Wolf-Jahn Watchmakers Lathe - stuck tailstock

Hello all,

I was cruising the local flea market today and found a really neat Wolf-Jahn lathe. It's very interesting in that the lathe is mounted on the front of a wooden cabinet that can set on top of a table and is motivated by an early 3-Spring Victrola style crank motor inside the cabinet. The speed control and belt pulleys stick up towards the top back giving enough weight to hold the lathe down on a table. No accessories unfortunately but the mechanism overall works.

However, the tailstock spindle is frozen. I suspect it's a one piece spindle and for some reason it is frozen in place. Due to the very scale of the tailstock and this design I am wondering what the best approach would be to free up the mechanism. I was considering possible heating up the body of the tailstock and applying slight CCW pressure to the spindle as it does appear the needle end is fully thru the tailstock body. Does this sound like the best procedure? Or is there something else I might try first? Nothing on this lathe looks rusted so I'm of the opinion someone not familiar with tailstocks over-tightened it.

Any help would be appreciated. I'll try to get a picture or two up as it's definitely unique with the spring-motor drive system.

Some form of penetrating solvent, wet the parts down, then give it a day or so, add more if you figure it needs (solvent).

Like as not the oil has dried to varnish and is blocking up the works.

Gentle heat (like, barely able to hold on to it with bare hands), and gentle pressure in both directions, and it may work loose.

Better to go slow than to break stuff you cannot replace.

trevj said:

Some form of penetrating solvent, wet the parts down, then give it a day or so, add more if you figure it needs (solvent).

Like as not the oil has dried to varnish and is blocking up the works.

Gentle heat (like, barely able to hold on to it with bare hands), and gentle pressure in both directions, and it may work loose.

Better to go slow than to break stuff you cannot replace.

Click to expand...

I would give it a week soaking, then give light tapping with a brass hammer watching for slight movement.

after a couple of days of this try the heat the way trevj suggested.

I sometimes put things like that in a tupperware type container, wrap it with a few shop towels so it fits snug, pour in some diesel, snap on the lid and toss it in the tumbler