[Adobe Machine]

I bought this Pratt Whitney Type C Tool room lathe in the early 70's at a US Government auction.The lathe had never been used, had no tooling, chuck, motor or belts, but was damaged as the shipping pallet had wasted away and broken or bent all the controls in front. At the time I was going to college on the GI bill,working full time at a machine shop and raising a growing family.Having neither the time or resources to equip or repair it, sat for another 4-5 years. In fact I almost went broke paying for transport to my garage, as this "little" 12X30 lathe is 3200 lbs !

Sometime after graduation, suffering through my 1st layoff in the GREAT Aerospace industry, I did repair the broken handles,clean,install a 10hp, 2 speed motor and belts and started doing prototype work, sub contract and small lot pieces. We quickley found out that this is a very accurate, smooth lathe, with a very good finish capability.My customers were happy.

We have kept good care of the lathe over the years, I did not allow any other employees to operate, never used a tool post grinder on it, did only prototype or small pieces. Got tired of the horrible Government green paint and refinished with a 2 part epoxy Grey in the 80's..have touched it up, but the paint is still holding up.

I believe the machine was manufactured in the mid 1950's as one thing that I got with the lathe is an updated wiring diagram dated 1952 ( The paper is parchment, really old) The auction reciept did not list a year, only model and ser.#. Wow that makes it 50 yrs old or so..!

The gearedhead has 32 speeds ( with the 2 speed motor) has its own oil filter and oil pump. I did have Caterpiller ( Empire Machinery,Phoenix ) do an oil analysis on the gearhead oil...came out real good.. no metal, bronze, chrome or other suspect metals in any excess amounts .

The decision to retrofit to CNC was easy.Due to an accident I'm in a wheel chair and cannot stand in front of a lathe very long to build goodies (blower systems, pulleys, contours, threading etc) very long. I have a good Le Blond 17X60 manual lathe if needed, in fact will be used to build parts for the Pratt Whitney.

Getting with the program to retrofit:
1)Clean up and spot paint the old girl
2)Remove the apron drive shaft,threading feed rod compound acme screwand nut, along with the taper attachment.