Craftsman Lathe

[niget2002]

Hello Fellow GJ'ers,

I bought this this afternoon for $60, but I know nothing about it.

All the pieces look to be there, and everything works from what I can tell.

The motor hadn't been run in a few years, so it took a little bit of hand cranking until it got up to speed. Once it ran for a few minutes, it turned on and off just fine. There's not switch on it so I'll have to wire one up.

There's also no stand, so I'll be designing/building one of those next... probably something out of 2x6's as I don't have and can't weld.

If you have any information regarding this guy, I'd love to hear it. It's my first lathe, and I've never used one.

One real question I have is, is there an attachment I can put on it for doing bowls?

 

[rsanter]

Basic wood lathe
Decent quality machines for home use

Bob

 

[Dick in Wisconsin]

Look for one of those old metal office desks from the 1950's or early 1960's as a stand. Strong, sturdy, and lots of drawers to put your lathe stuff into.

 

[woody 73]

Find out what thread size you have and any woodcraft store can sell you bowl attachments. As an example my lathe uses a 1 1/4 x 8 tpi and a morse #2 taper spur for turning blanks.

 

[Hawk]

Make your stand as heavy as possible. Most problems are from a light base.

 

[niget2002]

Make your stand as heavy as possible. Most problems are from a light base.

That shouldn't be a problem. I tend to over - engineer most things.

I did find more information thanks to google. Looks like it was made in the 50's. In the 1950's garage there was a link to old sears catalogs and it looks like I'm missing a piece or two, but it should be functional without them.

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[Packard V8]

The best lathe base I ever made was from a length of 6"x 12" glu-lam beam. I bought an 8' offcut from a guy on craigslist. Use one 4' section for the top and the other 4' for the lower shelf on which to mount the motor. No way anything you'll ever turn on that Craftsman will vibrate a stand like that.

I made legs from angle iron, but 2x4 would work as well.

jack vines

 

[Outlawmws]

Yep, 1950's and made by King Seeley. (mod 103 confirms this, the engine turned aluminum trim is an obvious giveaway.)

Do yourself a favor and mount the motor under it inside the stand. The belt tension can be the motor's weight mounted on a door hinge. Then cover it leaving the bottom ope for air to vent/cool the motor but have an access door for maintenance and belt speed changes.

 

[niget2002]

Started work on the bench. 2 2x6s and a 3/4 inch board in a u shape. There will be more 2x6s for cross bracing on the bottom. There will be a hole in the board lso the motor can go under as recommended. The motor has a large round 'hinge' on it that I will use two u bolts to complete. More pics promised as I make better progress.

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[WhoWhatNow]

Nice score. I cleaned one up for a friend of mine:

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=126491

Looking forward to seeing the bench you build too.

 

[niget2002]

Great job on that restore. Luckily the one I got is in pretty good shape, so the bench is really all I need.

A restore will be much farther into the future.

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[niget2002]

I got a lot of work done on the lathe/stand this weekend.

I ended up having to completely disassemble the lathe and clean/re-lube a lot of it.

I went to O'Reilly's with the belt off of the lathe and told the guy behind the counter "I need 'this' but 3 inches longer." It only took him two tries to get close enough.

I got everything mounted up, turned it on, and tried to turn notches into a dowel. I found that every time the chisel bit, the dowel stopped turning. Took a closer look, did a little reading, and found out that the drive side of the lathe has the wrong type of point on it so that it doesn't grab the wood.

After even more research and reading, I found out I need a #1MT Spur Center point. I have the cup point for the tail stock and just a 'point', but it looks like the point is for the tail as well.

There was some vibration in the workbench, so I'll need to brace it a bit more. The vibes seem to be from the way the motor is mounted as I could hold it with my hand and the vibes would go away.

Minus the cost of the lathe, so far I'm only out an additional $20 in materials for the belt, some bolts, washers, and nuts to mount it. Everything else I already had.

I'll get pics up after I dismantle the stand and get it painted up nice and pretty.