Question About Dented Lathe Ways

TheWolfOfWalmart · Apr 13, 2019

So recently I was very fortunate to receive a free Sheldon R15 engine lathe- This will be my first foray into turning. Supposedly it runs fine but I still need to put in the circuit and wire the VFD to confirm- but I digest.

The ways have a couple sizable dents- Maybe a 1/4" wide- which, for the price of pretty much just the forklift rental, isn't a huge deal.

My due-diligence searching on the topic mostly just told me to not worry about it and make parts. My question is, would the leading edge of the carriage dive into the dent and heavily effect my parts? or is there enough bearing surface that it wouldn't be a big deal? I.E. how much should I expect them to effect my parts? I've stoned the ways and ensured that there aren't any burs, FWIW.

janvanruth · Apr 13, 2019

how about an actual picture of the dents?

TheWolfOfWalmart · Apr 13, 2019

Yeah sorry about that. I'm at work for the night but I'll be sure to take one when I get home in the morning and post it here.

Demon69 · Apr 13, 2019

Itll be fine, just be sure youve stoned any raised burrs down flat and leave as is.

Nice looking machine

crossthread · Apr 13, 2019

My neighbor has a heavy ten and it looks like someone took a hammer to the ways just in front of the chuck (he bought it like that by the way). It still works fine and he makes some very accurate cuts with it.

JST · Apr 13, 2019

The only problem is if the way wipers will not get swarf out of the dents. Then it can get trapped and end up scoring both the bed ways and the underside of the carriage ways.

I had one bad score on a small lathe (Logan) and simply cleaned the heck out of it with solvent, and then filled it with epoxy, using a "burr file" to knock the fill down flush. Purely to fill in the space, not to provide a riding surface, the dent will not remove enough riding surface to be an issue.

And the carriage will not "dive into" the dents. It will just ride over them if there is no ridge around them. A "burr file" is good for removing the ridge around a dent also.

partsproduction · Apr 15, 2019

A "burr file" is good

Please expand, I never heard the term before.
Thanks,
parts

adama · Apr 15, 2019

Your probably going to need a bigger solar panel than that + position them out in the sunshine. My 11" Harrison needs about 400 watts just to spin the gears in the oil bath!

Lathe looks good, here is hoping the ways are not too bad.

Burr file is basically a blunt - old file take a oilstone and then run that on it a good few dozen strokes, you want to see a small flat on the top of every tooth, you now have a sharp tooth but with no clearance hence it will just skate across a flat surface, but anything sticking up will get cut off by the sharp teeth!

FredC · Apr 16, 2019

Could not be any worse that the oilfield lathes around south Texas. There had to be somebody that went from shop to shop and used the ball end of a hammer to beat up the ways, even on the part of the ways at the tailstock end. Hardly any work got done on the end and they are beat up, it could not have been an accident to happen to so many lathes.

TheWolfOfWalmart · Apr 16, 2019

janvanruth said:
how about an actual picture of the dents?

Here are a couple pictures of the biggest ones- Sharpie for scale

TheWolfOfWalmart · Apr 16, 2019

JST said:
The only problem is if the way wipers will not get swarf out of the dents. Then it can get trapped and end up scoring both the bed ways and the underside of the carriage ways.

I had one bad score on a small lathe (Logan) and simply cleaned the heck out of it with solvent, and then filled it with epoxy, using a "burr file" to knock the fill down flush. Purely to fill in the space, not to provide a riding surface, the dent will not remove enough riding surface to be an issue.

And the carriage will not "dive into" the dents. It will just ride over them if there is no ridge around them. A "burr file" is good for removing the ridge around a dent also.

Thank you! I didn't know how the lathe would behave so that answers my question. I thought that might be an issue so I bought some of that steel impregnated JB weld putty that I was going to set then stone down flat.

TheWolfOfWalmart · Apr 16, 2019

adama said:
Your probably going to need a bigger solar panel than that + position them out in the sunshine. My 11" Harrison needs about 400 watts just to spin the gears in the oil bath!

Lathe looks good, here is hoping the ways are not too bad.

Burr file is basically a blunt - old file take a oilstone and then run that on it a good few dozen strokes, you want to see a small flat on the top of every tooth, you now have a sharp tooth but with no clearance hence it will just skate across a flat surface, but anything sticking up will get cut off by the sharp teeth!

Lol no you're mistaken- that's just to power my DRO XD

Thanks for all the advice (and compliments!)all. With everything else it needs, it's a huge relief knowing I won't really have to worry about that.

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