Monarch 10EE Restoration 3: Getting the Lathe Bed Back from having it Re-Ground 

Thank you for all the nice comments about us here at Kinetic. Several of my operators are very keen on this kind of work. We are always happy to work with many of the small shop / hobby guys. I realize many guys out there are much more than just “hobby” machinists and I always enjoy working with everybody.

looking forward to seeing this machine back in working condition. I really want a lathe of this size for my shop.

not only did your friend take time on your job but really ensured you would get it in tip top condition with that packaging! great video as always and look forward to this lathe getting back to full health after years of hard service ... best wishes to all

Awesome crate job! I order signs all the time and I've seen crates come in where they're nailed together with 2x4s, 4x4s, and 3/4" plywood. Took me a good 2 hours to uncrate them and it would have 2 trash bags full of peanuts, or styrofoam. A crate 10x the size it needed to be. But that crating job was really thought out and done well. Kinetic, if you're reading this, give that crating guy a raise. seriously good job.

Keith I love those 10 EE's........I know you will have it back in order and working GREAT!!!!!! Thanks for taking us along.

A real pleasure to see your joy of a well ground lathe bed - it's always great to see quality work.

Keith, twenty years ago when I worked for General Motors ,Monarch quoted a price of thirty thousand dollars to rebuild our tool room 10ee lathe. So enjoy the one you have.

Keith I am blown away by that bed. So often we drag home a derilect machine… not scrap!….I call it a casting kit! Once my divorce is over, I plan on getting really busy on mine. Until then, I so look forward to this restoration.

Eager with anticipation. I know it is a machine tool, but the Monarch 10EE approaches art. I hope the restoration is smooth, safe, and satisfying. Thanks for sharing.

Keith, just before you mentioned saving that lumber, I was trying to come up with a use for you for the box. The wooden shelves in my shop were constructed from 100% scrap wood. All 1/2" plywood and 2x4's. They cover about 40' of one wall, and about 20' on another. I like to have things organized, and this certainly helps.

Thanks Keith. Also being from the south, I enjoy your laid back yet no-nonsense take on what's to be done and not. Hope to see much more in the New Year!

That fresh ground bed is a thing of beauty! Only thing better for a shop than a gantry crane is a Bridge crane! :-)

There was a video of monarch flame hardening the large ways. The entire bed was set in coolant just below the ways. Then a multi head torch went along and heated the surface.

True craftsmanship and pride in product are never cheap..but priceless.

Cant wait to watch you put the EE back together!

Nice to hear someone recommending a supplier without making their channel into an infomercial. Thanks

Regarding the gantry, it is amazing how much engine crane legs are always in the way of doing what you thought you were going to do!

"My old back don't bend over the way it used to." Yeah, I hear you, Keith.

This guy can't stop! Inspiring!

It must've been super high quality and high accuracy for a manual lathe of its time. Add Non-exposed ways and automatic lubrication with e-stop if the oil tank is empty and a few other crucial features and those would stay that way.

Always enjoy the back stories..

I loved that pause and smile at 9:43 Almost like Christmas!

Your comments about the gantry crane are great! Besides its sheer utility, I am sure that it improves the safety of your shop, reducing back injury, dropping of equipment, etc. Hopefully, others will evaluate whether they should have one. I also like your discussion of how far to go with grinding- enough, but not too much!

Hi from Australia

Lovely early Xmas pressy I'm looking forward to the rebuild

Morning! I am oddly just as fascinated by wooden crates as what is in them :D

Glad you got this back so quickly, though I guess we'll be waiting on the next step. I hope you're able to tackle this soon!

Hi Keith, from Keith of Michigan. Hopefully I'll I'll get a response from you. I have been around machine tools, for at least 44 years 😬. I don't have a ytube account, but love to see people who like yourself. My last career, I worked in Aerospace. They had a "Well used" Lathe, it's a Monarch and was built 1957, the year I was born. That re-ground bed, looks 👌 fantastic Keith. I'd love to see 👀 it in action!!

