1915 hendy tie bar lathe

I'm stumped. 3 years ago I pulled apart my locked up hendy to fix the broken oil ring on the big end, and shim the spindle. It took a porta power to get the spindle out, and going back together, I'm getting stuck at 4" out. I wasn't going to force it, so I walked away in 2017 and got caught in nother projects.

Took a fresh look at it and I'm still stumped on reassembly. I took pictures, wrote notes, lost no pieces. But still the spindle won't slide home. And yes, all the keys are lined up.

The bed of the lathe is in fine shape. I'm considering building a new drive end with tapered roller bearings in a welded support carrying the original spindle. People make lathes from scratch on YouTube. Why not bring this lathe back with a modern twist? Thoughts?

I've yet to pull the spindle on my gear-head Hendey, but from what I've seen, it shouldn't be that hard to put back together. Do you have the oil rings pulled up? Can you look down the bearings with the spindle out and see any obstructions? IMO you're much better off fixing what you have than trying to retrofit it.

Keyways in spindle and bull gear perfectly aligned?

I inherited one of those "improved" Hendeys.

Turned out the well meaning party just put in over the counter cheap"truck part" Timkens - which have about ten times the assembled run out that a class zero precision Timken has

So he had a spindle that turns just fine, but will never get anything very ROUND

If you are thinking your effort will make an improved Hendey, you need to learn about precision class bearings and budget for them

johnoder said:

Keyways in spindle and bull gear perfectly aligned?

I inherited one of those "improved" Hendeys.

Turned out the well meaning party just put in over the counter cheap"truck part" Timkens - which have about ten times the assembled run out that a class zero precision Timken has

So he had a spindle that turns just fine, but will never get anything very ROUND

If you are thinking your effort will make an improved Hendey, you need to learn about precision class bearings and budget for them

Click to expand...

Well, it's scrap if I don't get it back together. And if I was going to install something made out of 1" plate, I would go with bearings that would make the project worthwhile.

The oil rings are glued up out of the way with heavy grease, and what I'm fighting is the same resistance I needed a porta power for during disassembly. Spitballing here, really. Because after coming back and looking at it every few months for the last 3 years, she really is running out of time. It won't take much for me to finally decide to haul it to scrap if I can't get this spindle to slide home.

Shame, really, the rest of it's in pretty good shape.

I have sent you a private message...

Thanks- David

Can you confirm if it's dragging on the cone pulley or the bearings? In other words, If you can slip each individual piece into place by itself, then it's just a matter of lining things up when you put it all together. The shoulders on the spindle could have raised a burr on one or two parts during your initial assembly.

Doing similar assemblies, I've found it helps to lay the pieces out with a tape measure and see which bores will line up with which shoulders in which order, then when you start sliding the shaft/spindle into place, you can focus on moving the individual pieces rather than just trying to push the shaft through all the holes at once.

That's a wrap. I'm cutting the old girl loose. Pretty much lost interest, as the projects I need a lathe for are backing up.

She's not going to scrap, I'm announcing that I will try to find her next caretaker. I will not deliver. Message me if interested.

I am prepared to take a loss.