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Lathe identification

HWH2008

Plastic
Joined
Jun 13, 2019
This lathe cane up for sale near me however the seller doesn’t have a lot of info, they’ll be up this weekend to provide more. It belonged to his father. I figure someone on here might recognize it? These are the only photos provided, thanks.
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Good call. I’m going to see it in person tomorrow.

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That is an early design- pre 1920 for sure, probably 1915 or earlier. Serial # should be stamped on front face of the front way down at the tailstock end, we know enough serial #'s of these old machines to get sort-of a date. Check quadrant gears, they have lubrication points that were typically ignored so those gears take some wear. All the DP's and sizes are standard, so fairly easy to replace. Spindle bearings will be bronze in a conventional cap design; those will probably need disassembly, cleaning, adjusting. ATW used shims between the headstock and caps to set clearance, brass or cardstock is effective also. The oil galleries around the spindle bearing bushes are fancy, and packed with felt which may need replacing.

Don't know for sure but the telescoping cross feed for the taper attachment was introduced in later designs, so likely the cross-feed nut will have to be disconnected to use it on this machine.

Good to see drip oilers on the machine, they might be the originals...

Check the feed rod for a collar w/ setscrew that locks it to the rod. That is the feed stop feature, it should be located to the left of the carriage. Operator positions it such that when feeding left, the carriage will push it which disengages the feed rod clutch- the feed rod has a spring loaded dog-tooth affair and needs something like 3/16" of a push to release. Its somewhat clumsy to adjust but repeats very well. Getting it close then tweaking the final position of the cutter via the compound was effective if working to a shoulder. I found that getting it set up only pays off much if there are going to be a lot of left-hand feeding ops. Note- when not in use the collar should be well out of the way and locked- there is no interlock between threading w/ leadscrew and the feed stop other than the apron levers not being able to engage threading vs feed simultaneously.

The machine is looking in pretty good shape actually.
 
Thanks for the info Greg. I have attached serial number for the lathe. For some reason the feed on the tool holder section is bound up, also this bolt appears to be broken. I have yet to power it up but have been cleaning and lubing and rotating things manually to check functionality.

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My old 1912 14" was also inspected by "JS" :) my serial # was 352.55 putting your machine somewhere between 1912 and 1915.

The broken bolt is trivial, it is the carriage lock screw which pulls up a hold-down plate onto the underside of the way to bind the carriage. You may have to take the carriage/apron off to get to that stuff but the hold down is a simple piece of plate, drilled and tapped.

Compound screw and slide lubrication is oft neglected, so that whole assembly may be very gummed up. If you can withdraw that taper gib from the compound that might help a lot- but don't force it, that tang can break off if you put a lot of pull from the adjustment screw. Later designs put a couple ball oilers on either side of the compound to assist lubrication of the slides, likewise ignored... but at least on those its easier to get oil into the slide lol

ATW liked to secure parts with taper pins and bolts, eg the leadscrew support- I assume the knuckle-draggers have been in before you so some empty holes like that should have taper pins in them. Gits oilers are easily fit to the empty holes that are intended for lubrication instead ;) IIRC my old 14" had 32 holes needing gits, but it was a gearhead. Link below;

American Tool Works 14" Lathe

I went through it in some detail, so some of the pics might be helpful. Yours looks like its in better condition than mine was, but I did get a lot of productive use out of mine & learned a bunch. It was pretty beaten up though, I later upgraded to a 1936 ATW 12" which is in the shop now- and is in very much better shape.


Greg
 
Greg, thank you for all of the information. I borrowed the rotary phase converter (idler motor, 5hp, high and low voltage, was set up for 460v to run Gorton 9J) to get the lathe running and now I have a couple more questions. The first is should/how do balance the voltage with capacitors? While running with the lathe spinning at 342rpm I get 1-2 255V, 1-3 218V and 2-3 227V. The lathe motor is an old GE 2hp 3phase 1740rpm@full load.
The second part is spindle rpm, I measured the spindle speeds at each of the 4 positions on an old drive-all gear box using a Starrett no. 104 indicator with the back gears engaged and put them in a table attached. I estimated the rpms without the back gear engaged using what I believed was close to a 9:25-1 ratio reduction the back gears provided. I believe there is enough room on the bar stock that holds the motor/gearbox to slide it and utilize the two largest drive cones. What should I stay under for max speed on the bearing setup? Thank you.
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I'd keep the spindle max to 342 or 400, but if the spindle bearing lubrication situation is good <maybe> 620rpm- but thats for small stuff. I'd generally stay off those higher rpm's until you have serviced the spindle bearings; caps off, clean out old felt and dirt, new felt in, adjust clearance and preload.

I run vfd's so don't know too much about the voltages you're seeing but they don't seem too crazy. Might be good to ask on the Transformers/Phase Converters/VFD forum (main page just beneath Antique Machinery)
 
Drive all still produces that transmission. Here is a link. There aren’t to many variations so double check the website against your unit. Web site has the gear ratios.

U0500-0936 - Upright Profile

I have an exact copy of that overhead drive on my workbench right now. The Drive All will go on my Davis Evan mill sometime soon. The bracket and moter mount will be sold off. Of interest to you is my drive and mount came off a similar lathe (that may have also been an American) but the bed was cracked. That lathe is very top heavy and easy to tip over.

That will be a nice machine when you get it going. Have fun.
 








 
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