What's new
What's new

Clausing 5914 bed scraping...

cbowen4

Plastic
Joined
Mar 23, 2009
Location
Lansing, MI
I have a Clausing 5914 lathe I picked up quite a few years ago for pretty cheap that I'm trying to restore. Now, before anyone else feels a need to point it out, yes, I am stark raving mad and have been attempting to scrape the bed. The flats had a dip of about 8 thousands and the v-ways closer to 18 thousands. I started by scraping the tops of the ways flat as a reference and then I've been working on scraping the flats. I wanted to get an idea as to if this is good enough.

bed1.jpgbed2.jpgbed3.jpg

I do not know how many passes, it has to be hundreds, though I only recently have gotten good enough to make real progress. I think it is probably good enough to move on to the V's now. Thoughts?

It's within about 2 tenths end to end based on the top flats and level as accurately as I can measure it. It was a bear to scrape to this point. I've actually been working on it off and on for years. I started with a hand scraper. Then I had to get something to sharpen the hand scraper properly. Then I figured out a hand scraper is pretty useless on this. So I found a used Biax (with a bunch of tooling!) But, I didn't really make much progress until I finally made a diamond lap sharpener about a year ago. It is only possible to scrape those flame hardened ways with a super sharp carbide blade and count on sharpening after every single pass.

I'm also scraping the front face as a reference surface. That's not hardened, so it scrapes super easily! If you look, you can see where the flame hardening ends under the headstock.
 

Attachments

  • inch.jpg
    inch.jpg
    51.2 KB · Views: 280
Wish I had seen it. Grumpy or not, I'm sure it was insightful. He certainly knows his stuff (and then some).

I will admit that this is a hobby. I just like these lathes and it's a Michigan product and just about as old as I am, so I figured it was worth a try. Probably not an efficient use of time, but it's been good exercise and I think I've learned a lot.
 
He was critiquing your scraping as having too many ppi for a manual lathe, gouging the corners of your carbide bit into the lathe bed, and in general chattering your cuts. He also wondered what you were using as a straight edge for reference. Also wondered what the wood clamps were for, and whether the lathe was level on a solid surface. I'll restrict this to the helpful parts of his comments and that's all I recall, maybe there was something else?

L7
 
Didn't know there was such as thing as too many ppi. I thought you could always make a surface more ppi, it was mostly a matter of deciding when to stop.

Yes on the gouging and chattering. I certainly am getting some gouging near the edges. I've tried all kinds of angles and I'm just not strong enough to prevent all of them. I don't have a lot of room, so the lathe is against a wall and I can only get to one side, so working from the other direction requires something akin to yoga and I don't have near as much control. As for the chattering, I've not been able to do much better than this. The Biax just wants to chatter a lot on that hard surface and it's always fighting me. I'm certainly open to suggestions on how to do better.

I have a 2" by 36" Starrett crystal pink surface plate. Yes, it really is 2" by 36" and about 8 inches thick. An eBay find. I think it may have been custom made for some company. It was still in the original wrapping when I received it, so I don't think it was even used. It's shorter than the bed, so I level the middle 36", then level the ends to match. The pictures are actually three prints, which is part of the reason for some of the overprinting. I actually set the surface plate down on the way instead of the other way around. I'm using Dykem Hi-spot blue. I tried the Canode blue, but find it harder to read for me.

I know you are supposed to level from one end, but I figure what matters most is level in the middle. The left 12" is mostly under the headstock and the right 12" I'll rarely ever work on something long enough to use that.
 
The lathe bed is on it's normal stand, which is on a concrete floor. It's pretty heavy, so it doesn't move around.

I'm scraping the front edge of the ways as a reference. I made a right angle jig you see in the middle that is a level aluminum flat. Since the surface place is flat on both sides, I can set it on that and know the marking is vertical. I stuck those clamps on each side so as I mark to the ends, I have something to set the surface plate end on. They were just handy and quick and easy to clamp on there. The surface plate is a bit heavy and it helps to not have to hold it up continuously and I can concentrate on ensuring it is flat on that reference plate.

The flat on the side was really handy. When I scraped the top flats, I used a 2-4-6 block riding on the tops of the ways to ensure the plate stayed perfectly vertical and level on the ways.
 
I'll be following this thread as I have two Clausing 5914 lathes. One I use almost every day and one I have completely dis-assembled waiting to restore. I never even considered scraping the flame hardened ways. I am not far from you if you ever need any scraping tools, just north of Flint. I am currently rebuilding a Bridgeport series 1 knee mill for a friend for free, lol. Just charging him for the price of parts purchased from H&W. Installing new Rulon, scraping the saddle/table and replacing all worn parts.

Daryl
 

Attachments

  • 28276.jpg
    28276.jpg
    19.7 KB · Views: 162
  • 20191006_194727.jpg
    20191006_194727.jpg
    94.1 KB · Views: 174
  • 20191006_180242.jpg
    20191006_180242.jpg
    93.4 KB · Views: 189
The lathe bed is on it's normal stand, which is on a concrete floor. It's pretty heavy, so it doesn't move around.

I'm scraping the front edge of the ways as a reference. I made a right angle jig you see in the middle that is a level aluminum flat. Since the surface place is flat on both sides, I can set it on that and know the marking is vertical. I stuck those clamps on each side so as I mark to the ends, I have something to set the surface plate end on. They were just handy and quick and easy to clamp on there. The surface plate is a bit heavy and it helps to not have to hold it up continuously and I can concentrate on ensuring it is flat on that reference plate.

The flat on the side was really handy. When I scraped the top flats, I used a 2-4-6 block riding on the tops of the ways to ensure the plate stayed perfectly vertical and level on the ways.

Bear in mind that with the solid surface the bed sits on, it needs to be leveled (I think that's what Richard was alluding too). Consider how much we put into leveling a complete lathe to make an accurate cut, so starting with the bed casting leveled can reduce the amount of work you have to do. I find it best to do lots of measuring and never assume, but IN GENERAL most of if not all of the material you'll remove will be because of wear and the original factory surfaces are your reference points.

IMO having a high PPI is good, but other than your pride in the work, it's best to aim for the tolerances the machine was built for (20 PPI). The points do look a little small, but you're off to a good start.
 
Bear in mind that with the solid surface the bed sits on, it needs to be leveled (I think that's what Richard was alluding too).

It is level. The bed is bolted on the stand and I have leveling pads on the feet. I have a machinist level and one of those Digi-Pas electronic levels and it is level on both ends and end to end to within about 2 tenths per foot. I do have the Connelly book and it was very clear about leveling. I think he was thrown by those plastic clamps. He probably thought they were doing something and they are not. I probably should have removed them before taking the picture.
 








 
Back
Top