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Is it my turn? Anything to do with lathes, mills and other shop tools
Been helping a friend get his machinery into serviceable condition.
Bolted down my lathe today. I bought it 20 or so years ago and I have never used it. Little back story on it. I was working maintenance at a food possessing plant and another mechanic had it for sale. I believe it was his fathers. It needed a good cleaning and paint. I was living in a apartment so I had no place to work on it. I didn't want to just put it in my storage building. I had a friend who owned an automotive machine shop and he had some spare bench space. Took it there with the good intentions of working on it. Well I was working 6 days a week with overtime so not much was happening to it. My brother was also friends with the owner. He saw it and when he found out it was mine he proceeded to clean and paint it. I new what he was doing so I let him have at it. When he got done he wanted to take it home. Ron (the owner) told him no, it wasn't his. Ron called me and told me what was going on. I said let him take it home. If he put that much work into he's not going to abuse it. I lost my brother 4 years ago this January. When that happened I still had no place to put it. His wife said don't worry it's OK where it is. I finally got my shop built so now I have a place for it. It's a little rusty but it will clean up. Ordered some metal and tooling today to make a couple of parts for a truing stand I'm building. It's nice to have my lathe at last but I would rather have my brother back. I know it's not much of a lathe but I'm not much of a machinist.
Logans are nice machine, on my second one 'till I get my Clausing put back together. Plenty of parts around. Company is still in business but prices on their OEM parts generally induce cardiac arrest.
Hi GLJ,
sorry about your brother. And don't dis that lathe, the photos say it's all there and it's performance is only limited by how large a workpiece it can swing.
If you don't already have one get a copy of Machinery's Handbook. The price of a new one is quite high but used is OK. My 1964 17th edition has all the
machining details you'll ever need.
BTW, your lathe would be better mounted with a shallow sheet steel tray somewhat larger than the lathe itself trapped between the lathe and it's support bench.
The tray is to catch all the swarf and cutting fluid so it don't spill all over.
Well, I had some unexpected income from a couple of moonlighting jobs, so I splurged and ordered a Shars AXA QCTP.
One advantage to being an inexperienced, shade tree machinist: It don't take much to impress me. For $150 after Black Friday discount I got the wedge-style tool post, EDIT: 1 regular tool holder, a knurling tool, a boring bar holder, a cutoff tool holder and a dual-purpose tool/bar holder. All pretty nicely finished and appear to be VERY rugged. Of course, compared to my widdle benchtop unit, most anything would...
I have to machine the mounting plate on the tool post to fit the slot on my compound so I haven't tried it yet. Waiting for an 8mm T-slot cutter from Little Machine Shop to finish a project I have set up on the mill. Took a while to tram everything in for that project so I don't want to mess with the setup until I'm finished.
Also have a half-finished job set up on my Grizzly benchtop lathe. The motor controller took a dump in the middle of the job, so I'm waiting on parts to finish that. Good news is Grizzly cut me a break on a replacement as the lathe was technically out of warranty by a couple of days.
Looking at some larger boring bars for the big lathe. The set I got for the little lathe work ok, but you can't take a very big bite as neither the bars nor the lathe are very rigid. I can see spending a good sized wad of money on tools for the bigger lathe. Given the relatively slow spindle speeds on the antique, I'll probably stick with HSS, tho I'll try a couple of carbides, especially on the boring bar(s).
One advantage to being an inexperienced, shade tree machinist: It don't take much to impress me. For $150 after Black Friday discount I got the wedge-style tool post, EDIT: 1 regular tool holder, a knurling tool, a boring bar holder, a cutoff tool holder and a dual-purpose tool/bar holder. All pretty nicely finished and appear to be VERY rugged. Of course, compared to my widdle benchtop unit, most anything would...
I have to machine the mounting plate on the tool post to fit the slot on my compound so I haven't tried it yet. Waiting for an 8mm T-slot cutter from Little Machine Shop to finish a project I have set up on the mill. Took a while to tram everything in for that project so I don't want to mess with the setup until I'm finished.
Also have a half-finished job set up on my Grizzly benchtop lathe. The motor controller took a dump in the middle of the job, so I'm waiting on parts to finish that. Good news is Grizzly cut me a break on a replacement as the lathe was technically out of warranty by a couple of days.
Looking at some larger boring bars for the big lathe. The set I got for the little lathe work ok, but you can't take a very big bite as neither the bars nor the lathe are very rigid. I can see spending a good sized wad of money on tools for the bigger lathe. Given the relatively slow spindle speeds on the antique, I'll probably stick with HSS, tho I'll try a couple of carbides, especially on the boring bar(s).
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It seems like these old lathes can be just as addicting as old motorcycles, and as big a money pit? 
It seems like these old lathes can be just as addicting as old motorcycles, and as big a money pit?
Abso-damn-lutely. Cost more than a free dog.
My T-slot cutter came in today and I finished one slot and did the preliminary work on the second before other duties called me away. I'll finish that up tomorrow and then machine the piece for the QCTP.
Also finished making the mounting plate for a gonzo winch:
Guy I do odd jobs/maintenance for wanted a way to launch and recover a big floating dock. Got tired of paying $2500 a whack for a guy to come in with an excavator and do it. He's gonna pour a pier/anchor and we'll mount this Horror Fright 18K-pound winch to it. Needs to be removable as the landowner doesn't want to look at it when he's in residence.
