Thread: Katou's Hendey 16x54 Lathe Restoration

John,
Refering to my last post, oops! never thought of that. Thanks for the correction.
Joe

Are these available anywhere? I have a project that needs multi-start threads about 0.5 tpi.

Any ideas where to look? Anyone have good pictures of one?

Thanks for the reference to the Hendey Emergency thread, that was some good solid troubleshooting!

Katou

Anyone have good pictures of one?

Manual scan linked in post #3 has a picture of one on page fifty-two

Thanks for the reference to the Hendey Emergency thread, that was some good solid troubleshooting!

It wasn't provided for the trouble shooting - it was provided to you for the Hendey threading system information in post #17.

I found that information invaluable. I was commenting on the context of the discussion: troubleshooting the engagement of the interlocks. I liked how the OP puzzled it through and we got to see the thought process.

Thanks for the reference.

Minor update, I won't take receipt of the lathe for about 2 weeks, I need to arrange things in my shop and see about finding a forklift to ease unloading. The seller is allowing me to do some of the worst cleaning at his shop. I'll probably take a day to get the worst off before loading the trailer.

Slow and steady.

Katou

I have just come across another Hendey, a 20x48. I have not visited to ascertain the condition, although it's history sounds good, and it looks clean from the picture. I will attach the picture as soon as I get home tomorrow.

Model =Hendey S/N 54-90003 This may be incorrect, the seller is not very knowledgeable.

The 16x54 this thread concerns is pretty much a done deal, but I could still back out if I wanted to. The only difference between these two as far as I can determine, is the swing/bed length, and the 20x48 doesn't have a 4-jaw chuck with it.

It is about 4 hours drive away, is it worth the extra effort for that extra 4" swing? The price is not currently appealing. I'm trying to decide if I should bother with it, or just sit pretty with the deal I have.

Opinions?

Katou

The 16 X 54 12 speed weighed about 5235 with taper, less motor. It goes from 14 to 478 RPM

The 20 X 48 12 speed weighed about 8100 less motor and taper. It goes from 14 to 560 RPM

Just depends on how much iron you want to deal with assuming both are in similar condition and equipment

I sort of think the 20 will have a bigger spindle nose, L2 or D1-8".

The serial posted is not a Hendey serial, all of which (for the 12 speed geared head) will be a plain five digit number untill the hard ways came out much later.

Wow. 4 tons vs 2.5 tons. Good point John, I had not considered the weight as a major factor in the decision.

Hmm, and how would you decide if I said I could handle that amount of weight?

TIA,

Katou

I got a chance to clean it up with some Varsol and a large number of rags. I could only do a once-over on it, so the rags were awful dirty by the end. That's okay because I just wanted to do the worst while it was in the sellers shop! He has a big operation and a little mess for him is no big deal.

Here is the operator's side before:


And After!


Here's an overall look at the old girl prior to cleaning


And after cleaning:


Who knew there was actually green paint under there? I thought that the grey colour was primer showing through. Nope, just years of metal dust and oil.

I take receipt of the lathe on Friday.

I decided to skip the larger version in Ottawa, it's a 20 which is pretty heavy to be hauling back here, especially since it's not like the owner is giving it away. He apparently only has the 3 jaw, and in that swing, with the threaded mount, I think it would be difficult to find chucks to use on that lathe. This is plenty for me. I have the chucks for the 14" lathe, and they are plenty big for me to be swapping out solo. I don't think I'd want to be schlepping anything bigger! As it is, I think I may set up a sling or something to mount the big 12" 4-jaw chuck.

Thanks to all following along.

I really need to source some 1" tooling for this thing. Most of my tooling at work is smaller than that. Maybe a quickchange Aloris style is in the cards? I could afford an import knockoff...

Katou

If you’r not sure between the 16 inch and 20 inch I would recommend buying both now. You can always pick up a 12 inch later to round them out. Earl

You know, I hadn't thought about that. I could have a complete set! Alas, the larger one is 48 between centers, and my 14 is 60 between centers. They won't match. Sigh. I'll just have to soldier on as best I can with this one. Thanks for the encouragement and the wicked idea Earl!

Katou

The lathe is here in my laneway. Now I just have to remove the rear wall of my shop, disassemble my fence, and slide it in. Sounds so easy.

I have a few mates coming by to help out, probably have some new pics tomorrow or Saturday.

Katou

To find a Hendey 4C in excellent shape is one of my pipe dreams!!!

I've got some pics of my cleaning and the move, but I have a more pressing question:

Which parts should I take off to aid in cleaning vs which to leave?

I'm thinking the tool tray over the thread gears could come off pretty easily, but taking the apron off probably not.

I also notice that I have 23 oilers with little flip-top lids at last count, and I keep finding more. Are they original? If not, that sort of makes me think that the apron oil pump isn't doing it's job maybe.

Thanks,

Katou

]Here is the old girl getting hooked up to the forklift. Surprisingly, it was a quite small forklift, but it picked it up just fine.



