Old Craftsman Lathe

[niget2002]

I bought this thing a few years ago for only $50.

If I knew then how much work it'd take to get it useable, I'd probably pass on it.

Everything on it worked fine once I got it cleaned up, but now I'm trying to get into turning bowls.

I finally get the time/money to get a bowl chuck for it and get that installed this morning. I had to make a small 1/4" shim to keep the indexing pin from rubbing the back of the chuck. The bad thing is at the slowest speed, it's still turning way too fast to rough in a bowl.

Ordered a smaller stepped pulley for the motor side to slow it down more. Guess I'll get that installed and try again on Sunday... Assuming the wife will let me play in the garage on Mother's day.

 

[whateg01]

Yeah, I think a lot of people get bitten by that. That said, it still often ends up costing less cash, but more time and frustration. As long as a guy goes in knowing that there'll be work to do, I think it's still ok to do. Much of the machinery and tooling I have could not have been afforded if I'd paid full price, but picking it up cheap because it needs a repair I could handle.

Dave

 

[niget2002]

The smaller stepped pulley came in. I also picked up a linked belt for it.

I got those installed yesterday and was able to finish roughing in the bowl. The bowl was a lot easier to work at the slower RPM.

It only has enough space to turn an 8" diameter bowl, but that's big enough for what I'll be doing with it. I was pretty happy with the way it turned out.

 

[Maui]

What model number Craftsman lathe do you have? I picked this one up recently. It required about 3 hours of work to free up everything that was frozen, replace some components, lubricate the bearings, make the proper adjustments, and clean up the rust. Now the lathe is running smoothly. It was purchased without a motor, so I installed a 1725 rpm one that I had on hand. I may use a slower running motor (1080 rpm) that I have instead to achieve those lower speeds, or I could just hook up a jack shaft which would be fairly easy to do.

Maui

 

[niget2002]

Mine is the 103.23070

I put this pulley on it to get down to around 450RPM

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00004RAO1/?tag=atomicindus08-20

I also added a Nova G3 chuck:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0064JJ52U/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[lafester]

Hey I just got one of these as well. Your tool rest looks an awful lot like the later model tube lathe rest. Mine is missing but I do have that one... might have to try and modify it. What does the clamp mount look like?

Also curious if any of you have see anything like this tailstock center...

I like how heavy duty it is but it also leaves my options pretty bare for other types of centers.
I'll be looking for a replacement ram to increase my options.

 

[lafester]

Mine is the 103.23070

I put this pulley on it to get down to around 450RPM

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00004RAO1/?tag=atomicindus08-20

I also added a Nova G3 chuck:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0064JJ52U/?tag=atomicindus08-20

Could you do large bowls using the outside mount? You would have to rig up some kind of rest I suppose.

 

[niget2002]

Hey I just got one of these as well. Your tool rest looks an awful lot like the later model tube lathe rest. Mine is missing but I do have that one... might have to try and modify it. What does the clamp mount look like?

Also curious if any of you have see anything like this tailstock center...

I like how heavy duty it is but it also leaves my options pretty bare for other types of centers.
I'll be looking for a replacement ram to increase my options.

I'm looking at getting this one for my lathe that looks very similar to that

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000KIEPSA/?tag=atomicindus08-20

Could you do large bowls using the outside mount? You would have to rig up some kind of rest I suppose.

I probably could. The outside is threaded the same as the inside. My other thought was that I have an 8" faceplate for the lathe. I may screw it onto the outside and then put sandpaper on it for a large sanding disk.

My fear with turning a large bowl on the outside is that there's no tail stock to help hold the large spinning mass on the head. When I first started working on this bowl, I forgot to pull the tail stock up to the blank. Every time the gouge would bite into the bowl, it would cause the blank to come unstable and I'd have to reseat it in the chuck.

One thing about this little lathe is it doesn't have a lot of power. I usually have to grab the stock and 'flip' it to get it turning when I first turn it on.

 

[lafester]

Well my center has a short non tapered shaft and the bearing presses into the ram. I guess the po was a pretty good at turning metal and made up some custom parts.

Can I get a pic of your tool rest mount? Thanks!

Oh and what motor are you using? Should be pretty easy to swap in a bigger motor if you want.

I'm looking at getting this one for my lathe that looks very similar to that

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000KIEPSA/?tag=atomicindus08-20



I probably could. The outside is threaded the same as the inside. My other thought was that I have an 8" faceplate for the lathe. I may screw it onto the outside and then put sandpaper on it for a large sanding disk.

