This machine features a 60,000-rpm spindle and linear scale feedback. So far, the machine has not been sold in the United States. Shade Of Gray Toshulin makes heavy-duty vertical lathes in sizes once produced in far greater numbers by the U.S. manufacturers. The machine pictured here has a table diameter of 118 inches. Mike Scheu could vouch for this personally.
Few companies do.
Pilsen Imports came into being because a large Cincinnati job shop turned to a machine tool distributor it knew well in search of a heavy-duty vertical lathe similar to the type that Gray used to make. The distributor found Toshulin making these machines in the Czech Republic, and founded Pilsen Imports as a vehicle for bringing more of these machines to the American market. Now, Pilsen's Mike Scheu tries to locate other shops that could benefit from a vertical lathe more rigid and powerful than the models that are most popular today. Often, he finds candidates among job shops that serve the needs of oil equipment and aircraft engine manufacturers. The Toshulin vertical lathe line ranges in table diameter from 31 to 118 inches, and in maximum swing diameter from just under 40 to just under 142 inches.