Proud new owner

rex21 · Aug 12, 2012

Two weeks ago I picked up a 9" from a lady at work. It was purchased by her father, and apparently never used by him. It was owned by Metro Transit at one time. The serial number dates it to 1950. There is some considerable wear on the ways, half nuts and cross slide, but for $75 I can't really complain.

In the last two weeks I have not sat down much, I worked, slept and was in the garage working on this. Made a serpentine belt two nights ago but it was too short so I made another yesterday morning. Broke that in the afternoon. Being out of belts, I laced together one of the broken ones with 40# fishing line. It is still working like a champ, but who knows for how long.
Made its first part last night, making a 60 degree center so I could adjust the tailstock. Everything is now adjusted in spec that can be except for the worn parts mentioned above. I am a happy camper today.

Thanks for all the useful info on this site. It was a great resource during this restoration.

rsturgis · Aug 12, 2012

...............wow, incredible transformation.

sunworksco · Aug 12, 2012

Great restoration .
Very inspiring .

kitno455 · Aug 12, 2012

looks good. you want a bull gear cover? I've got one you can have for the price of shipping.

allan

rex21 · Aug 12, 2012

kitno455 said:
looks good. you want a bull gear cover? I've got one you can have for the price of shipping.

allan

Absolutely! Thank you very much, I will PM you. It is missing some pieces, as you can see, but I ran out of fun coupons so I can't buy replacement parts.

RedhillWorkz · Aug 13, 2012

$75 was a deal!!!

Gary Bauer · Aug 13, 2012

Not only was that a smokin' deal but you really smoked the midnight oil refinishing that SB in only 2 weeks !!!

Congrats.
Gary in AZ

rex21 · Aug 15, 2012

Thanks for the compliments. $75 was a smokin' deal, but it was in pretty rough shape. The whole thing was covered in paint that looked like they poured it on. It also had no tooling, except a lantern toolpost with one right hand tool holder. No change gears, no steady rest.

It was actually running in 11 days. Took it completely apart, including the motor. Stripped all paint,wire wheeled everything, sprayed two coats of primer and two coats of paint. While I was doing that, felts and wicks were on their way.

The pinion for the three jaw chuck was rounded out and the key was ground to kinda sorta fit. I had a toolroom guy at work EDM it to 5/16 square.
The jaws were not in good shape either, so I ground them with a toolpost mounted dremel. Sounds bad, but now I only have about 1.5 thousandths runout. It works pretty good now.

I only had one screw left over when I was done!

kitno455 · Aug 15, 2012

Bull gear cover went out this morning. Hopefully in your hands by the weekend.

allan

iwananew10K · Aug 15, 2012

i have a end gear cover and clamp/hinge- same deal, shipping.

nice job!

rex21 · Aug 21, 2012

kitno455 said:
Bull gear cover went out this morning. Hopefully in your hands by the weekend.

allan

Thanks again kitno455. It did show by the weekend, is painted and in its new home. It looks great, even though I couldn't wait for the paint to dry and scratched it.

cuseguy · Aug 22, 2012

Nice work, amazing turnaround. I can only hope to get there soon!

bradjacob · Aug 22, 2012

Ok, now lets talk about that belt. If you want a serpentine belt, why make one when you can just buy one? That spindle comes out easier than you think. Anyone here can walk you through it. This way your belt is solid and youll never wonder/worry about it.

rex21 · Aug 22, 2012

bradjacob said:
Ok, now lets talk about that belt. If you want a serpentine belt, why make one when you can just buy one? That spindle comes out easier than you think. Anyone here can walk you through it. This way your belt is solid and youll never wonder/worry about it.

I have had every piece of the lathe apart already. I thought about getting a new belt before reassembly, but did not know how far apart the mounting holes would be to get the right length belt. That, and my brother got me free used belts from the salvage yard.

My Dad was over last week and said they have a belt lacing fixture at work. I gave him 2 belts cut to length, and he just dropped them off last night. So far, one of them runs true and quiet. Only time will tell if the lacing holds up, or if it will pull through the rubber belt.

paulsomlo · Aug 22, 2012

I bought a belt from this guy a few months ago flatdrivebelts, so far so good. It's the grippiest belt I've seen yet, far stickier than a serpentine automotive, available in either lace or glue up. Definitely no slipping.

Paul

rex21 · Aug 22, 2012

I actually just found that site last night. Did you get the black poly nitrile belt? Is it laced?

paulsomlo · Aug 22, 2012

Yes, I got the black poly. I got the glued version. The ends come prepared (skived), glue is included. The glue comes in two parts, in premeasured vials. You mix them together, put one coat on both sides, let it dry, then put the other coat on and put the belt together. The glue, however, was fairly thick for the first coat, then got much thicker by the 2nd coat, to the point of being unspreadable. The seller said something about needing to cut back on the "activator". So, if you order the glued version, ask about this. The joint has held for me, I've got maybe an hour or two on it. The belt is about 0.8" wide, very grippy.

rex21 · Aug 25, 2012

iwananew10K said:
i have a end gear cover and clamp/hinge- same deal, shipping.

nice job!

Received the cover and hinge, thank you again!

On a bad note though, the smoke came out of my motor the other night. I was too slow to catch any of it. Now the motor will not start itself, I have to pull start it. I think the starter windings are shot, but the run winding is still good.

So my question for you guys is, how important is it to have a reversing motor? Do you use reverse enough on a lathe to make it worth the extra cost?
I am going to check into having this one repaired, but am weighing my options right now since I can't buy one or have it fixed at the moment anyway.

440roadrunner · Aug 25, 2012

The before/ after is flat amazing. Nice work!!

paulsomlo · Aug 26, 2012

Could be that the starter capacitor needs replacing. It's that big lump on the side of the motor, has a metal cover over it. Remove the cover, if you see debris, oil leaking, then just replace the cap, maybe $6.00. As far as new motors, any old thing out of a washing machine should do, standard junkyard fare, easy to come by. Reverse is nice to have when you're wanting to make coarse threads close to a shoulder, but you can live without it. With a threaded spindle, some tend to shy away from turning in reverse for fear of the chuck unspinning - light cuts and slow speeds are necessary.

Proud new owner

Plastic

Aluminum

Aluminum

Titanium

Plastic

Plastic

Aluminum

Plastic

Titanium

Diamond

Plastic

Aluminum

Titanium

Plastic

Stainless

Plastic

Stainless

Plastic

Hot Rolled

Stainless

Similar threads