beckley23
Titanium
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2003
- Location
- Louisville, KY, USA
Approx 3 weeks ago work on the "wreck" came to a screeching halt. Everything had been removed from the bed, and I got my first good inspection of the ways. All of the ways have wear, not surprising, but the amount of wear on the inside face of the front way, is approx .015" on the face, or .023" approx straight down. In addition, I can't properly manipulate my 48" camelback straight edge to get a good spotting. After some consideration, I called and got quotes, from 2 grinding shops, for getting the bed ground. Let's just say that grinding is out of the question, it ain't gonna happen. Before anybody suggests Commerce in Dallas, they were at 2000.00+.
A couple of things to consider in my decision making process, and the primary is; I don't need this machine for my shop. Another is that space is at a premium, and I don't like machines crammed together. I need to be able to get carts, forklifts, etc , in between machines. The only saving graces of this lathe are; the headstock, gearbox and electrics seem to be good and it is a 30" 'er, everything else is crap.
Decision time; do I scrap it out, or do I scrape it in. I'll need a special straight edge that I can manipulate, I'll need a larger surface plate to spot this straight edge for scraping, and I'll need V blocks for the 65* V ways, plus the will power to do this again. I've already scraped one hardened bed, and it's not something I look forward too.
One thing else; every time I use my good EE, I just can't bear the thought of scrapping this one out, knowing that it can be just as good or better with a little bit of work.
After 3 weeks of pondering this problem, I reached the decision to scrape this lathe, and items have been purchased to this end.
The procedure will be the one I used to recondition the CK, the inside flat way gets scraped first followed by the inside V way, followed by the outside flat way, followed by the outside face of the outside V way, then the inside face. The inside face will most likely get some special treatment to remove the bulk of the material by means other than scraping, this aspect has yet to be finalized, but I do have a couple of ideas. Then the carriage and related members, then the tailstock.
Harry
A couple of things to consider in my decision making process, and the primary is; I don't need this machine for my shop. Another is that space is at a premium, and I don't like machines crammed together. I need to be able to get carts, forklifts, etc , in between machines. The only saving graces of this lathe are; the headstock, gearbox and electrics seem to be good and it is a 30" 'er, everything else is crap.
Decision time; do I scrap it out, or do I scrape it in. I'll need a special straight edge that I can manipulate, I'll need a larger surface plate to spot this straight edge for scraping, and I'll need V blocks for the 65* V ways, plus the will power to do this again. I've already scraped one hardened bed, and it's not something I look forward too.
One thing else; every time I use my good EE, I just can't bear the thought of scrapping this one out, knowing that it can be just as good or better with a little bit of work.
After 3 weeks of pondering this problem, I reached the decision to scrape this lathe, and items have been purchased to this end.
The procedure will be the one I used to recondition the CK, the inside flat way gets scraped first followed by the inside V way, followed by the outside flat way, followed by the outside face of the outside V way, then the inside face. The inside face will most likely get some special treatment to remove the bulk of the material by means other than scraping, this aspect has yet to be finalized, but I do have a couple of ideas. Then the carriage and related members, then the tailstock.
Harry