It's my first mill, I have never used a mill so it
should be quite entertaining. I gave it a quick wipe
over and pushed it into the corner of the garage; I
spent the evening before painting the walls and cleaning
the windows. When I bought it I had the choice of about
ten mills, this was the cheapest and had the best condition
table, very little wear on the ways but lot's of lash
on the y feednutwhich i have yet to adjust out. it came
without a DRO but i managed to get the Newall system
of another machine included. so after a quick wipe down
I installed the dro, I havn't yet put the guards over
the scales as the guards aren't very substantial and
will probably be replaced with something a little heavier.
I have just adjusted the backlash, the nuts were moving
back and fore, put all the screws and things back properly
and it has between 8 and 12 thou lash in the X plane
and between 12 and 16 in the Y plane, I was tempted
to cut hte nuts so the adjusters cvould be used but
it seems fine as it is. of course the DRO helps..
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I had the choice of various lathes but the CVA looked
nice, under the thick layer of grease. There were newer
lathes but i just had to have it;-) Any way it's a 1955
CVA toolroom lathe, all the things you hear about them
say they are really high quality lathes, well what are
they like when they are 48 years old?
The bed doesn't look to bad and everything moves nicely,
the cross slide nut want's replacing - turns out it's
a split nut according to the manual and can be adjusted
and it could do with a new coat of paint.
I have always wanted a collet chuck, well I now have
one and nice looking 3 and 4 jaw chucks, but they do
resemble toys compared to the thints on the Cincinatti.
I moved the lathe into the garage a few days ago, only
took an hour to turn it round and get it over all the
tree roots and into the garage.
So what's it like, well it hadn't been cleaned since
1955, well it seemed that way.
I gave it a good clean oiled it up, including cleaning
the oil pump and all the one way valves in the saddle
and it all moves nicely and seems ok, took a light cut
of an aluminium tube, er what a finish and the cut would
have been chattering like, a thing that chatters, on
the Cincinatti. I spose the blt drive for the feeds
is why the finish was so good. very impressed.
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I took this picture just after it had been cleaned, a
coat of paint wouldn't do any harm:-) there are some good
pictures at www.lathes.co.uk/cva wonder if i got that
URL right;-) anyway there are nice description of most
lathes an milling machines on lathes.co.uk .. not one
of my Cincinnati though. I will take some pics of the
lathe later, when i get around to moving it..
The day before these arived I spent the day knocking
up some machine skates, they are very effective, only
problem they are useless on my drive because of the
big humps caused by the tree root's.
I have to thank peter for the manual, not sure why
i need one, maybe it is a good idea to know what oil
goes where. my old lathe got a squirt when it started
to slow down;-)
ER, Problem.
everything I want to turn is to big for it and I am
having to use the Cincinatti.
So it's for sale..£850
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