten the bed stop finger tight so there is just a little drag on it. Then run the carriage toward the other end of the bed and see if the drag increases. If you get a significant amount of drag, or the carriage comes to a halt, then there is alot of wear. This will hurt you if you need to turn something long and maintain any kind of tollerance. But if you do mainly small stuff, close to the chuck, you can learn to work around it and maintain tollerances that are 'good enough for government work".

DENNIS MIN · Aug 8, 2013

dang,

I am looking to sell my SouthBend workman, a very small lathe, but looks rather nice.

Too bad you're not in the market for a 9"x36...

As far as Monarch,, I thought I saw one on the USS missouri that's permanently ported in Hawaii.

That ship had a ssignificant workshop.

D.

Cas · Aug 8, 2013

Monarch has always had a good reputation. My first lathe I bought from an estate years ago came with a lot of tooling, 4 jaw chuck, steady rest, boring bars, etc. etc.
The second lathe I bought a few years ago seemed like a good deal. Just had a 3 jaw chuck and tailstock.
You mention it is an estate sale. I would try to make sure the lathe and accessories are not separated. After buying some tooling for my newer lathe I am not so sure it was a good deal
Good luck John.

Dieselrider · Aug 9, 2013

What is the model number? They (Monarch) make real nice machines. The 10-EE lathes are some of the finest running toolroom lathes ever made and will compete with Hardinge in smoothness. Good luck.

Richard G. · Aug 9, 2013

I have one that about 8 feet long. Use it quite a bit.
Richard in NW SC

gtractorfan · Aug 9, 2013

The toolroom I had my apprenticeship in decades ago had a Monarch. If I remember right it had a knob to turn that provided infinitely variable speeds. Also is it the brand that you can chase threads and automatically stop at a preset spot?

ken sylvester · Aug 10, 2013

there awesome machines owned 2 myself

Spook · Aug 10, 2013

Great machines. Sounds like a tool room lathe, if it is reasonable, buy it.

Monarch Lathes

Anonymous-0

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petetx

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Ultradog MN

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NCWayne

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DENNIS MIN

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Cas

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Dieselrider

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Richard G.

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gtractorfan

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ken sylvester

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Spook

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