LeBlond Ltd. provides LeBlond Regal lathe parts, not mortgages. The two, however, are related.
Let me explain.
LeBlond Regal Lathe Parts Does History Better than a Museum
Recently, I had to sign a mountain of papers for a mortgage. It wore my hand out; there were so many dead trees passing my way.
The mortgage company called me a month later and said there was a clerical error with one page and if I could locate said form in the mountain that was collecting dust in my garage.
I spent an hour of mind-numbing frustration, navigating the paperwork in a garage steaming from the summer heat with no luck finding said form.
We Have Lathe Records from the Jurassic Era 🙂
Recently, Amos Heil, a 30-year old self-taught machinist from Missoula, Montana bought a LeBlond Regal lathe, a 1943 15” x 42” roundhead model.
Amos needed information on the machine and was interested in LeBlond Regal lathe parts to make some improvements on his new toy.
LeBlond provided Amos with a copy of the original sales order. From September 29, 1943. 76 years ago!
I can’t remember what I ate for dinner yesterday let alone provide a financial record from a few months back.
LeBlond is so on top of LeBlond Regal parts, they can provide you with the original bill of sale going back nearly a century.
LeBlond Regal Lathe Parts Support Beats Competitors
“I got a 1943 LeBlond Regal lathe and the company totally supported it, “Amos observed. “It made me feel good that LeBlond continues to support their product whether it’s primary or secondary.”
Amos refurbishes used cars. He was working on an older pickup truck when he and his friends discovered they needed a part that was no longer available. Amos’ machinist friend said this wasn’t a problem and proceeded to machine the part on his manual lathe.
This was the moment Amos decided he needed an engine lathe of his own. He shopped online for a used machine and his decision came down to a LeBlond Regal and an Atlas manual lathe.
He consulted machinist Facebook Groups who recommended the LeBlond for their parts support.
Other Brands: Need Parts, No Dice!
“I contacted Atlas,” Amos remembers. “I couldn’t find any support for their machines. If I ended up stripping up any of the Atlas gears, I wouldn’t be able to replace them.”
Besides, the gears of the Atlas were made of aluminum zinc and brass alloy that Amos felt were relatively soft compared to the much harder metal of the LeBlond Regal gears.
Keep it in the LeBlond Family
Amos wants to make some money from his Regal and eventually upgrade a newer LeBlond. He has his eyes on the RKL 15” manual lathe with electronic variable speed.
The Regal, with the outstanding LeBlond Regal lathe parts support, is a family affair. His 5-year old son Hunter helped his dad disassemble and clean the lathe. Amos and his wife Samantha’s 1-year old Cyrus is very excited to touch the lathe while his father and brother work on it (see Amos and his boys in the picture above).
Reliable Parts Support for Centuries
So, if you’re looking for a reliable, durable manual lathe, go with a LeBlond for their LeBlond Regal parts support. If you’re like me and struggle with paper, trust LeBlond who can reproduce records as far back as the 1940’s.
“If they can support a machine that long ago, it speaks to the quality of [LeBlond’s] machines,” Amos said.
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Can you please email me the details of my 10 inch leblond i cant find the email you sent me a while back thanks
No problem, Daren. We’ll be in touch.
I have a LeBlond lathe from quite possibly the teens or 20’s would you have any documentation dating back 100 years?
Jason, thanks for your inquiry. We will be in touch.
I have also had the experience of enjoying your impeccable document history for my 68/69 vintage Tape Turn II CNC Lathe. We had burned up a few of the hydraulic clutches and were able to get them from LeBlond along with other critical information regarding the control valves. This machine was retrofitted with a Fagor CNC control in 2001 and is still in daily operation today. There is no substitute for old heavy iron.
Kris, thanks for your kind comment. Machinists tell us all the time that old iron is the best iron and that old doesn’t mean obsolete. We are always on the search for customers who would be interested in being featured on our blog. Let us know if you’re interested!
