Lathe resurrection

[Jim Johnstone]

I wasn't planning to do a thread on the resurrection of this lathe I acquired, but since I've been taking some pics along the way, I figured I might as well document it a bit.

Back story is my wife's grandfather bought this lathe when he retired from work as a tool and die maker, and had it to mess around with in his home garage. There was also a milling machine and surface grinder in there as well, but those will maybe be addressed in another thread.

So my father in law had this lathe in his garage ever since his dad passed away around 18 years ago, and other than maybe the occasional small item, it was never used. My father in law is a general contractor, and never really touched the lathe, and it was basically covered in sawdust and other dust and absolutely dried out with no use or lubrication for the last 15 or more years.

Seeing as I am a tool and die maker myself, when my in laws moved to a new house, we struck up a deal for the machines to move to my place.

First step...get it in the garage.

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[Jim Johnstone]

So its not currently in place where I want it in my garage, but I'm taking advantage of that, so I can get all around it and clean it up and lubricate it. First up was the 3 jaw chuck that was so stiff I actually broke the square off the chuck key trying to get it moving.

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[Jim Johnstone]

I brought the chuck to work with me, and dropped it in the parts cleaner and left it there for a few days and was able to get the chuck moving and get the jaws out.

Once I managed to get it fully disassembled, I saw partially why it was so hard to move. The scroll was absolutely caked in thick hard congealed grease and the jaws were rusted in the t slots of the chuck body.

More soaking of the individual parts and loads of elbow grease and the scroll and spur gears cleaned right up.

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[Jim Johnstone]

I did a bit of bench work deburring various pieces that had a bit more production burrs than I liked, cleaned everything right up and reassembled the chuck with some grease, now it functions beautifully.

http://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/5fd00bb222a12/20201127_134233.mp4

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[Jim Johnstone]

Next up, tailstock. You can see in the one photo of the lathe, that there was some surface rust on the quill. It was super stiff, could barely get the quill to move. Same deal, full disassembly, clean all the old grease, remove the surface rust and reassemble.

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[DocsMachine]

[drools slightly]



Doc.

 

[bri_man57]

Agreed with doc, jealous for sure!! Looking good.

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[tarmy]

Excellent thread OP...keep it going...

BUT...in that very first photo...is that your wifey coming out of the house with the “what the hell have you brought home now” look?

 

[Jim Johnstone]

Excellent thread OP...keep it going...



BUT...in that very first photo...is that your wifey coming out of the house with the “what the hell have you brought home now” look?[emoji38]_hitti

oh dear God no, that's my mother in law! My wife actually wanted me to have it because she remembers her grandfather at the lathe all the time when she was a kid.

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[tarmy]

My wife actually wanted me to have it because she remembers her grandfather at the lathe all the time when she was a kid.

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Makes it an even better thread for that very reason...excellent.

 

[gnpenning]

oh dear God no, that's my mother in law!

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Tell us how you really feel!! Lol


Glad your wife is on board. Looking good so far. Little more than some elbow grease so far.

 

[Jim Johnstone]

Tell us how you really feel!! Lol


Glad your wife is on board. Looking good so far. Little more than some elbow grease so far.

Yeah thats right, so far I haven't come across any damaged or severely worn mechanical bits, it all appears in good shape, just years of neglect. Some stuff is very stiff, like the carriage and cross slide, the 3 jaw was seized, havent even looked at the 4 jaw yet, but I have a feeling it's going to be more of the same. Lots of TLC and she'll be humming along in no time

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[slowtwitch73]

That's an old one. Looks stout. Wonder if the old imports were better/worse than newer stuff. Looks better.

 

[Jim Johnstone]

That's an old one. Looks stout. Wonder if the old imports were better/worse than newer stuff. Looks better.

it's got a 1979 build date tag on it. I did find a 1979 catalog online, and it's listed as having hardened and ground bedways and hardened gears in the headstock, it also claims a weight of 2100 pounds, so its definitely pretty stout, especially considering its only a 2hp motor. Taiwanese made as well, as opposed to mainland China. Initial impressions are pretty good, my father in law said his dad seemed pretty pleased with its accuracy.