It was like Christmas watching you unwrap that lathe bed. I am happy for you! Best wishes.

As I was screaming at the screen get a Sawzall as you then got your Dewalt. Lovely looking lathe.

Keith, you look like a kid on Christmas morning!

"Save the wood for use in another project." A man after my own heart.

My dream machine on my bucket list. Maybe some day. Thanks for sharing Keith.

Hiya Keith

Hello Keith, I can understand your joy on un-crating that bed, as at the end of last year, I had the same experience. I had sent off to Sydney, the bed of my 1949 Hercus model ¨A¨ (Southbend 9¨ clone, made here in Adelaide). This was badly worn and would turn a .004 taper on a 2" long cut. Now with a re-ground bed I am back to a parallel cut, accuracy is back.

I can’t wait to see this come together

Good to see Elliot the destroyer of pine cones is out in the shop making sure you are doing everything right!

Henry Ford will give you a big thumbs up for reusing the wood

I can't wait for you to get start rebuilding that it'll be a great project to see rebuild this is Bob from Vero Beach Florida God bless and have a great day and happy holidays

I’m looking forward to the build. But I look forward to all your videos, thanks for doing them and very enjoyable.

I always liked it when they screwed crates together. Much easier to open.

Excited to see this lathe back to its best self!

That crate was a beauty!

Thank you for sharing. Watched and very much enjoyed.

I plained ways on what was called ram beds for turret lathes . They were ruff castings. They were then induction hardened next . They were ruff ground, finished planned, bored the headstock and then finished ground. Bed had to be aligned in a free state before clamping . Finished ground ways were straight and parallel with in .0002" . They had to grind with a cup wheel to be able to grind up to the headstock. They tipped the wheel slightly to make the way surface .0005 dished so oil would not be squeezed out. This was all done at Waner & Swasey's Solon Road plant . I worked there in the mid 1970's . As you're going to do the saddles were scraped to a master gage first then fine tuned scraped to the bed in assembly. Was a great place to watch and learn.

It's screaming for paint, before it gets "set aside". Vaseline works great to cover machined surfaces during paint.

Thanks for sharing Keith

You touched on a very serious issue. There is only a handful of "qualified, talented people" out there that can actually do the quality workmanship. Most grinder hands will purposely leave a telltale area of non- cleanup to show that only a minimum amount of material was taken off. As a side note, I would like to get a look at the bottom of the bed.

my god it's the monarch, i almost forgot all about that!

5/8" shackle do ya justice!! and step back, Keith opening his xmas gifts!

i did the same vestil gantry a few years back, except mine has a 16 foot beam, amazon beat global by $100 and free shipping which was another $800. we were using it for our de-scaler tanks with an electric hoist, now it is our plate lifter for our waterjet with a manual hoist.

Now that's a proper packaging.

interesting to see how You bolt to the base without introducing a twist to the bed. Im sure You know how to resolve. I have a 10ee also. The quality of these lathes in My opinion is superior to a hardinge super precision lathe at least in some important areas like power, no worries on chuck reversing, variable spindle speed. and who doesnt love that big tachometer?

Great video Keith, keep'um coming.

i catch myself yelling get the friggin circular saw and such lol

Christmas came early!

I myself went form a old disability lift to a small 1 ton battery forklift/stacker it’s battery’s don’t last long but more than enough for me and was a good deal with a few small repairs don’t think I could live with out now far more useful than you would ever think

side note for those shipping large heavy items, Fastenal stores will ship things to other Fastenal stores no matter where in the USA.

More scraping! Awesome machine.

Oh so many irons in the fire........Oh how I know, thanks for the video🤗😎🤗😎

Pretty sturdy crate...

Beautiful!!

You should have sent Abom79 for that bed - so he could legitimately try out his new truck crane :)

Hey Keith, I love how you show the progress of your projects. Thanks for sharing .. I have a couple of lathes at home and been thinking about a regrind and the info I am missing is a ball park number of what such a re-grind might cost .. is it a couple hundred or a few thousand $? I know you don't like talking money but a ball park would be great to know! thanks!

