Lathe for turning telephone poles

[Stephen Cherry]

Here is a super long lathe!:

http://www.govliquidation.com/auctio...tionId=4988568

[Steve Vaughan]

Well, I was interested until I saw the "buyer load" part. I knew there was no way to handle it and my truck ain't long enough. Pretty cool though. I'd sure like to see it working.

[Dan Forman]

Need a really long tool rest, and a sharpening station or two along the length.

Dan

[ray hampton]

732 inches , is this distance between centers ? what is the total length ?

[Jim Burr]

I'd guess 3-4' longer than the BTC distance...but that's only a guess. Don't let Hutch see this...he is crazy about these phone pole monsters!!

[ray hampton]

I have seen poles that were badly bowed in the center, too bowed to turn

[curtis rosche]

wasnt this orginally for turning ship drive shafts?

[Ed Morgano]

wasnt this orginally for turning ship drive shafts?

No, this is only a wood lathe. Not nearly heavy enought for ship drive shafts. I've seen one of those lathes and there's no comparison.

[Dave Ogren]

No this is not a wood lathe, It has two cross slides. It looks like a very light duty engine lathe.

Dave

[Mike Cruz]

Don't let Dan Hintz see that thing!

[James Boster]

It is a wood lathe. It was custom built by Oliver for the Navy. It's built on the model 20B wood lathe with several bed sections. The Oliver pattermaker lathes have cross slides very similar to a metal lathe but not for metal.
It was called the model 18A. Not sure if its the only one or if them made more than one. Some old Oliver catalogs and repirnts show this lathe with about 30 men stading behind it. Supposedly delivered in 1919.

[Nathan Hawkes]

Here it is: Oliver b&w.jpg



I can't imagine there were many of these built if more than one.

[curtis rosche]

No, this is only a wood lathe. Not nearly heavy enought for ship drive shafts. I've seen one of those lathes and there's no comparison.

older wooden drive shafts for the first powered boats?


what else could you economicaly put on this lathe? phone poles would take too long and dont need to be that accurate. i guess building columns?

[Scott T Smith]

I would hazard a guess that the lathe was used for turning wooden masts for sailing ships.

Nathan, thanks for sharing the photo - that's pretty fascinating.

[John Toigo]

Spars more likely would be my guess.