Pratt and Whitney Model C 16x 54 made it home

A few pictures from last month. I have been very busy with a away from home job and getting the lathe settled.

One more for now. Busy with it when I am home. I will get more detailed pictures with time. The lathe seems in great shape. I pulled the 3 jaw off and was very surprised at the nose taper on the spindle. It looks brand new under there not like all of the other machines I have seen with dings and chip impressions. The heat treat on this old lathe must be incredible.

I sure miss Shasta county. I spent a lot of time there. Nice lathe btw.

Man am I jealous, that looks like a great lathe.

Looks like a nice machine! Do you have any other pics or information on those rollers you used to unload it with ?

They are some type of conveyor rollers mounted on dual aluminum channel. Steel wheels with greasable bearings. The seller had them and wasn't sure where they came from. He lives in Fort Bragg Ca. and possibly they came from a Fish processing plant or sawmill?
The first picture above is about the best I have. I believe the left side of the channels is mounted together with a bracket and the 2 wheel/axles were cut from a longer raceway...........just a guess. You can see bolts attatching the plate of steel that bridges the "trucks" either side, also the zerks on the ends of their axles.. The wood wedged against the pedestals kepth things secure. They rolled over steel plates and thin gage aluminum when necessary to bridge cracks or slab section dividers.
It wasn't easy but I manuvered it in and sideways by moving the trucks at angles and eventualy 90 degrees by myself. The tailstock used a single "truck". You can see it in picture 4. I kept blocking along the sides just in case each time I moved ahead and leap frogged plates and bloccking. Kind of like taxiing an airplane,(I wish!).....5000 lbs is pretty heavy solo with a toe bar. Any little pebble or crack and it was a grunt.

Best thing about that set up was it kept an otherwise top heavy piece from misbehaving and having a disaster.I believe they could be made from some good bearings and heavy wheels.

I will have to get a picture of the toe jack I made up to get the pedestal elevated and lowered for set up.

Totaly Egyptian except the modern marvels of hydraulics...........then again perhaps the Egyptians also used hydraulics since water has been around a long time.

Some more pictures. Everything looks real good. The ways are slightly worn but not extreme. The apron needs cleaned out and some feed rod bushing/bearing work. The best thing is no signs of water soluble damage and chip contamination due to air hoses.

The spindle nose and gear trains tell me that the machine didn't see a lot of operators in it's life. Most shops I have worked in the best cared for machines are those when a sole operator uses them. That's my observation anyway.

The drive system was actualy being used for who knows how long with only 2 belts! And they were extremely loose. I doubt there was any hogging.

I am working on the lube system in apron as well. Oil is pumped up to the spindle side of the cross slide and front way but next to nothing if any to the rear way and the right cross slide way.

I have work to do but nothing broken or missing.

More pictures:

I missed this previously. Nice machine.

I'd sure be proud to have that in my shop!

Tim

Yes. I feel fortunate and proud, even with the work I need to do to the machine.

I can't imagine ever feeling this way with any brand new machine, plug and play, no work needed, ready to go on the market today.

If I ever actualy totaly need to go to a bed planing/scraping repair, I will do that.

I believe every part on this machine can be dealt with for repair considering the fact it was never thrashed and has all the appearances of few operators. I base this fact on the lack of the usual crash marks/rubbing of jaws on the compound slide/hammer marks on machine or chucks/broken handles, gears or missing parts.

Even the tailstock quil taper is in fine shape.

conant said:

If I ever actualy totaly need to go to a bed planing/scraping repair, I will do that.

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From the pics it looks like it has a hardened bed, so scraping certainly wouldn't be needed. The ways look great though.

conant said:

I believe every part on this machine can be dealt with for repair considering the fact it was never thrashed and has all the appearances of few operators. I base this fact on the lack of the usual crash marks/rubbing of jaws on the compound slide/hammer marks on machine or chucks/broken handles, gears or missing parts.

Even the tailstock quil taper is in fine shape.

Click to expand...

Looks in great shape. That's a fine looking machine, congrats!