Nothing UpTo the expectations

Nice!!!!

interesting thanks for the video.

Monarch had some factory reman 10EE lathes for over $100,000 a few years back

I'm anxious to see the rebuils and the adjustment of your rebuilt lathe, I have an old Willson lathe that is in the need of a bed regrind.

Looking good, let me know when she is done i will happily purchase her from you.....

good video keith

I believe that flame hardening on a lathe bed is a surface treatment and grinding as little as possible is probably a good thing.

For most jobs most of the time the super accuracy is not important but if it is it's essential. It is also easier to work with things that are well built'

I have a guy that planes my beds back in withing a few tenths. You WILL be scraping that saddle in I bet. I just finished a SB Heavy 10 that needed to be built up with some Rulon in the saddle to get the leadscrew alignment back. Worked great! Look forward to the restoration. Happy Holidays Keith!

I did not read through every comment to see if this has already been mentioned but I would strongly recommend that you wear safety glasses when you are cutting steel banding. I personally witnessed a fellow worker lose an eye while cutting that same kind of steel banding. Lots of blood and trauma!

Opening presents before Christmas… naughty list, you are on.

It's like a great big piece of cast iron halloween candy!

A shop in a research facility I know of sent their 10EE back to Monarch to be reconditioned about 5 or so years ago. I imagine it cost a fortune but the factory will re condition the entire lathe if you are willing to pay their price.

Kinetic is in my hometown, and my uncle retired from working there

On your back, and I can attest to this working after a failed back surgery, is LIDOCAINE patches, 5%. Prescription needed, but they are a non drug patch. Works great for about 12 hours.

The bed is looking good Keith, From what I have seen on the 10EE the electronics can be a big problem. Also any news on the stoker engine?

How close is the big monarch to being done?

One thing my dad taught me was when you take something apart that was nailed always bend over the nails/stables as you remove the pieces your feet will 😊 c,

That looks really good I am looking forward to seeing it installed and the top plate scraped to match. FWIW: I counted twelve staples in the box corner near the camera. That is going to take more than a wonderbar to bust loose without shattering the end grain. Try using an oscillating saw with a carbide blade and cut them between the boards if you really want to get the board without a lot of effort. You can the drive the stumps out with a nail set and pull them with diagonal cutters or channel locks, or just leave them if you’re going to box it up again with a nail gun. People use way too many fasteners when all they have to do is pull a trigger. 👍

I also have this machine that needs the ways ground flat. How much does something like this cost?

Looks like Christmas came early for you :-D

I'd love to see a vid of how Kinetic grinds these lathe beds...how do they set it up for grinding such that the height of all the contact surfaces stays correct so the center line of the head stock and tail stock are colinear.

getting old does suck!!!!!!!!!!!!!

good rigging.

PET THE DOGS AND CATS, TELL EVERYBODY HELLO, GREAT VIDEO, SEE YOU NEXT TIME...

Maybe put a coat of primer on the casting so it does not slowly accumulate surface rust?

Always interesting when anyone mentions tercite and ways!With "flame hardened" ways I'm not so sure about using the stuff...

Time to install a motor drive on the gantry? For me, the major improvement to my life came in the form of a 48" hydraulic scissor lift cart.

The care put into crating would seem to relate to the care put into the rest of the job. No rush job there. 🙂

How about doing a video on what questions to ask when getting your machine ground?

Your gantry crane would benefit greatly having an electric winch with hand held remote. Cheap and easy wire management and another trolley and you got yourself a third hand. As for the lathe bed. Is the ways and bottom ground parallel or checked for parallel? Thank you for the great videos..

Shes gona be a beauty

If you don't work on it right away, wrap it in an oily cloth. Not that it starts rusting again. It looks very good to me.

You should of sent the Headstock and Tailstock as well.

Hello Keith. Am I mistaken but did you not build your own gatery crane a while ago?