She is all regreased! The jokes are as widely sourced and varied as the machines of the users on here..... everywhere from Simon and garfunkel to american pie! Well done gents.
I took our shared love for the SM Utilathes to heart, and decided to try my hand at writing SM / Racer requesting some more engineering information for these old girls.... I know it would come much in handy to me and to us as I'm almost sure we are all missing some sort of piece for our girls. I know its a shot in the dark but hey, worth a stab.
Here is what I wrote:
Hello,
I am making this inquiry for the purpose of asking for additional documentation to do with the older Utilathe line of lathes, of which I own one.
I am part of an online community, which can be found at canadianhobbymetalworkers.com.
We are an active and passionate hobby centered metalworking community, and your lathes are always regarded with the utmost respect, and highly recommended and coveted among the membership when a used lathe does come available for the right price.
Being a hobby community, not for business or profit seeking purposes, we obviously don't have as much available capital as a group of businesses, so we are not members of your typical customer demographic. We by and large do not have the funds to purchase any of your products new, as they are at the upper end of the market segment (deservedly when the quality is taken into consideration), so most of the members who own a lathe from your company own an older machine of the Utilathe variety. There are perhaps 20 members that own (and love) their Utilathe, including myself. I own a 1230 LD Utilathe.
Our community and myself, love your lathes. We view them highly and love to run them. However, because of the age of the lathes, they lack certain capabilities in most configurations (Metric Threading), and obtaining spare parts especially add-on parts such as steady/follow rests, taper attachments, the metric change gear set and retrofit kit we understand you have made for the lathes, specifically for certain educational institutions, can be difficult.
We do understand that your company does provide re-manufactured spare parts for these lathes, as well as a free download of the "operation manuals" which is a testament to your commitment to your products and commitment to service which is commendable. However, members have received quotes before and the quotes that came back were not in the "hobbiest" price range, which is fine, considering the quality of the machines.
We have partly undertaken the task the reverse engineering certain parts of the lathes and have attempted (and succeeded) in some cases to make adequate designs for certain desirable parts from our own work and devices, and to build them out of scrap, free or cheap materials in our home shops to improve our experience with the lathes, which shows how committed we are to using and enjoying your products.
What I am asking for is this: Engineering drawings for the Utilathe line of lathes, minus the main castings, showing and including steady/follow rests, taper attachments, metric change gear retrofit kits, gears, carriages, cross and compound parts, etc. Only for the much outdated Utilathes, not for other products.
If provided, this would allow us to much more easily continue to use and enjoy your products, which we love, and to make modifications to them and produce the parts, bootstrapped, that we are each missing with our own elbow grease (which we have much of) and not spend thousands of dollars purchasing (which we don't have much of).
This would be a great help to us, and in my eyes, of little risk to your company, considering the age of the lathes and of the designs, and the fact that your product has evolved many, many generations since the Utilathe. The other factor being, with a finite and ever decreasing number of the Utilathe machines being in existence every year, the market for spare parts is undoubtedly almost non existent. The user base for the Utilathe machines without debate has moved from institutions and business use, and shifted to a secondary and tertiary market of garage based weekend warrior enthusiasts like us, with limited funds but plenty of time and motivation.
We would be greatly pleased to be gifted that information, so that we can continue to run our Standard-Modern Lathes for many years to come. This would be a massive show of goodwill to the hobbiest/maker community in our country and would undoubtedly win much goodwill with us, and all those who have ears to hear from us.
Thank you for your time, and for your careful consideration of my request.
We will see what they say, maybe you guys think I'm nuts for asking, or my writing sucks, but hey.
If we get drawings it would be worth it in the sweet by and by.
