Clean up and fix

Partial strip-down

To bring the lathe into use (because I wanted a lathe to use, not a restoration project...yet!), I gave it a partial strip down, clean and paint. I won't go into too much detail here, but will do when I do a full rebuild.

I didn't take off the saddle, spindle, or anything too complicated...just enoguh to clean the gunge off really. I wirebrushed all the rust off and used gallons of white spirit to remove all the oily mess.

I also dismantled the chucks, crossslide, anything which came apart easily really.

                    

Interesting bits

A couple of interesting features on this lathe.

It has top drip oilers (an older feature as I understand it, which sounds right), but also the filler caps for the internal sump and felt oiling wicks which the newer models had. A bit odd to have both, perhaps this was a "transient" lathe, built as they were changing over. Or perhaps at some point a new bottom has been matched with an old top. Top arrow shows a drip oiler (the other wasn't in place), the bottom two show the fillers for the wicks.

It has a plate from the Ministry of Supply fixed to the back of the tailstock leg. This was a wartime ministry which dealt with supply to the forces, and ran from 1939 to 1959, so the lathe must date somewhere between those two. They were used a lot in US wartime factories.

It reads:

Ministry of Supply
			 Property of 
			 HM Government
			 ******  195227

Perhaps the serial number indicates that it's from 1952?

Normally, one could find the exact date from the lathe's serial number, which is always, apparently, stamped on the front of the bed, at the tailstock end. Not on this one however!

Opinions (from the southbend forum at Practical Machinist, which seems to be the best resource), vary from straight up disbelief, to thinking that maybe the ways have been replaced or reground, or that it was a demo or display model, which sometimes didn't get stamped.

Damage

The poor thing has sustained a bit of damage in a few places. The ways look generally ok, a few dints and a bit of surface rust, but no major wear. There are a couple of teeth missing of a couple of the gears - they still work fine but makes it a bit noisy, so I shall look to replace those in due course. There's quite a bit of wear on the main leadscrew, so I daresay it won't be great for threading.

The real problem was the bushing for the cross-slide leadscrew. This cast bushing had cracked completely in two:

  

Bit of a pig to repair, as welding cast iron can be problematic - the casting tends to cool at a different rate to the weld, and you get cracks. To avoid this, you heat the casting to red heat, then weld it. I managed to do this by clamping it together, then heating in the fire in the front room, using coal and a tube to blow air into! Then ran through the house with the red-hot casting, and quickly welded it in the garage. The crystaline fracture meant that it fitted back together perfectly, which helped. Not the best welding job, but its been working for a few years now - ideally I'll need to replace it eventually though.