I’ve been working on a giant VTL with Peter Luka. It’s a pretty impressive machine. Made by Schiess in 1953 Germany, it weighs 45,000 pounds, has a 2 meter wide chuck and an 80 inch throw.

Since it’s a vertical lathe, everything is sideways. The chuck is actually a turntable, and the tail stock is above. The design is pretty impressive, typically German.

To be fixed: replace contactors, get the crossbeam clamp working again (it has it’s own motor and gearbox) rewind a bunch of the motors (they’re old, and a bit stressed running at 480V/60 Hz instead of the designed 380V/50 Hz). They might get new variable frequency drives so they can not only run at their intended voltage, frequency, but they you’d be able to control the motor speeds.

See it all here