That's 1/2 inch wire rope. The winch is just a hair short of 28 inches long and weighs (according to how much my eyes pooched out when I picked it up) somewhere North of 100 pounds.
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Chapter xxx of the continuing saga of Downeaster Gets a Lathe...
One of the first problems that came up was that the compound angle adjust wouldn't lock. After asking around and fussing with it some, I discovered that the original locking set screw had broken in the hole. I extracted the remnants, chased the threads with a bottoming tap, dropped a new screw in and got it to lock.
I thought.
I got all the other "but first I gottas" out of the way this morning and after machining the nut to fit the slot on my compound, I installed the QCTP on the ol' Seneca. As I was tightening the nut on the QCTP, the compound moved. Tightened the set screw until I was worried about ripping the threads out of the casting and it STILL moved. What the...???
Got to looking at it a little more closely and figured out that what I thought was the post it rotates on was actually MORE of the original set screw! Fiddled around trying to fish it out of there with a pick and did get it to turn a little but couldn't fish it out.
So, I reasoned that the rotating part HAD to come off so I started a little tapping and gentle persuasion and got it to move a little and thus encouraged, used some wedges to pop it off the post. Oh, look! The set screw doesn't bear on the post, it bears on a wedge and the post is actually a dovetail...Neat! Ground down a nail for a punch, punched the retaining pin out of the wedge, removed the wedge and was able to remove the remnants of the original set screw and chase the full depths of the threads.
And here is where the tactical error comes in. While reassembling, I used a Q-tip and applied some way oil to ALL the surfaces including the face of the wedge and the dovetail on the post.
Reassembled, turns smoothly seems to lock good.
Yeah...except that when using a boring bar on an interrupted cut (keyway...) there's enough vibration that the compound won't hold zero no matter how much I tighten the set screw. In retrospect, I'm guessing it's the lube on the dovetail. So, next shop day, it's take it all apart again and clean the lube off the wedge and dovetail.
Sigh...
One of the first problems that came up was that the compound angle adjust wouldn't lock. After asking around and fussing with it some, I discovered that the original locking set screw had broken in the hole. I extracted the remnants, chased the threads with a bottoming tap, dropped a new screw in and got it to lock.
I thought.
I got all the other "but first I gottas" out of the way this morning and after machining the nut to fit the slot on my compound, I installed the QCTP on the ol' Seneca. As I was tightening the nut on the QCTP, the compound moved. Tightened the set screw until I was worried about ripping the threads out of the casting and it STILL moved. What the...???
Got to looking at it a little more closely and figured out that what I thought was the post it rotates on was actually MORE of the original set screw! Fiddled around trying to fish it out of there with a pick and did get it to turn a little but couldn't fish it out.
So, I reasoned that the rotating part HAD to come off so I started a little tapping and gentle persuasion and got it to move a little and thus encouraged, used some wedges to pop it off the post. Oh, look! The set screw doesn't bear on the post, it bears on a wedge and the post is actually a dovetail...Neat! Ground down a nail for a punch, punched the retaining pin out of the wedge, removed the wedge and was able to remove the remnants of the original set screw and chase the full depths of the threads.
And here is where the tactical error comes in. While reassembling, I used a Q-tip and applied some way oil to ALL the surfaces including the face of the wedge and the dovetail on the post.
Reassembled, turns smoothly seems to lock good.
Yeah...except that when using a boring bar on an interrupted cut (keyway...) there's enough vibration that the compound won't hold zero no matter how much I tighten the set screw. In retrospect, I'm guessing it's the lube on the dovetail. So, next shop day, it's take it all apart again and clean the lube off the wedge and dovetail.
Sigh...
An ol' 16" x 8' Southbend lathe.
The V-ways are pretty badly worn. Looking into repair options...
The V-ways are pretty badly worn. Looking into repair options...
Cleaned the oil off the mating surfaces with some acetone, seems to lock up pretty good now. Won't know for sure until I try it. Feller on a hobby machinist board said it may also be wear on the contact surfaces. Waiting on some Dykem to check that.
Also discovered the source of all the backlash in the cross feed. I thought the handle was threaded onto the shaft. Nope...Those threads were for the nut that holds it onto the shaft. The key was also missing and the keyway was boogered up from some hamfisted dishpit forcing the setscrew into the keyway.
Cleaned that all up, filed the boogers out of the keyway, found a suitable piece of key stock, chased the threads on the end of the shaft, found a suitable nut and put everything back together.
Et Voila! Backlash measured in thousandths instead of 8ths...
Exactly!
Compound still moving a little, tho not nearly as bad. Needed to broach an internal keyway in a sleeve, don't have a broach.
There's a trick using a parting tool and a lathe. Mount the parting tool sideways, mount the piece in the chuck. With the lathe OFF and the back gear in to lock the spindle in position, use the saddle to drive the cutoff tool through the piece and advance it a couple of thousands after each pass.
Slow...Very, VERY slow...but it works.
It also spurred me to crack open the toy fund and buy a basic set of broaches...
Shapers do internal keyways....and other things.
Well, if I run across a deal like I did on the lathe... I guess I could always park the car outside...
Downeaster,
Now that you have that lathe all tuned up, it’s just screaming for a new XS650 project. Something with some custom touches that only a man with a lathe could do! You don’t wanna just make antique tractor parts with that lathe do you?
Now that you have that lathe all tuned up, it’s just screaming for a new XS650 project. Something with some custom touches that only a man with a lathe could do! You don’t wanna just make antique tractor parts with that lathe do you?
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