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[Jim Johnstone]

Not too much to add today. Did a bit of cleaning on the tailstock base, removing the surface rust and stoning the surfaces free of any dings and knicks, as well as the gib.

I had intended to reassemble today, until my ******* dropped the thrust bearing, and lost a ball from the bearing cage, pretty sure it rolled into that inter-dimensional vortex that exists under everyone's work bench. So once I get another thrust bearing, I'll get the tailstock put back together.

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[Jim Johnstone]

I did however, get started on making some leveling feet. I grabbed some 3.5" unknown round stock from our pile of unmarked material at work, saw cut some 1" thick pucks, and faced them on the lathe at work. Grabbed some 5/8" threaded rod on the way home from work and will cut and make adjuster screws for them.

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[Jim Johnstone]

Feet are finished up. Faced the pads and milled a female radius in the center of the pads, took some 5/8" threaded rod and milled a hex on one end and a male radius on the other end. The 2 radius should fit together and I can use the hex to adjust the level and lock it down.

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[larry_g]

Feet are finished up. Faced the pads and milled a female radius in the center of the pads, took some 5/8" threaded rod and milled a hex on one end and a male radius on the other end. The 2 radius should fit together and I can use the hex to adjust the level and lock it down.k

Having used similar pucks and bolts I can say, Don't forget to add a bit of high pressure grease between the two if your turning the shaft of the screw. The two may gall quickly once you start to adjust things.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[Jim Johnstone]

Having used similar pucks and bolts I can say, Don't forget to add a bit of high pressure grease between the two if your turning the shaft of the screw. The two may gall quickly once you start to adjust things.



lg

no neat sig line

yep, that was the plan, definitely a risk for some wear and galling between them.

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[930dreamer]

That looks like a great project, keep the pics rolling in.

 

[JHuston]

I reassembled one of those for somebody years ago ( it had been taken apart to move it without any wires bein marked, or hardware labeled; I was given a pile of parts and had to figure it out as I went), and can recall being impressed with how stout the machine was. I tip my hat to you, sir. That's going to be a nice machine, with a little bit of TLC.
-James Huston

 

[Jim Johnstone]

I reassembled one of those for somebody years ago ( it had been taken apart to move it without any wires bein marked, or hardware labeled; I was given a pile of parts and had to figure it out as I went), and can recall being impressed with how stout the machine was. I tip my hat to you, sir. That's going to be a nice machine, with a little bit of TLC.
-James Huston

thats good to hear, did you happen to find any documentation on this model of machine?

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[Jim Johnstone]

Did some digging through the boxes of stuff that came with the lathe, mill and surface grinder, and found some goodies. I've got all the change gears for metric threading, 3 shown in the pic, 2 more are in a vinegar bath, the spindle sleeve, a live center that needs some attention, 4 different dead centers, the concave jaws for the 3 jaw chuck, and not shown was a 1/2" capacity jacobs chuck for the tailstock.

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[loganb]

Great find on those QC gears...those often go missing as they're either used frequently or never by a prior owner and when you need them you often need them now!

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[JHuston]

thats good to hear, did you happen to find any documentation on this model of machine?

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If I remember correctly, Jet had changed hands after that lathe was made, and documentation was a bit scarce, but the people on the phone were very friendly and helped as much as they could, including finding a wiring diagram for the power feed limit switch system. You might try them, although my experience was probably ten or twelve years ago.

-James Huston

 

[Jim Johnstone]

So after having a good look at the gear chart for threading, I realized I had a couple gears that weren't on the chart and I couldn't figure out why. I did some looking in the headstock and realized none of the gears were in the correct location, and the extras that weren't on the chart are supposed to be permanent gears, and not change gears. Infact the gear train is only setup with 3 gears when there are supposed to be 4. So I think I'll have to pull all the gears, might as well clean everything, sort out the permanent ones and leave them in place and then I can get the threading gears in place.

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[The Cobbler]

great project for sure. thanks for sharing the trip

 

[Jim Johnstone]

I mentioned in an earlier post that I snapped the square off the chuck key trying to free up the chuck. Was going to toss it, but it was the longer key, not the stubby one, so I took it to work and figured it was nothing that a few minutes in the CNC couldn't fix.

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