• Scam Alert. Members are reminded to NOT send money to buy anything. Don't buy things remote and have it shipped - go get it yourself, pay in person, and take your equipment with you. Scammers have burned people on this forum. Urgency, secrecy, excuses, selling for friend, newish members, FUD, are RED FLAGS. A video conference call is not adequate assurance. Face to face interactions are required. Please report suspicions to the forum admins. Stay Safe - anyone can get scammed.

Hydraulic Lathe Tracer

PeterT

Ultra Member
Premium Member
More for visual FYI purposes (spendy) but these have always fascinated me. Basically you make a 2D pattern which is temporarily mounted relative to the metal blank. Then then the tracer mechanism basically copies it as you traverse the work. It a bit more complicated then that because you are making successive feed passes just like regular machining & that's where the hydraulic following comes in. I guess you could say 'analog CNC' :) Good for complicated or ornate work or even multiple copies of the same thing. Keith Fenner has some vids of his in action.

https://www.kijiji.ca/v-power-tool/...h9WuvU-B0LTqSFvJj-Pj-jT61D-OsKhFR2wtNLLCHGeD4
 
At one time I had a Harrison lathe bought from Modern Tool with a tracer we used it for the radius on english wheels.
 
Keith does have some interesting vids on those pattern followers. A Cnc refit to a standard lathe would cost about the same as these followers. Steppers, controllers, computer....
 
Sait threw there tracer lathe out 5 years ago but until then machinist apprentices used it to make bt40 tool holders. I rember thinking it was pretty cool but not in any way relivant anymore
 
pretty sure that was a McDougallbay auction item recently. Sask power sold off a couple of 13x40 lathes and that was one of the items up for auction.
 
Back
Top