I am new to this. Please be gentle. LOL.
I have acquired my first piece of metal working machinery, a 1941 13" South Bend Lathe. The ways have noticeable wear. I found a small machine shop local to me that can grind the ways, along with the saddle to match, for a "reasonable" price ($700).
However, they can't do anything with the dovetails in the cross slide or the compound - they don't have the equipment for it. They also do NOT have the ability to scrape any of it, I would have to take it somewhere else.
That being said, the real question I still have to answer: is grinding it even worth it if I am not going to have them scraped? Since I have never done scraping before, nor would I know where to start (besides YooToob), or know anyone that owes me a favor, I would have to hire someone to do that for me. And, being an art that scraping appears to be, will likely be rather costly.
So I could potentially put more into grinding and scraping the ways than the lathe is even worth. I have no emotional attachment to it, outside of the fact that it's almost as old as my Dad.
The lathe is currently being dismantled for cleaning and refurbishment. I am already replacing the half nuts and the twin gears (they were total junk). So to take the ways and saddle to a machine shop wouldn't be a big deal.
I figure I have these options:
1. Leave them alone, clean it, put it back together, and have fun making parts
2. Quit whining about $700 (I'm not, really) and have the ways ground because it will improve your ability to make parts (or will it?)
3. Sell a kidney and have them ground and scraped. (There's an awesome place in WI that will do everything for $4200, six times what I paid for the lathe, if I ship them halfway across the country). And have fun making parts, if I can afford some raw stock.
I know what I DON'T want to do, and that is spend multiples of what the lathe is worth, even after all is said and done. I could put that kind of scratch into a more "modern" or less abused lathe. Spending the money to have them ground is well within what I am comfortable with, but only if I don't do more harm than good.
Pic for reference:
So, WWYD? TIA.
I have acquired my first piece of metal working machinery, a 1941 13" South Bend Lathe. The ways have noticeable wear. I found a small machine shop local to me that can grind the ways, along with the saddle to match, for a "reasonable" price ($700).
However, they can't do anything with the dovetails in the cross slide or the compound - they don't have the equipment for it. They also do NOT have the ability to scrape any of it, I would have to take it somewhere else.
That being said, the real question I still have to answer: is grinding it even worth it if I am not going to have them scraped? Since I have never done scraping before, nor would I know where to start (besides YooToob), or know anyone that owes me a favor, I would have to hire someone to do that for me. And, being an art that scraping appears to be, will likely be rather costly.
So I could potentially put more into grinding and scraping the ways than the lathe is even worth. I have no emotional attachment to it, outside of the fact that it's almost as old as my Dad.
The lathe is currently being dismantled for cleaning and refurbishment. I am already replacing the half nuts and the twin gears (they were total junk). So to take the ways and saddle to a machine shop wouldn't be a big deal.
I figure I have these options:
1. Leave them alone, clean it, put it back together, and have fun making parts
2. Quit whining about $700 (I'm not, really) and have the ways ground because it will improve your ability to make parts (or will it?)
3. Sell a kidney and have them ground and scraped. (There's an awesome place in WI that will do everything for $4200, six times what I paid for the lathe, if I ship them halfway across the country). And have fun making parts, if I can afford some raw stock.
I know what I DON'T want to do, and that is spend multiples of what the lathe is worth, even after all is said and done. I could put that kind of scratch into a more "modern" or less abused lathe. Spending the money to have them ground is well within what I am comfortable with, but only if I don't do more harm than good.
Pic for reference:
So, WWYD? TIA.