What weighs 46 tons and is capable of turning a 15 foot, 10 inch piece of material? A Heyligenstaedt 7P gear head bed type lathe. Purchased at auction in Covington, Kentucky in July, 2002, operation of the machine tool was recently begun at 3-D Service in Massillon, Ohio.

Moving the lathe from Covington, Kentucky to Massillon required five days and a 500-mile detour through Kentucky, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and finally Ohio to avoid bridges that were too low or that couldn’t handle the weight. Once installation was started, it took nearly eight months and required demolition of an existing structure inside the Massillon service center, relocating underground drain lines, relocating electric conduit, installing power to the lathe, and installing an 8-foot concrete foundation including setting equipment anchor bolts.

With a centre distance of 246 inches and maximum workpiece weight between centers of 88,000 pounds, the lathe provides 3-D Service the capability to machine large and bulky work pieces, such as armatures, rotors, turbines, couplings and pump impellers. Additional equipment including a tailstock and slides allows for length turning, such as that required for machining large shafts. The headstock can hold an 18 ton piece by itself, or 44 tons with the tailstock.

While 3-D Service has always had complete machine shop and fabrication capabilities, machining pieces of this size, except for commutators, was contracted to an outside vendor. With the installation of the Heyligenstaedt lathe, 3-D Service has more than doubled the size of apparatus its machine shop can handle. Journeyman machinists keep the laser-leveled, precision lathe operating three shifts a day.