The Home Machinist!

I have a Weiler Matador, slightly smaller brother to the Condor. I found mine on CL about 5 years ago. It had sat for a week on CL without any responses, everyone wants a SB. COSI Corp. imported them into the US in the 70s/80s, there are not many around. After researching the brand on Lathes.com I took a chance on it.

It has more settings, threads and speeds than I could ever use. "90 rates of feed together with 48 English threads from 2 to 80 t.p.i., 30 metric from 0.2 to 12 mm, 30 Diametral from 6 to 60 DP and 20 Module from 0.1 to 4 mod", "spindle speeds from 30 to 620 r.p.m. in backgear and 170 to 3550 r.p.m in direct drive". BTW, you can choose belt drive or gear drive with the flick of a lever. My machine uses a 10 speed gearbox, not the variable speed drive version from the OP. In typical German fashion it is more complex than need be.

There is a fair amount of photos of the inside components of the Matador and Condor on the net. Just Google them and look at the photos to get an idea of how the are built. There are a few places to download manuals, I downloaded my manual (in English) from a French site several years ago. Sorry, I don't have a link.

Practical Machinist has a European machine forum with several postings about Weiler lathes.

Hi guys.
Been very busy at the moment so not much time for the "old girl"
Thank you so much for the great comments and advice.......
Busy stripping paint repairing body panels etc. The gears in all the gear boxes look great.
All the shafts on apron box and QCGB will get new o`rings.
Had a nice suprise while cleaning the apron box. The gearbox lever moves under the just the weight of the handle on the wheel. So all seems good there.
Will get new shaft seals also on the QCGB.
Tailstock cleaned up....feels good. Bit of body filler and is ready for paint.
Emailed Weiler for info on machine. The ladies sent me a manual.....unfortunately in German only but the drawing description in english too.
Just a word of warning about Google Translate.......It Lies!!!!!!
When we started stripping the machine there was grease everywhere.....hmmm
Lube guide says Schmerol which according to google is grease......its not it is supposed to be machine oil.

Hi mike
I have the manual for the Matador as well. Lots of similarities in the 2 machines.
I have the Variable drive unit which is missing. It most probably went south and too much hassle to repair or source spares down here in the bottom part of the world. It was replaced with a step pully arrangement which was so out of alignment it ate the pulley away. Also between motor and pulleys they got clever.....The motor adjustment was a failure so they used a t belt (i think that is what its called) it is made up of interlocking pieces.
Good idea...........If you use the right size that is. Man you gotta love Africa.
I have great schematics of the Variable drive in the manual so i think i would be able to make one. Just a simpler version then what the Germans did.
Otherwise i will just stick on VFD and be done.
The Condor can do up to 1800 rpm with gears than 2600 in belt drive. My model did not come with that feature but i think 1800 will be more than enough for my needs.

Pic of the missing drive.

Did a bit more cleaning up today....
Repaired the butchered panel and clean clean. From this... To this

When I last went to uk lathes, there was update about Weiler lathes, Might want to check it.

Had a look thank you........It seems it was a well built machine cannot wait to get it up and running.
Will post update on the progress later this weekend.

Did a bit of work on the girl today..
Painted the bed and the tailstock and some other parts.
Assembled the tailstock....i think it looks good. And here are some pics of the bed

Oh yes
My Father in law painted the wheel barrow with the left over paint in the gun.

I like the color choice. Without checks and bed / slide grinding and then hand scraping if any is really required it's a clean, repaint and repair what's needed mechanicaly. But that lathe will be a lot nicer to use, probably work smoother and likely much better than it did. Fresh paint obviously makes no real difference but it shows some personal pride in what a person has and maybe pushes the operator a bit to turn out better parts. That is a whole lot of work to do what you have though. Very nice job.

Like the colour man!

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