My fear with turning a large bowl on the outside is that there's no tail stock to help hold the large spinning mass on the head. When I first started working on this bowl, I forgot to pull the tail stock up to the blank. Every time the gouge would bite into the bowl, it would cause the blank to come unstable and I'd have to reseat it in the chuck.

One thing about this little lathe is it doesn't have a lot of power. I usually have to grab the stock and 'flip' it to get it turning when I first turn it on.

 

[niget2002]

Well my center has a short non tapered shaft and the bearing presses into the ram. I guess the po was a pretty good at turning metal and made up some custom parts.

Can I get a pic of your tool rest mount? Thanks!

Oh and what motor are you using? Should be pretty easy to swap in a bigger motor if you want.

I'll see if I have a picture laying around... otherwise I can grab one this weekend.

The motor is a 1/3hp 1750rpm motor. The ancient manual that I found for it says you can safely run a 1/2hp motor of the same rpm.

 

[lafester]

I'll see if I have a picture laying around... otherwise I can grab one this weekend.

The motor is a 1/3hp 1750rpm motor. The ancient manual that I found for it says you can safely run a 1/2hp motor of the same rpm.

Thanks. Curious if its on the stock mount or if they made one. The rest itself is definitely the newer version.

 

[niget2002]

Thanks. Curious if its on the stock mount or if they made one. The rest itself is definitely the newer version.

Oh. I can answer that.

It's the stock one. Except the original handle used to tighten it went missing, so I replaced it with just a big bolt.

The handle for the tool rest itself is still there, though.

The lathe was actually in pretty bad shape when I first got it. I had to tear it down to the individual components to get everything spinning the way it should. There was a layer of grime on everything so thick you couldn't tell what color the tool was.

 

[niget2002]

I found some more pictures I had.

The first is a better view of the stand I built for it. I use the weight of the motor to keep the belt in tension. I works surprisingly well.

The second is a picture of the lathe sitting on the bench right after cleaning it. You can get a better view between the two.

 

[lafester]

I found some more pictures I had.

The first is a better view of the stand I built for it. I use the weight of the motor to keep the belt in tension. I works surprisingly well.

The second is a picture of the lathe sitting on the bench right after cleaning it. You can get a better view between the two.

Thanks. I just took a piece of aluminum, cut it to width and then threaded a hole in the middle for my clamp. It will work until I find something better.

Now I just need to modify the the wood mount from my 12" tube lathe to fit and adjust the motor. That lathe will probably be parted out since it's almost worthless without a motor, stand and tool rest.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

 

[lafester]

I'm finding that tool rest sits a bit too high so I'll have to keep looking.

Sent from my moto x4 using Tapatalk

 

[niget2002]

I thought it was just me. I noticed my tool rest sits a bit high too. Like it's just above the centerline of the lathe. I had a really hard time cleaning out the center of a bowl because of it.

I was looking at the Robert Sorbey modular tool rests. The vertical part of the tool rest is a straight bar, so I'm thinking it'd drop down lower into the brace.

 

[lafester]

I thought it was just me. I noticed my tool rest sits a bit high too. Like it's just above the centerline of the lathe. I had a really hard time cleaning out the center of a bowl because of it.

I was looking at the Robert Sorbey modular tool rests. The vertical part of the tool rest is a straight bar, so I'm thinking it'd drop down lower into the brace.

The stock rest is quite a bit smaller so I'm looking for one of those, but they are pretty hard to find at the moment.

Sent from my moto x4 using Tapatalk

 

[lafester]

This one just arrived from Ebay... Was pretty shocked they delivered on a holiday (usps).

Fits much better but now it seems almost too small! I'm sure it will be fine though.

 

[lafester]

Curious what pulley you had before? That looks just like the stock one.

Mine is the 103.23070

I put this pulley on it to get down to around 450RPM

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00004RAO1/?tag=atomicindus08-20

I also added a Nova G3 chuck:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0064JJ52U/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[niget2002]

The pulley that came with the lathe was a single 2" pulley.

 

[niget2002]

This cracked me up...

I was googling information for my old lathe and one of the top links was a link to my own GJ post...

Unfortunately, what I'm searching for isn't something that I've previously answered in my own thread

 

[niget2002]

To answer the question I was searching for...

The head and tail both use #1 MT tools.