We had to put it on the edge of the trailer because the forks were too small to get it to the center, then push it. Would have worked great too, except I bolted the timbers together and left the nuts standing proud on the bottom. They snagged the wood of the trailer bed. Ooops.



Here is the truck that picked it up off the trailer and put it down. Best $70 I've spent in a long while!



Here it is just getting down to the ground. The operator had to sling it about 6 different ways in order to find one that would lift it even slightly level.



Then, all we had to do was remove the fence, cut out the back wall of my shop, and slide it sideways about 6 ft. It actually wasn't nearly has hair-raising as it sounds. Getting it off the truck was far more worrisome.

Next update, more cleaning with the best tools money can buy - at the Dollar store anyway.

Katou

I've only had an hour or two these last few days, here are the results:

This is the apron before any cleaning, as I purchased it.







Here are the supplies, all from the dollar store, with the exception of the long white brushes, they are from an appliance store, used for fishing crud out of drains (little one, 1/2") and for cleaning the lint trap in a dryer (big one 1") and were about $7 each. I know that they will be very useful. A couple of 2-4" paintbrushes are also coming in handy. I cut them to 1" bristle length, and at that length, they are quite stiff and very good for little nooks and holding the mineral spirits.



I'm using mineral spirits and various brushes, toothbrushes and rags. I have a brass bristle brush, but I don't use it on any painted components, the paint is old enough that the brush visibly removes the paint even with a gentle scrub. So, only plastic bristle brushes. In fact, the brass bristle brush will even scratch the steel where it's been bright-polished, like the crossfeed dial.

Here is the apron after about a 1.5 hrs of cleaning:



Oddly, the biggest difference I see before an after is that the paint is much brighter green! This cleaning is mostly "appearance" focused. I don't know enough about the lathe and how it goes together to start taking anything apart for more "mechanical" cleaning. I'm finding that I'm learning a ton about the lathe as I go. I'm uncovering oiling spots that were grimed over, and gaining a much better understanding about how all the parts connect/operate.

I'm a bit unsure about how far it is worthwhile to go regarding disassembly of parts for cleaning. The lathe did operate before I bought it, so it's not like some that were found outside in the weather. Right now all I'm taking apart are little things like bolts/nuts that can be cleaned and replaced the same night. I have a nightmare where I take something apart to clean it, and then can't get it back together because something was a "snap fit" but I can't remember what.

I've read many other restoration threads, but they're mostly focused on "how" they did it, rather than discussing how they decided "what" to take apart/clean.

My plan so far is to do a good once-over and get it back to bright green all over, then get it running and decide what to do at that point.

Katou

You can get a re print of the 84 page manual (item #5 on this link page) for a small fee. Well worth it. Plenty of information and diagrams. I have a machine much like yours, and I have had many hours of enjoyment using it. Very accurate plenty of power. Make that RC unit and enjoy the smoothness this machine can deal out. They are a reasonably quiet machine so when you find your problem it will pay off.

Torrington Historical Society

A side thought, once you have 3 phase power in your shop you can't tell what other machinery will wonder in.

(gm: fixed url)

Note above an example of an edited post that had a link. The text added under the link has become part of the link.

Okay, sorry for the Kludge-fest, I was heading off for a family vacation, and it was this, or wait 3 weeks to see what I've been up to. Can't keep people waiting!

I have begun disassembling things, for what purpose I'm not yet sure. I think I'm doing it because I don't have enough experience to know what ACTUALLY needs doing. I am not sure where performance-robbing crud is hiding out, so I need to look all over. I have already gotten the cross and long moving about 2x easier, just adding oil and a little cleaning. The other reason is that this lathe has been described by others as one of the top 2-3 best lathes in the world for it's time, embodying design thinking very much worth understanding.

I guess I'm also doing it because it does everything entirely mechanically. No easy shortcuts using microswitches for instance. Every lathe made today uses these solutions. That makes the Hendey special and worthy of study.

So, here is the beginning. Removal of 4-position tool post.

After Cleaning 1



Clamp handle and tool clamping block removed.



It took a bit to get this next part free. Turns out that post is left hand thread into the block in the compound T slot! I have a machinist friend who helped me figure that out, mostly from the fact that there are "ramps" that keep the toolpost from rotating in one direction. Also had to use the 5/8" bar there, I bent two 1/2" rods without budging it - in either direction.



Ahh, there we go. These parts are laid out in order of assembly. Before this picture was taken, I cleaned everything up, some coolant had gotten in there and rusted things up a bit. No pitting, just discolouration (dig that Canajun spelling eh?)



This last one I could use some help with. Is the compound handle original? I see a similar handle on some Hendey's out there, but it's also got some welding where the compound handle mounting plate meets the collar, something I have not seen anywhere else on the lathe. It works, but it is such a ham-handed crude fix I am certain it is not original. One of the pins on the handle was broken off at some time as well.



I will do the next one in a few days,

Katou


Ps, the varsol I'm using for cleaning settles all the crap out in the few days between cleaning seasions. When I use it the next time, providing I don't get too close to the bottom, it's almost as clean as virgin. Credit to Forrest Addy!