D. Ravizza
Aluminum
- Joined
- Mar 4, 2005
- Location
- Honesdale, PA
Hi,
I would like to share a few photos of a lathe that I brought home this past Saturday. The lathe was made by Cataract Tool and Optical Co. in Buffalo, NY. I have always liked the style of these old bench lathes. I actually bought this lathe along with a slightly larger Stark Tool Co. lathe.
From what I have learned online, Cataract was bought out by Hardinge which continued very successfully to make Cataract brand lathes. I find this to be quite interesting as I expected this lathe to be a Hardinge before I went to look at it. I would love to learn more about the history of the machine plus get it up and running.
The lathe has a 7" swing and is about 32" inches in length. The spindle takes 3c collets. The spindle nose is tapered but lacks the slot/cam of Hardinge machines. So it seems to be a collet only machine.
The cross slide is a later one made by Hardinge.
I have a few questions and concerns about the lathe. My intention is not to fully restore this lathe but get it clean and operational while keeping its patina.
The tailstock taper does not appear to be a standard Morse taper. The lathe included an early Jacobs chuck, a dead center and a Hardinge brand crotch center all with this odd taper. Does anyone have data on the taper?
The headstock bearings appear to have some play. There is about .002" of radial movement if I shake the spindle. Is this a normal clearance for this type of bearing? Can the bearings be adjusted? I would like to disassemble and thoroughly clean the spindle/bearings before running the lathe. Also, what is a safe maximum RPM for this lathe?
The last difficulty is wear in the base of the tailstock. As I have gathered from reading the forum, this seems to be a common problem with this type of lathe. The vertical wear of the tailstock was surprisingly little about .005" below center. But the wear on the sides is considerable. The tailstock can easily twist side to side. I was able to slide an .011" shim in. I have thought about gluing on brass shims. Or machining out a pocket and screwing in a brass wear strip then scraping it to fit. Not sure that I want to modify the machine that much. Has anyone fixed this problem?
Thanks
Dan
I would like to share a few photos of a lathe that I brought home this past Saturday. The lathe was made by Cataract Tool and Optical Co. in Buffalo, NY. I have always liked the style of these old bench lathes. I actually bought this lathe along with a slightly larger Stark Tool Co. lathe.
From what I have learned online, Cataract was bought out by Hardinge which continued very successfully to make Cataract brand lathes. I find this to be quite interesting as I expected this lathe to be a Hardinge before I went to look at it. I would love to learn more about the history of the machine plus get it up and running.
The lathe has a 7" swing and is about 32" inches in length. The spindle takes 3c collets. The spindle nose is tapered but lacks the slot/cam of Hardinge machines. So it seems to be a collet only machine.
The cross slide is a later one made by Hardinge.
I have a few questions and concerns about the lathe. My intention is not to fully restore this lathe but get it clean and operational while keeping its patina.
The tailstock taper does not appear to be a standard Morse taper. The lathe included an early Jacobs chuck, a dead center and a Hardinge brand crotch center all with this odd taper. Does anyone have data on the taper?
The headstock bearings appear to have some play. There is about .002" of radial movement if I shake the spindle. Is this a normal clearance for this type of bearing? Can the bearings be adjusted? I would like to disassemble and thoroughly clean the spindle/bearings before running the lathe. Also, what is a safe maximum RPM for this lathe?
The last difficulty is wear in the base of the tailstock. As I have gathered from reading the forum, this seems to be a common problem with this type of lathe. The vertical wear of the tailstock was surprisingly little about .005" below center. But the wear on the sides is considerable. The tailstock can easily twist side to side. I was able to slide an .011" shim in. I have thought about gluing on brass shims. Or machining out a pocket and screwing in a brass wear strip then scraping it to fit. Not sure that I want to modify the machine that much. Has anyone fixed this problem?
Thanks
Dan