A friend of mine has offered to give me his old lathe. If I don't want it, it will become nails, so I have said that I'll take it

It is a Meuser from 1951, I believe it is version M3. A tape measure revealed a maximum turning diameter of 480mm (without taking out the gap) and maximum length 1500mm, more than I'll ever need. It has two gearboxes, one six speed gearbox in the bottom of the housing and a two speed (some might call it a back gear) at the spindle, making a range of speeds from 18 to 820 rpm. The gearboxes are connected by four v-belts. The spindle has an eccentric cam which drives a oil pump to lubricate the spindle bearings. I have been told that the saddle also has a oil pump to lubricate its ways. The feed and threading gearbox is the most extensive I've ever seen, and it also has gears submerged in oil. No replacing of gears to go from metric to inch on this girl!

A few things not so good is that I have read that Meuser were very late on making hardened beds, which I'm quite sure this one doesn't have. The ways are pretty worn and many of the gib screws are broken. I noticed that the saddle rides on double V-ways instead of a single V and a flat way. Surely this must make it harder and more time consuming to scrape in the saddle, does anyone know why they have done it?

The machine still has its original badge, and wouldn't you know. Meuser is still in business, supplying spare parts for their machines (that is, if I can ever afford them

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Here's a view inside the headstock. To the right is the backgear, in the middle are the V-belts from the lower transmission. The lines are for the oiling system.

The feeding chart is extensive with increments of 0,01-0,02mm

The machine came with a end stop, which seems to be the only way of determining travel in the length direction. I have read somewhere that some Meuser machines had automatic disengagement of feed when they came to the end stop, but I am not sure if this one has.

The tailstock has what seems to be MT4 and a bit of wear. What I also noticed is that there is no means of measuring the travel on the tailstock quill


The machine comes with a 3-jaw chuck with only one set of jaws, plus a large 4-jaw

I need to make some more space in my shop before I get it in, so don't hold your breath.
Oh, some ask what I'm going to do with it? Hmm, clean it, maybe give it a coat of paint and use it to rough cut things that take too much time on the Slager lathe. If I ever learn scraping, this would seem like a machine built properly enough to deserve it.
By the way, any suggestions on getting hard old oil off from the machine are much appreciated
