Do I take a free General 260 lathe...w/broken variable speed spindle pulley?

[VizslaDad]

A gentleman in the next town over from me (Orange, OH near Cleveland) is clearing out his deceased father's basement shop and trying to sell off whatever he can. However, he's found no buyers for his dad's old General 260 lathe (see attached images) and is happy to give it away to anyone who can get it out of the basement. Obviously a free full sized lathe that is supposedly in good working order (he'd already started disassembling it so I did not get to see it run) is tempting, but I have a question. The variable speed spindle pulley is partially broken (replacement part #7 in this doc: http://vintagemachinery.org/pubs/363/920.pdf). I didn't get a picture of it because my friends and I only made a quick pit stop to check out the whole lot for sale, but it would appear like the pulley is still fully capable of retaining the belt. My concern is that it's clearly no longer anything close to balanced, and since General shuttered a while back the likelihood of finding replacement parts (aside from parting out another 260) I wonder how problematic that could be.

I know I am not providing a lot of info here, but based on what I've shared, does this seem like a "definitely snatch it up!" or "pass!" situation to you folks? I don't turn a bunch (I just have one of those little Rockler mini lathes which is fine for pulls and such) but this seems like an opportunity to evaluate.

 

 

 

[BillyJack]

I think you should be on your way picking it up...

[Mick S]

I agree. Put a 3phase motor and VFD on it and go to town. That's a great lathe.

 

[RichardA]

You don't have it in your shop yet??  Go!

[Mick S]

I had a 260 many years ago. It's a beast of a lathe. 

[wtnhighlander]

One word.

 

Free.

[Gary Beasley]

I can see the broken part is off the indexing part of the pulley, you will probably never miss it. If an indexing system is needed you can mount an external index on it.

[Mark J]

So what I'm hearing you say is that the part you identified is fractured.  So that has to be replaced no matter how you pwer the lathe, otherwise the whole lathe is going to be unbalanced.  

If you could put a VFD on the lathe that would give you a much speed range.

[VizslaDad]

I think I am swayed. I am a little concerned I won't be able to easily source a replacement for that indexing piece of the pulley, but...free! Now to convince my reluctant friends.

[drzaius]

Might even be worth the cost of having a machinist make a new part.

[RichardA]

1 hour ago, VizslaDad said:

I think I am swayed. I am a little concerned I won't be able to easily source a replacement for that indexing piece of the pulley, but...free! Now to convince my reluctant friends.

Free beer solves the friends problem.

[Tpt life]

3 hours ago, drzaius said:

Might even be worth the cost of having a machinist make a new part.

Yes!!! Free machines make expensive fixes relevant. Just be sure there are not a ton of expensive fixes.