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Hendey 14x6

riftware

Aluminum
Joined
Dec 14, 2020
Good morning,
I was pointed to this site by a couple groups I'm in on Facebook. I picked up machining as a hobby a couple years ago as an outgrowth of mentoring a high school robotics team. I just picked up a Hendey 14x6 Lathe that seems to actually work pretty well so far and just want to learn more about it. (my other lather is a modern grizzly benchtop so this is a whole new class of Heavy metal for me). Things I know:
Hendey 14x6
Serial # 15297
It has a Rebuilt tag on it by "W.B. Knight Machinery, St. Louis Missouri"
I'd love to know an approximate year based on the serial number and any other advice folks have for maintaining or things to check on before I do anything serious with this. I'm looking forward to playing with it but don't want to screw something up in my ignorance. I don't know what I don't know :)
20201212_154701.jpg
 
Just about anything you want to know about this machine is available in the archives. Use the Search function at the top of the page. A very common failure mode for these machines is that the tapered bearing in the spindle binds due to wear in a thrust washer in the axial direction. The fix is a shim, the sizing of which is well documented in the archives. One such thread is:

Hendey conehead spindle thrust problem

Mark
 
reading these forums is enlightening... I found another post hendeyman answered with a serial number within a 100 of mine that was built last week of Jan 1914 so I'm guessing mine was also early 1914 😁
 
Got it off the trailer - that was a bit nerve wracking - I have an engine crane but its too short to lift off the trailer - my mother who passed away had ms and had the equivalent of a gantry used for lifting her from her bed to her wheelchair. I bolted a harbor freight electric winch to the top and managed to levitate it an inch off the trailer and quickly drove out from under it. My son immediately lowered it straight to the ground. We were definitely exceeding the weight limit for the setup but it worked! 20201213_221448.jpg
 
Happy to hear you got it unloaded without incident. However, you do realize that you have left yourself WIDE open for "your moma" jokes here.:scratchchin: Anyways, do keep us posted on your progress on the lathe.:cool: I have it's earlier edition, a 1903 12x5.
 
riftware:

Very little information regarding your lathe has remained in the files.

Hendey lathe No. 15297, a 14 x 6 Cone Head model, was one of two identical lathes completed during the third week of April 1914. The
other lathe was No. 15296. The original owner was the Century Electric Company, no city or state was listed, but I believe that Century
Electric was located in St. Louis, Missouri. The Serial Numbers for these lathes would indicate that they still have the old style
Single Walled Apron. There are no longer any Patterns, Castings or Repair Parts left in inventory for these lathes, but all of the original drawings are still in the files, so parts can be made if required. The 1920 Operator's Manual listed on this Forum should give
you all of the basic information you will need to get started using your lathe.

Hendeyman
 
Thank you so much... I love knowing any of the history available

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I've decided I'm going to degunk and clean up the old girl plus give her a paint job. I'm watching every video I can find on these to try and see what I should be looking for when I take it apart.... still not sure how far I'll take it apart aside from removing the apron headstock and motor to facilitate cleaning painting. so far as a very cursory look at it's concerned it actually seems functional currently. all the examples I've seen refer to a double walled apron but hendeyman said mine is likely single walled based on serial number what is the significance of that? does it mean I won't have an oil pump and the gears are exposed?

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As far as I know, even the double-walled apron didn't have any oil pump (at least till the '20s). The improvement of a double walled apron is that it provides an outboard support for all the shafts, reducing the stress and the wear and increasing the rigidity. The gearing is also different between single and double walled apron.
I haven't seen the Hendey single-walled apron myself, but I believe it still provides a sort of oil sump at the bottom. This can be easily checked by looking underneath: do you see exposed gears, or a continuation of the casting?

Paolo
 
No oil bath in the apron except for the one you make when you oil it. Also, do make sure your ring oilers on the spindle are free and working. Mine were stuck in the gunk in the oil wells. I used a hot water pressure washer and fired water at every possible angle through the filler, oil level, and drain orifices and they freed right up along with 117 years of petrified petroleum.
 
I like the pressure washer idea but I recall Hendeyman posting in another thread something about some of the oil fills having felt in them to control the rate oils goes through... I wonder if that was only in the headstock though. I'll be taking the apron off and I'll clean it up at that point when I can hopefully see side effects better

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Think that only applies to gearhead Hendeys. There are no felts in our conehead lathes. Do you have or know somebody that has a hot water machine? Cold water won't do dick. [When I was done with mine, you could not hold your hand on the headstock casting for long.]
 
I wonder if squirting engine degreaser through the oil ports, letting it sit and foam for 20 min or so and then flushing with water chased by the proper oil in excess would clean out any gunk?

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No harm in trying but I wouldn't get my hopes up too much. After doing this stick a wire with a small bend near the end up the drain tubes. Twist it around a couple of times and pull it out. If you have any gunk attached the degreaser wasn't up to the task.
 
Just out of curiousity - how interchangeable are the parts on these old lathes? For instance my single walled apron was one of the last ones produced on a 14" conehead according to some other posts by Hendeyman. I don't have a need to do it now but if I had the opportunity would picking up a 1914 - 1920 double walled apron make sense? Also things like Taper attachments....I've seen parts on ebay for 12x Hendey's but 14x is much rarer. I'm curious if they are essentially the same thing just a different offset from the bed to the spindle?
 
I''d assume nothing interchanges - especially from the next size up or down. There was nothing cheap about this high class maker - like trying to make do with wrong size T/A parts

Hendeyman could comment on such I bet

Just out of curiousity - how interchangeable are the parts on these old lathes? For instance my single walled apron was one of the last ones produced on a 14" conehead according to some other posts by Hendeyman. I don't have a need to do it now but if I had the opportunity would picking up a 1914 - 1920 double walled apron make sense? Also things like Taper attachments....I've seen parts on ebay for 12x Hendey's but 14x is much rarer. I'm curious if they are essentially the same thing just a different offset from the bed to the spindle?
 
As part of my cleanout I've started working the various smaller pieces through the parts washer. One of the pieces is the shifter gear - I'm trying to discern the correct way to pull the gear out of it - attached are pics of both sides ...it almost looks like there is a spot to pry the endcaps off but I wanted to ask just in case.
20210118_195231.jpg
20210118_195220.jpg
 
Nope. Shaft is lightly pressed into the gear and just drives out one way or the other. Mine was peened in place at both ends:ack2:, I fixed it so the shaft once again turns WITH the gear. Unless it is severely worn, no reason to take it apart, nothing to see there anyhow.
 








 
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