You forgot to mention how much this LeBlond support can cost. A few years ago I asked about the two small double gears for the output drive and reverse for a circa 1943 13″ ‘trainer’ model. I was quoted $1500 each and at least a one month lead time.
With modern CNC machinery it should be possible to run off a bunch of each of those 14 pitch, 14.5 degree pressure angle gears over the course of a day or two. There’s a lot of those 13″ lathes still around with their 5/16″ thin gears. With these small and rather delicate gears in the output to the quick change gearbox, they’re a common casualty of crashing the lathe. The small 14 pitch teeth can be cut with a 2mm diameter end mill. That’s what I ended up doing, had all the teeth welded up then turned the weld down to diameter and thickness. Cut the teeth on a small CNC mill. Had to go 2 inches per second or less due to the mill only having a 5,000 RPM spindle. That was quite a few hours of milling but much cheaper than $1500
With something like a 50K RPM spindle, flood coolant and very high speed X and Y table movement it could only take a few minutes to step down through the teeth in multiple passes, followed by a full depth finish pass to final dimension.
If LeBlond could make those two gear ‘spools’ for $500 for the set, they’d have some good sales of the parts.
How about 3D laser metal sintering? With that, instead of having to mill away 80% of a piece of round bar, the gears could be printed to near net shape then only the teeth faces would need milled. The ends could be spot faced for length and the bores could be cleaned to final dimension with a spiral reamer. One of the gears has a single key slot while the other has splines. Since the speed they slid on their shafts is very slow, and only when not spinning, they might not even need any post work.
3D sintered gears could be made even stronger than the originals by using the capabilities of 3D printing to build in fillets and even ribs that extend onto the sides of the gear teeth, just to the point where clearance is needed for other gear teeth to pass to one side when not engaged.
Of course if these small gears were made to be tougher, then the larger diameter but still only 5/16″ thick gears could suffer in a crash. In contrast to the rest of the gears, the helical cut final drive and bull gear in the 13″ trainer LeBlonds are thick and very strong. In the 13″ I had, some prior person hadn’t tightened the bull gear setscrew enough. It had worked loose, allowing the hear to slide to the left and chew away at the special nuts on the right end of the output drive gear shafts. Did nothing to the big gear.
Replacing and redesigning all the gears in the headstock of a 13″ light model Roundhead could be an interesting “Trainer” exercise for using 3D laser sintering in LeBlond’s current product line. It would definitely get industry attention for LeBlond and the 3D machine’s manufacturer.
And you wouldn’t need government agency approval to put the parts to use, unlike the 3D laser sintered exhaust stacks that have been designed for the engine in a WW2 P-51D Mustang fighter plane.
Hello Gregg, thank you for your ideas which require a detailed response from our tech folks. I am kicking this up to our team and we will respond to you privately as well as here. We appreciate the feedback!
I have a 13” LeBlond Regal, serial ab7606. Could you please supply the date of manufacture and any other pertinent information. I would appreciate it. Thank you.
Correction. The serial number is B7606. Thanks.
Will do, David. Thanks for your query and someone will get in touch with you.
Hello,my name is Dale. I would like to identify my lathe and i can find a couple numbers on it. On the headstock a small metal tag has 1003 . On the crossslide 3243. On compound K5451. On tailstock k5440. I know its Leblond Regal 15.
I have the C drive gear broke and would like to get it fixed. I also would like to find manual and parts book. I bought the lathe 8 years ago so i could tanker in my retirement
I would like to have repair manual or parts book for my 15 inch Leblond. Need help identify it. Head has tag plate 1003.?
Dale, thanks for the comment. Someone will get in touch with you.
hi Have a Leblon Regal lathe Serial # 2B561 need to service it and buy parts for it
need a breakdown Manual for it
please
Hello Carlos, thanks for getting in touch. Someone will contact you. For immediate service, call 888-532-5663 or email [email protected]