Made any chips yet? I was supposed to be working on shop and cars today, but SWMBO's wheelchair lift crapped out last week, and I spend the day figuring out what was wrong, and fixing it. I'd been reduced to using the folding ramp, and it's a tad too short...
I've been a reader and collector of shop hints and tips books most of my life. My favorite is Roy Moungovan's Shop Savvy. Shop Savvy: Tips, Techniques & Jigs for Woodworkers & Metalworkers: Roy Moungovan, Henry Gross: 9780806958002: Amazon.com: Books
Most useful safety info my best/favorite instructor at FTTC machine shop class gave was "keep your left hand in your hip pocket. DO NOT put your hand on the headstock!" Avoids a lot of possible errors that can make you bleed that way. Electricians have a similar maxim. I'm not a electrician either, but have done the work more than once over the past five decades, and dad was a mine electrician for many years.
I suppose I could learn to apply turcite if necessary, too. You sure have a fun project , how's the bearings , i always used Kroil in the 1st step of removing & loosening rust.....scraping only if it's warped otherwise emery cloth should do it , then cross hatch using a file ground on the front with a radious & a rake....just scrape X's all over the bed & compound then brush on some Way Lube . might even use STP , now everything floats on a bed of oil.....very smooth.....STEVEMost useful safety info my best/favorite instructor at FTTC machine shop class gave was "keep your left hand in your hip pocket. DO NOT put your hand on the headstock!" Avoids a lot of possible errors that can make you bleed that way. Electricians have a similar maxim. I'm not a electrician either, but have done the work more than once over the past five decades, and dad was a mine electrician for many years.
Attached are the photos I took as I was moving it into my shop room. It has a single tumbler gear box, taper attachment, two 5c collet closers, three 5c collets, one terribly rusty, both standard and turret tailstocks, and a spare single tumbler gear box. It sat in a leaky barn for about 5 years. I'd posted in one of the metalworking groups online that I'd learned on a SB lathe in my high school class, and always wanted one, but had never been able to find one I could afford when I found it. My friend, Bill HInkle, texted me and said he thought he might be able to make my dream come true. We were discussing it, and my wife demanded the phone. Told him in no uncertain terms that I was not allowed to buy his lathe. About broke my heart until she said "I want to buy it for him for Christmas." He told me he'd realized that he wasn't going to live long enough to restore it, so sold it to my wife for $950. 4-1/2' bed, 1-3/8" spindle bore, and the spindle adapter for using MT3 tooling. I've got about a third of the smaller parts de-rusted, built a tub to do electrolytic rust removal on the bed, but haven't gotten to put the two items together. Found a "air eraser" at HF a couple of weeks ago, might be able to clean up the bed where it sits now, in the back corner of my shop. I've also got a airgun I rigged from instructions on youtube that will blow sand or whatever, and I've also got a box of 25lbs of walnut hull blasting medium. Would save me having to hoist the thing and suspend it in nearly 100 gallons of mildly caustic solution...
Came with the "modern" tubular steel bench stand, missing one drawer and lock. So one of these days I get to learn some more about sheet metal work, too.
Not sure if the ways were hardened. Kinda hard to see under all the rust. Figure by the time I get it all cleaned up, I'll know about everything there is to know about this machine. Which was shipped to the Ruritan Arsenal in New Jersey in 1941. I've been several kinds of mechanic, from high-performance fighter jets, to home and industrial laundry machines, and both mainframe and micro-computers, the usual suspects in the automobile world, and satellite, wideband, and radio communications. Anything I don't already know, I figure I can learn.
If the bed is as bad as age, use, and rust can make it, I might have to learn how to do scraping, too. Got a couple of small mills, three drill presses, bandsaws, and a Lewis shaper, so I figure I can make anything I need that I can't buy.
