Monarch Lathe Feedscrew Reverse Lever 

Hey Buddy, Sweet video on the reversing lever. You could set the stops and go grab another adult beverage. This should help Rick sort his machine out. Thanks for helping out a workmate. Talk to you soon. Tom

Adam, Cool of you to demo this for Rick! I told you before and I'll say it again, the Monarch is a awesome lathe man! Ray

Hi Adam , Greetings from Australia mate . I broke my leg on good friday by coming of my Dirt bike and i just found you recently. Mate you have inspired me to chase up my true passion and i hope i have a mentor like you some day . You're a top bloke and i reckon your channel will only get larger with time . Regards Henry Darr .

Forgot to add. Less than eight minutes. Is that some kind of record for you? Cheers, Tom

Man you have came a long way , I am proud and look forward to see your vids each and every week and thank you for being so humble about what you do and streight toward without any unnecessary filler

Adam very good video. It is good to see how all the different lathes work and you did a good job explaining yours. I wish others would do what you just did on their lathes. Some of us have not had the exposure to many different lathes.

nicely explained. i went back and forth from tom's video to yours a couple of times and you definitely did the question justice. in addition, you do a nice job on your videos.

Thank you for explanation and demo. Always great to see the special design features of the Monarch lathes and any other high-end lathe models.

Man I knew as soon as I saw Tom talk about the lathe you would be all over this :) What a cool community.

Thanks a lot Adam.......I was going to say something on Tom's vid but wasn't 100% sure. This feature also is on DeLuxe Pacemakers; kind of a "toolroom edition". You jumped on it right quick....WITH a video response....man that is what is just plain cool about this metalworking community on RU-vid. Thanks, Sean.

Adam, very clear presentation. I think you nailed the answer. My South Bend 9" has a reversing lever too, but it's to the left of the headstock, not on the carriage. Given that the whole lathe is only about 5' long, it's not much of a reach from the normal operating position so no real need for it to be elsewhere. It just moves the tumbler gears. -- Mike

Adam we have a Monarch at work and the several hours I have spent in front of it I never had any idea what it was for (the lever is missing) Now I know! thanxxx!

That is a handy feature. I think I remember the lathes or at least one in my high school machine shop class having a threading clutch that would kick out at the end of the thread if you set it. I certainly don't remember the brand of the lathes though. We had a nice big power hack saw too. Even though I have a band saw that cuts a lot faster I still love those things. Thanks for sharing.

Adam You just made me want to get a Monarch even more. Thanks

I have 2 monarchs, one 1942 and one 1943 vintage. There is a fine adjustment to the feed cut out on the left hand end of the apron so you can accurately cut internal threads up to a shoulder or bore holes up to an internal shoulder. Brilliant feature.Also there is a stop system built into the cross slide so you can always reset infeed to same place without looking at the dials reading when screwcutting. You then put in a bit more cut with top slide set at half thread angle until you get to full thread depth. With both the cutout and depth stops set you can screwcut blindfolded. I have done it!

I just got a big monarch and i'm brand new to machine lathes. Thanks for this video, I was really at a loss on how those automatic stops were supposed to work. I wanted to find some reference before I ended up just jamming things and breaking them.

I had always wondered what that missing shaft on my Model 60 was for... thanks Adam!

Abom79, thanks for sharing this!! I have a "new" Monarch series 60 that I was worrying about, mainly the leadscrew reverse feature. The seller made it sound as though the reverse lever could be employed at any RPM, but when I tried that it was CLACK Clack clack clack! Not until I used the slower RPM's only did it work as yours does. Mine acts the same; 200 RPM is about the fastest I'll use the reverse feed lever on. This video was very comforting!

That is a very cool feature Adam I could definitely see where there could be extremely useful. With any luck I should have my new to me lathe by the end of this week or early next week. Just waiting on the phase converter to come in then I can get it shipped :) It's a colchester bantam 1600. Thanks, Ian Little

Hey Adam, Nice demo on the reversing lever. A pretty clever idea, actually. Too bad I can't find an old Monarch in great condition for not much $$$! Given the way you gave that demo, if you ever get tired of machining, you could probably get a job as a used car salesman. LOL Thanks again, Adam! Have a good one! Dave

machines like that are really an industrial work of art, i dont want to ask what a new replacement would cost!

Hey Adam I just finished this same info on Tom's channel. Should have seen this first. Would have saved me allot of typing. I have the same, pretty much identical Monarch that they are talking about. When I got mine about 30 years ago, I ordered an original factory manual/parts manual from Monarch which I still have. At the time it was over $200 a little pricey. A few years ago I made a PDF from it. Very high quality and good parts blowups. I'm going to offer them a copy and you too if you want. We have the Series 61 Toolmakers model. I know now from your video what model you have. This is still a good book for you too. I do have one for your model too if you don't already have one. The quality and info is not as good as the one I made for mine but still good to have. The model 61 book has more updated info and pertains to your lathe also. I'm just going to copy and paste this over to Tom all this typing is murder. Joe

2nd world war lathe--so versatile--so usable, an extremely well designed machine.Give it another 70 plus years and it will still be giving good service to who ever owns it..

hi Abom thats a cool feature, our hendey 4cx30 has it on the headstock. Also it has some adjustable stops for production work on the clutch shaft. like Mr. Kilroy has on the pacemaker.

Great info Adam, really helped me out with my new (to me) Monarch! Jason

Hi Adam, Nice feature like cutting metric threads on a imperial lead screw, could probably be replaced if nothing internal got messed up. Cheers, Pierre

Those stops are also GREAT ways to make sure you dont crash into the chuck. A little added safety if you have to get real close to finish a part.

