Old lathe help

The last time I was fortunate to have access to a lathe was in high school metal shop. And have always wanted one because I like many others enjoy tinkering and building things.

My uncle just gave me a lathe that is God knows how old. And I cant find any identifying marks on it.

Today I picked up some v pulleys and belts, got her spinning and tried to work some brass.

The chuck, is cracked and keeps loosening up mid run the place where I think a key would go is missing

Also the body that holds the output side onto the bed jumps a good 1/8-1/4 of jitters under load, I believe this is from the slop of the worn down cam on the lever that adjusts the headstock position in the bed.

Can someone help me identify this lathe so I can source a replacement chuck?

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If I had to guess, it might be an ADEPT, based on the look of the headstock. The feet of the bed look like the bigger ADEPTs (Turner-Hansen ??) If the chuck unscrews and you can measure the thread is might be easy to find a replacement or fit one to the mount.

Does anyone think it's a catarcat lathe?

I was thinking maybe because of the way the tool holder has a 4 spoke knob on the bottom to make position changes instead of any kind of lead screw.

If it helps it seems to have little cups to add oil into on the top.

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Not a cataract machine, the headstock shape is wrong. This is an interesting machine. One point is that the T-slot which is shown on the front of the machine, should really be on the back, that is to say you have the bed flipped around. Not a big deal but if the underside of the headstock is interfering somehow that might be the cause. The toolmaker's compound may be off a stark or a rivett lathe.

Whatever lathe it is, you'll need to get an appropriate sized chuck and have a backplate made to fit the new chuck to the lathe. The machinist can probably copy the old chuck for that.

It's fun to know anyway, but it will make little difference to your quest for a new chuck.

Thankyou for pointing out it was in fact backwards. The headstock is much more stable now.

So I'm planning on having a threaded flange made to mount a new chuck too.

I pulled the whole thing apart and the bearings are surprisingly clean.

Any recommendations for what oil to run in the little fill cups? I assume 5w30 wasnt a thing when this was built. Would straight 30 work well or something thicker/thinner?



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My standard go-to for oil, in machines like this, is synthetic Mobil One engine oil, typically 0W20 weight. Available in handy quart-sized containers at an auto parts store near you.

Can you measure the outer diameter of the threaded end of the spindle, and figure out the number of threads per inch?

Thread looks to be 1 1/2 - 8 by measuring in the picture. That might not be to scale though.

The toolmaker's compound is stark:

Stark Lathes