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Leblonde Lathe

DSM8

Aluminum
Joined
May 22, 2018
I am picking up a new to me lathe this weekend, getting it from someone that has had it since possible before I was born.
It comes with an absolute TON of tooling etc which make passing it up a non-option and in a sense my taking it keeps it in the family for at least another 40 years (I got started machining at an older age lol).

I will have the serial number this weekend when I pick it up but in the mean time I have been unable to find a single picture that is similar to what this one looks like.

since upload wont work here is a link to the picture I took.

https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/LeBlond-Lathe/i-Fx5gm5v/0/0839fd55/XL/IMG_5886_heic-XL.jpg
 
Thank you for the details, will definitely post up when I get more details and the serial number and info from LeBlonde
 
So bit of a followup question what is the best thing to use to clean up this lathe, it is mostly dirt from sitting, there is no rust on any of the key ways just an old tacky film almost like cosmoline for long term storage.

I dont want to use a water based cleaner like simple green or such on it.
 
When you want to clean the lathe, use something like kerosene or mineral spirits and clean rags. Make sure you are working either outdoors (prior to bringing the lathe into your shop) or else make sure to have good ventilation with a positive air flow (opened windows, fans, etc). Personal protective gear is a must, something like neoprene or nitrile gloves which won't dissolve in mineral spirits or kerosene, eye protection, and make sure the air is moving from you towards the lathe so you do not inhale lungfuls of solvent vapors.

A little steel wool or "Scotchbrite" pads soaked in mineral spirits or kerosene will do wonders for the handles, handwheels, and micrometer collars. Do not use Scotchbrite pads on the bedways or any other machined surfaces. Scraping off the cosmoline (or "Rust Veto"- another popular preservative) with single-edge razor blades carefully wielded so as not to scratch or dig into the machined surfaces is one option, using a piece of brass shim stock or a piece of plastic (such as "Lexan" or acrylic) filed to a nice sharp edge is a safer bet for scraping preservative off machined surfaces.

When you have the lathe fully cleaned, I'd drain the headstock of any old oil. Then, I would recommend flushing the headstock by filling with kerosene or diesel fuel and running the lathe under power at low speeds for a few minutes. Do not forget to oil the headstock spindle bearings- this is a "plain bearing lathe" (bronze bearings), and I do not know if the headstock gearing slings oil up to the bearings once the lathe is running. I'd use an ISO 46 oil (about a 20 weight), non detergent, no additives. Tractor Hydraulic Oil is what I use in my own machine tools for well over 30 years. Tractor Hydraulic Oil is an ISO 46 oil known as a "DTE" (Dynamo, Turbine,Engine) oil, a designation that predates the automobile and is still used for industrial and powerplant lube oils.

After you run the lathe for a few minutes with the kerosene or diesel fuel in the headstock, drain it out. Open the headstock by removing the top cover. Inspect the internals for any pre-existing damage, and feel around the bottom of the headstock housing for any shrapnel or metal particulate. I go fishing with a mechanic's magnet on an extendable wand for this sort of thing. Word of caution: disconnect the power to the lathe when you are opening and inside the headstock. One bump of the reversing switch, if the power is connected, and your hands go thru the meat grinder. Open the circuit breaker that feeds the lathe at the service panel if no other means of disconnecting the power exists once you install the lathe. When you have the headstock nice and clean inside, replace the cover. A silicon 'gasket eliminator' applied in neat beads is fine. Refill the headstock with ISO 46 oil and it should be ready to go.

I'd flush the apron with kerosene or diesel fuel as well. The apron will have a plunger pump that pumps oil up to the various points like the saddle to lube the ways, cross slide, and other mechanism parts in the apron. There is a small pipe plug on the underside of the apron to drain the apron. Fill with kerosene and start working the plunger pump to flush the oil drillings. You should eventually see kerosene on the bedways after working the plunger pump for a few dozen pushes.