Hi Abom. I just bought a 12 CK like yours. In addition to the feed reversing lever it has the carriage travel dial. I have looked at a bunch of videos and photos of CKs and it seems to be less common than the feed lever.

Very nice lathe you got there, wish I had room for one like it.

adam you make me want to by a metal lathe to go with my wood turning lathe,great video

I just wanted to add that the true toolroom lathe will have this feature and does not require a threading dial! its called a single reversing tooth dog clutch ..my 1917 Hendey lathe has this feature :)

This feature is used on European style lathes for metric thread cutting where the pitch is rarely a natural whole division of the lead screw pitch and the thread is cut using a straight plunge and not the angled compound, so you want to leave the the half-nuts engaged and you are cutting on both sides of the tool anyway. Also works good for a reverse spring cut when boring.

great info Adam, thanks for posting.....PB

A feature I think I remember you talking about in the past was the ability of the Monarch to have the carriage and the slide feed independently selectable. Maybe I didn't say that right. But the feature allows you to machine tapers without a taper attachment.

I have apron reverse for the feed screw but not the lead screw on my Monarch. Interesting to see the differences in the models of lathes. Ricks lathe looks like it might be a hydraulic headstock machine I think a model 61.

Just a quick question, if you set the feed rage for threads per Inch ie say "14" and the diameter of your stock changes you should still have the same 14 threads per inch, is that right.?

Have the same lathe configuration on my Monarch- today the feed stopped engaging. Wondering if I missed something? Still sounds like it is making the engagement but, not a solidly and thus not feeding in either direction. Any thoughts?

Hi. Nice vid . I may be wrong but i can see that you could use the the auto stop when turning but think that it would screw up the timeing when screw cutting as it must loose the relationship between spindel and lead screw when changing from fwd to rev .

I have a Monarch very similar to yours. Love it

i knew you would know what it was as soon as he mentioned the Monarch Lathe Adam

You've raised the concern that at higher speeds this could be detrimental in time to the gears. Now, i wonder if that lathe's shaft was removed for this very reason, either because those gears were damaged or because someone wanted to prevent that. If i remember correctly Tom said that it might of had been removed because it was a potential danger to the operator what with it being so up and close..but seeing from you moving the lever, it's not actually a rotating shaft as much as it is an extension from the main body??!. This is all assumption based on what i've seen and heard so i might be completely off track. What i'm interested, is, does the shaft have any kind of mechanical operation other than inside the gear box? Also, Adam, really nice of you to make a video, it's certainly a very helpful one.

So the lever doesn't disengage the gear train between the lathe spindle and leadscrew? If it did it would bugger up the timing for screw cutting. Is this correct?

Thanks man , that was helpful l just bought Monarch 16" CV and l couldnt work perfectly with big lathe l used to work with southbend 9 l wish to get same your skill with this lathe

Love your videos man, i was wondering if the collars on the feed screw are for automatically kicking out the feed if your turning to a shoulder? I am looking at a lathe exactly like this would you reccomend this lathe or look for a different one?

That's a pretty nice feature.

that monarch is a beautiful machine

How does actuation of the lever on the apron cause the gearbox to make the screw change direction? That is, what actually happens when you move that lever?

Great explanation! I'd love to have that feature for Metric threads inside of hard reversing the spindle or stomping on the brake. Un-related comment.. Lets see what you put in that there Gerstner chest!

Adam, I only have one question. How much does that bad boy weigh? I need to know, so I know which trailer I need to bring!! After watching this segment, with all the other vids I've already seen, I just gotta have it!!!!! I figure your about 3000 miles from me here, today's Monday, leaving tomorrow early. Should be there around 5:00 pm Friday, so can we load er up first thing Saturday? Kool!! Man, thanks alot Adam!!! I knew there was something I liked about you! Razor!

Well, that takes the mystery out of that.. ;-) Nice useful feature at least for low speed operation. With the play in the handle would the response time be quick enough for threading?? Colin

Adam, I just purchased, not yet received, a Monarch 16"x54" Model "W" and was looking at a flyer that I found online and it says it comes with a quick-chasing stop for threading, do you happen to know what that is or how to use it? Mine doesn't have the reverse lever like yours. I wanted to be able to thread to a shoulder with my lathe and the feature you described with the reversing lever sounds perfect for that, just wondering how I could do it with mine. Thanks for your thoughts and thanks for maintaining your channel, I've learned so much from your videos. Kindest Regards, Craig

Great video response, How would you reverse the feed without tat rod and lever installed in the lathe?

My monarch model 60 has that feed reverse lever and a feed reverse knob on the apron that I find much handier to use at any speed.

Hope this helps the brother ! Good vid ..

So in theory it makes all of the main operator controls where you need them infront of you to make the job easier faster and safer cool

So if you set those clamps, you get auto reverse... pretty neat. OOPS, I see it just goes to neutral.

At work I regularly run a Monarch 50 x 16 (Series 50, Model 16 as they call it). It doesn't have this lever, and I for the life of me can't seem to find the correct lever for lead screw rotation change. Anybody got experience with threading on this lathe? And as of today, when the half nut lever is engaged, lead screw rotation ceases and the carriage does not move as it should. Luckily, threading isn't a part of my normal duties with the Monarch but I'd still like to get it resolved.

Hey Adam, I think it is really cool how well the old machines work and just how well they where built ! PS. check your youtube in box, I sent you a message. Thanks Buddy

or metric threads ??

It's like a car Adam you have to put it in gear before it will do anything. LOL

I thought my Colchester was cool.

#paintmonarch