Bill
Not gotten to the bearings yet. I've used electrolytic rust removal on some parts, EvapoRust on some others, and I'm rather fond of PB Blaster for machine parts that have gotten rusty and need to be freed up. I've not yet yet found a place I can walk in and buy a can of Kroil yet, and for much of the time I've been collecting this stuff, I was too broke to buy one if I found it. 3M makes several grades of ScotchBrite specifically for metalworking, and I've got several sheets of that in varies grades to help the EvapoRust along when needed. I scavenged an old parts washer some years back, and have it filled with Purple Power and Zepp degreasers, too. Makes short work of oils and greases that have turned to varnish, too. Got a quart of Citristrip to try on paint, but haven't managed to actually try it out yet. Been playing with cars and wheelchairs and wheelchair lifts, lately. Gotta get some shop time actually IN the shop one of these days...
Thats going to be a job restoring that old war horse. My south bend looked similar to that when I bought it and the tooling for $100 at an estate sale. Looks like a new one now.Most useful safety info my best/favorite instructor at FTTC machine shop class gave was "keep your left hand in your hip pocket. DO NOT put your hand on the headstock!" Avoids a lot of possible errors that can make you bleed that way. Electricians have a similar maxim. I'm not a electrician either, but have done the work more than once over the past five decades, and dad was a mine electrician for many years.
Attached are the photos I took as I was moving it into my shop room. It has a single tumbler gear box, taper attachment, two 5c collet closers, three 5c collets, one terribly rusty, both standard and turret tailstocks, and a spare single tumbler gear box. It sat in a leaky barn for about 5 years. I'd posted in one of the metalworking groups online that I'd learned on a SB lathe in my high school class, and always wanted one, but had never been able to find one I could afford when I found it. My friend, Bill HInkle, texted me and said he thought he might be able to make my dream come true. We were discussing it, and my wife demanded the phone. Told him in no uncertain terms that I was not allowed to buy his lathe. About broke my heart until she said "I want to buy it for him for Christmas." He told me he'd realized that he wasn't going to live long enough to restore it, so sold it to my wife for $950. 4-1/2' bed, 1-3/8" spindle bore, and the spindle adapter for using MT3 tooling. I've got about a third of the smaller parts de-rusted, built a tub to do electrolytic rust removal on the bed, but haven't gotten to put the two items together. Found a "air eraser" at HF a couple of weeks ago, might be able to clean up the bed where it sits now, in the back corner of my shop. I've also got a airgun I rigged from instructions on youtube that will blow sand or whatever, and I've also got a box of 25lbs of walnut hull blasting medium. Would save me having to hoist the thing and suspend it in nearly 100 gallons of mildly caustic solution...
Came with the "modern" tubular steel bench stand, missing one drawer and lock. So one of these days I get to learn some more about sheet metal work, too.
Not sure if the ways were hardened. Kinda hard to see under all the rust. Figure by the time I get it all cleaned up, I'll know about everything there is to know about this machine. Which was shipped to the Ruritan Arsenal in New Jersey in 1941. I've been several kinds of mechanic, from high-performance fighter jets, to home and industrial laundry machines, and both mainframe and micro-computers, the usual suspects in the automobile world, and satellite, wideband, and radio communications. Anything I don't already know, I figure I can learn.
If the bed is as bad as age, use, and rust can make it, I might have to learn how to do scraping, too. Got a couple of small mills, three drill presses, bandsaws, and a Lewis shaper, so I figure I can make anything I need that I can't buy.
Bill
I'm what I believe they call "oversubscribed" for restoration projects. I've decided to work on the pair of Unimats first, seeing as I can pick up each of the entire machines with one hand.
Then the Lewis Shaper. Mini-mill next, Atlas MF horizonal mill after that. My dad's old Craftsman drill press after those, the Buffalo 4x6 bandsaw, and then probably the SB Heavy 10L. There is a Smithy CB-1220XL that needs to get put back together, and have an ELS unit mounted on it, too. I'm thinking it would be very handy fixing all the other stuff. Atlas TH42 is functional, should help with all the other projects. Then I should have reduced the load of non-machine tool projects quite a bit, too. I almost never work on one project until it's finished. Despite knowing that I probably should. Doable, just got to make your holding fixture to hold the rotor.