Drain the kerosene and refill the apron with a light way lube, or you can use the same ISO 46 oil. I use "Husqvarna Bar and Chain Oil" as it is what is locally available, I have it for my own chainsaw, and it is a light way lube.

Flush the quick change gearbox thru with kerosene as well, just pouring it into the oiling points where you swing away the top cover (there will be an instruction on the top cover saying to 'oil with the lever in this position' with an arrow).

As you clean your lathe, identify all the oiling points. Flushing the smaller ones thru using automotive brake parts cleaner (in spray cans with a thin 'straw' or 'wand') is what I do, inserting the wand in the oil holes.

A surface cleaning of the lathe is one thing, but the working parts in the headstock, quick change gearbox, apron, etc all bear some cleaning and flushing before the lathe is put into operation.
 
Thank you for the detailed run through.

Soon as it gets home this weekend will order a manual so I can service it properly, thank you for the detailed insight in how to best get it ready for use. I know it has been sitting since I believe the late 80's. First thing I am going to do is rewire the power etc. Those wires are older than I am.
It is wired for 220 single phase. I will be using a plug instead of hard wiring it so I can be moved if needed by simply unplugging it.

It will be wired into a 50 amp circuit which should be more than enough for this machine.
 
If you intend to use anything using on 120VAC on the lathe like a work light get a 4 wire Twist lock plug and socket. It will have a pin in the center of the 3 blades so you can have ground and neutral. Don't use ground with one side of the 220VAC (240VAC) for 120VAC, never use the ground wire for anything current carrying! Then use the Ground to connect to the machine to prevent shock.
 
The lathe came with a worklight it has it's own power cord.
I am going to have to rewire the whole thing since what is there been on the lathe since th 40's juding by the look of it.
What I can not figure out despite reading a manual (the real one is on the way) is how to get the feed screw to engage so when I spin the motor by hand it will rotate.
 
DMS8:

The "feed screw" you refer to is known as the Lead Screw. It is only engaged during thread cutting operations. I have no firsthand experience with the "lumphead" series Regal lathes, only the subsequent "Roundhead" series. However, much of the design features on the lumphead Regal lathes was carried over to the subsequent Roundhead series. With that in mind, here is what you may find:

Look at your lathe's quick change gearbox (for selecting feeds & threads). To the immediate right of that quick change box, you should see a cover. From this cover, the feed rod and the lead screw project and run to the tailstock end of the bed. If you look at the leadscrew, you should see a 'collar' with a flange. This collar
'pulls out' to your right. You put your fingers in the groove of the collar, and with fairly light pressure, it should pull out to the right. This collar is actually the hub of a sliding pinion gear located under the cover between the collar and the quick change gearbox. The pinion gear is keyed to the lead screw and slides along it. By pulling to the right, you engage that pinion with a pinion gear on the feed shaft. You may have to move the spindle and gear train slightly to get things to mesh, which is why LeBlond put handwheels on the headstock drive shafts of these lathes.

Another place to look is up on the headstock proper. On the roundhead Regal lathes, there are two levers which control the threads/feeds:

-Feed Compound Lever: this will have a "fine" and "coarse" position.

-Feed Reverse Lever: this will have three (3) positions: Left (feeding away from the headstock when lathe spindle is rotating in normal direction.)
Center (neutral, gearing to the quick change box is disengaged, so no feeds or threading)
Right (feeding towards the headstock when lathe spindle is rotating in normal direction).

If the feed shaft is turning when you are running the lathe, then look at that sliding gear. It is normally left disengaged for most lathe operations. The only time the lead screw should be engaged is for threading operations.
 
That was it, could not figure that out to save my life, thank you very much.
Cant wait to get the actual manual and original bill of sale from 1936 for this thing.

IMG_5953_heic-XL.jpg

IMG_5954_heic-XL.jpg
 
I'm not familiar with the lathe you have but I would turn the spindle to see if the feed/lead screw turns. If you turn the motor shaft and the spindle doesn't turn nothing else will.
 