This year had the scraped ways. You can see the evidence of the old flaking in some of the pictures above.

I actualy ran the machine before the purchase. It was mainly to check the gears for noise and bearing condition at high speed. Wide open with the feed train disengaged it mairly sounded smooth and fast. A very positive and smooth feed engagemant at the apron and fully functional feed reverse synchro mechanism.
The backlash in the cross feed nut is minimal. The slop in the half nuts to the screw is about as close to non existent as you would expect from a new machine.

The indicator running along the machined casting between the ways in the front and the rear of machine show a belly of about .008- .010 up towards the headstock end. The end bushings in the apron for the feed rod and the feed reverse rod show similar wear. A combination of carriage wear and bed wear. Not too terrible.

The rack and pinion look very healthy as well. There is negligible "feel" or resistance in the carriage travel along the bed from the headstock back to the extreme end of travel.

Repairs are pretty much: sight glass replacemant since it is hard to see much through the old plastic, cleaning out apron sump ( residual cast iron sludge from the feed rod wear to bushings and quick change box ( very little in this box ) , removing screws and apron for inspection and pump cleaning.

I have the top slides apart and cleaning all oil passages.
The motor is going into the shop for bearings, balance and check of windings and re- insulate ( how that is done I am not sure. I am letting the motor guys handle it.

All in all I am pleased.

I also restored the fine adjustment sleeve lock nut for the feed reverse that you see at bottom right of the last picture. It was stuck and looked as if a pipe wrench was used on it.


I promise more pictures as I progress. Right now the day job, which is out of town, and the rest of the machines i have aquired need moved and set up. Very busy.

So far it is dissasembly, tag and bag, refurbish/restore then store in subassembly boxes. I take a few parts a week with me to work and after hours take care of what is necessary and take home over the weekend and repeat the following week. I am looking forward to just being able to run the fine piece!

Patience.

conant said:

Repairs are pretty much: sight glass replacemant since it is hard to see much through the old plastic

Click to expand...

Are you making your own replacement glass? I removed a cloudy sight glass of mine, and noticed that the glass is proud on the outer perimeter to provide pressure for the gasket.

Kevin

I was going to buy Lexan and make a stand off washer type ring to duplicate what you describe. But a thought just sprung into mind: simply use an appropriate size O-Ring to do the same thing and seal at the same time. HMMMMMMMMMMM??????? I just talked myself into it.

Thanks for asking.

The other thing I am eventualy restoring will be the wipers for the ways. Felt is what mine are with some type of plastic spring/shim on the upper side of the felt.

conant said:

All in all I am pleased.

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You should be, that's a fine looking machine.

That machine will last a long time... and do great work.

conant said:

I was going to buy Lexan and make a stand off washer type ring to duplicate what you describe. But a thought just sprung into mind: simply use an appropriate size O-Ring to do the same thing and seal at the same time. HMMMMMMMMMMM??????? I just talked myself into it.

Thanks for asking.

Click to expand...

I was wondering myself if glass could be used with the extra gasket ring "stacked." It seams like glass would resist staining better than polycarbonate (although not bulletproof). If groove was cut into the glass, a slightly oversized o-ring would be great, and it would be easier to install without sliding.

wetoddid said:

I was wondering myself if glass could be used with the extra gasket ring "stacked." It seams like glass would resist staining better than polycarbonate (although not bulletproof). If groove was cut into the glass, a slightly oversized o-ring would be great, and it would be easier to install without sliding.

Click to expand...

No, I don't think you want to use glass. If you drop something on it, glass will break, even if tempered it will shatter up. It is also harder to work with.

I have the same problem on my Rivett. I'm going to get plastic to replace it, just like the one on it, which is almost impossible to read the thread dial.

These guys are a great resource for plastic.

http://www.tapplastics.com/

To be honest, I haven't called them yet. They do cut to size, and cutting a small circle is something they could do. Might be worth calling to see how much it would cost for a small circle...I think I'll do that tomorrow if I think about it...