I had posted a reply but dont see it for some reason. The collett he referred me to was the ticket, I am able to get the lead screw to engage and disengage. I even posted pictures. So dunno whats happening to my replies
 
I took a look at Tony Griffiths' "machine tool archive site" since I do not have familiarity with the "lumphead" Regal lathes. What I learned was that:

-LeBlond did use the same sliding pinion to engage/disengage the lead screw as they used on the subsequent "Roundhead" Regal lathes. This is what I had stated in my first post.

-LeBlond used an external set of gears to determine direction of feed & to transmit power from the spindle to the quick change box. This is a set of gears on a sector
plate with a handlever and "squeezer" to work the detent. It is the basic style of gearing used on many older lathes. I stand corrected as I had the idea LeBlond used the design of headstock having the feed compound lever and feed reverse lever working gearing inside the headstock as they used on the later Roundhead Regal lathes. The arrangment on DSM8's lathe is much simpler and the gear train between spindle and quick change box is all in the open.

This type of feed reverse lever will have (3) positions: travel towards the headstock, neutral (disengaged), travel towards the tailstock.

The gear train which transmits power from the spindle to the quick change box is all open gearing, so can be readily inspected. If the feed rod is turning, and the lead screw is not, then the sliding pinion is disengaged. If neither the feed rod nor the lead screw turn when the spindle is turning, check the quadrant lever to make sure the gear train between spindle and quick change box is engaged. If this is the case, check the lever on the underside of the quick change box. This lever swings horizontally and has three (3) positions: Left, Middle, Right. It is quite easy to catch this lever between engaged positions, in which case, neither the feed shaft nor the lead screw will turn. Check this lever to be sure it is in a position where the gearing is engaged.
 
For cleaning the machine while it is together diesel/kerosene as mentioned above works well. If you start tearing it down for cleaning, I have found that a bucket of the purple stuff works wonders for stripping old grime on parts, 5 minute soak then a few minutes with a brush and rinse with hot water, quick blast with compressed air. If you are trying to save paint, squirt with the purple, quick scrub and rinse, good paint will survive that, cheap/bad paint won't.
 
For cleaning the machine while it is together diesel/kerosene as mentioned above works well. If you start tearing it down for cleaning, I have found that a bucket of the purple stuff works wonders for stripping old grime on parts, 5 minute soak then a few minutes with a brush and rinse with hot water, quick blast with compressed air. If you are trying to save paint, squirt with the purple, quick scrub and rinse, good paint will survive that, cheap/bad paint won't.

So far there is no appreciable wear on this machine so I am not going to blow it apart, but I am cleaning it in place.
Looks like paint is original but in one area the paint came off with the grease when I wiped it down so looks like it is thin in some areas.
Since it is now bare metal will look for some matching Rust Oleum brush on paint for that area in grey to try and match whats already there.
 
So far there is no appreciable wear on this machine so I am not going to blow it apart, but I am cleaning it in place.

Yeah, I said that about a machine a few weeks ago, started wiping, decided if I remove this piece I can clean under there, as long as that is out of way removing this piece lets me clean more, hour or two later the whole thing was in pieces:)
 
Next step is to get the wiring schematic so I can rewire the plug whats on there not is absolutely scary (held together with wire nuts and bare copper showing thru the sheathing. Wiring is not my strong suit so might have to farm this step out to a professional.
Anyone local to San Diego interested in a quick weekend job, I can pay with beer or $$
LOL

IMG_5901_heic-XL.jpg
 
Judging by pics, I would be tearing that machine down for a thorough cleaning. I would recommend pulling and disassembling tailstock and carriage assembly for a thorough cleaning at the very least. I find cleaning the lead screw is easier off the machine too.

Wiring the plug should not be that difficult, if 3 phase there are 4 wires, the green is ground, other 3 are hot, if rotation direction ends up incorrect swap any 2 of the hot wires. If using an rpc you do need to make sure the manufactured leg does not feed contactor coils. Show us a pic of what you have.
 








 
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