thompy
23rd April 2011, 03:39 AM
Pre apologies for this long winded story, but i wanted to share the experience, and express some thanks.
I arrived back in my hometown and finally got myself in front of the lathe my pops had left me, a bit sad, a bit nostalgic, a bit anxious, walked around it doing a quick visual, located the tooling and checking the tailstock / banjo / head unit, breifly. All seemed ok for what it is. A Roval (pic1).
Found a bit of pine to screw to the faceplate as a test and potential sacrificial chuck, i'd first seen this when i started lurking on this forum and looking over Carl Jacobson's website and youtube video's, checked my sleeves and glasses, adjusted the banjo, checked the speed, stood back and turned it on, my god the vibration, ok so the mounting was a bit dodgy but secure enough for me to test it all out after sitting for so long unused, the lighting was too poor to take a pic of it on the iphone.
Grabbed a roughing gouge, one of 8 tools he had in the beginners set and began to turn it round, very quickly i remembered reading about the grind angles i needed (on the forum again), and this chisel had an angle like a knife, i looked at the others and they too were the same (also remembered seeing this conversation about wrong angle grinds on the cheapy chisel sets), turned off the lathe and went to the grinder for some freehand sharpening.
Sharpening done, went back to the lathe turned it on, and continued rounding the chuck up, got it to round and descided the vibration was a little too pronounced and a knock had been progressivly getting louder. Hmm. Turned the power off opened the pulley door and found when i changed the speed belt the top pulley was moving oddly, it came off the shaft in my hand.
The allen key grub screw had wound its way out of the flat and was barely holding. Considering myself a bit lucky, i went searching for an allen key set, i found one with two allen keys left on it (those ones on a keyring with the little springs to hold em). Went to the big green and red place bought a set and a hot glue gun.
Got back in and fixed the pulley, found two bits of timber that were offcuts of an odd grey hardwood still with bark, about the sized of a closed fist each (Gran thinks they were a corkwood of some sort). Used the hotglue gun to mount one then the other later on, and settled in for the first real lathe work i'd done in 22 odd years. My gran's a knitter/crochet/seamstress so i figured a little box for pins might be worth a try. (latter pics) I surprised myself and didn't expect to turn anything useable other than kindling.
I got a reasonable finish with the few bits of sandpaper i found and a "POP" fit on the lid. Gran had some very old linseed beeswax furniture polish (in a tin) i had to add some linseed oil to make it useable.
After i was done turning, i changed the speed a few times and checked its running at the top speed pulley, the motor began getting hot and little smoke whisps began to appear. I turned it off and dismantled it for transport home. I'm a bit worried about that, i am not sure wether it was a heat buildup over the time i'd been using it and began smoking, or wether it was because it had never run on anything but low speed while pop used it.
I do know i'm up for a belt minimum, I just cant trust a 10-15 year old belt beyond what i did. I didn't hear bearings squealing, again i'm not sure if the motor / spindle bearings are something i can lube or repack. I'd like to see what it and i are both capable of before i retire it to a 12" disc sander since its got a LOT of sentimental value to me.
So again apologies for the long story, and perhaps i should have put this in my blog, and here's why i didn't,
Thank you all, past and present forumites, without some very sage advice and tips and tricks i learnt here from many topics and threads on these forums, i might not have done the visual checks, i might not have used the right thoughts and tools in the right order and might have done myself an injury.
Neal.
Ps: Any thoughts on these things motor's / bearings. And also, should i be retensioning the belt at each speed/pulley change? quite a long time since turning for both the lathe and myself. An odd sticker on the front of the lathe as well seems to indicate some sort of electrical earthing screw? like a cap T.
I arrived back in my hometown and finally got myself in front of the lathe my pops had left me, a bit sad, a bit nostalgic, a bit anxious, walked around it doing a quick visual, located the tooling and checking the tailstock / banjo / head unit, breifly. All seemed ok for what it is. A Roval (pic1).
Found a bit of pine to screw to the faceplate as a test and potential sacrificial chuck, i'd first seen this when i started lurking on this forum and looking over Carl Jacobson's website and youtube video's, checked my sleeves and glasses, adjusted the banjo, checked the speed, stood back and turned it on, my god the vibration, ok so the mounting was a bit dodgy but secure enough for me to test it all out after sitting for so long unused, the lighting was too poor to take a pic of it on the iphone.
Grabbed a roughing gouge, one of 8 tools he had in the beginners set and began to turn it round, very quickly i remembered reading about the grind angles i needed (on the forum again), and this chisel had an angle like a knife, i looked at the others and they too were the same (also remembered seeing this conversation about wrong angle grinds on the cheapy chisel sets), turned off the lathe and went to the grinder for some freehand sharpening.
Sharpening done, went back to the lathe turned it on, and continued rounding the chuck up, got it to round and descided the vibration was a little too pronounced and a knock had been progressivly getting louder. Hmm. Turned the power off opened the pulley door and found when i changed the speed belt the top pulley was moving oddly, it came off the shaft in my hand.
The allen key grub screw had wound its way out of the flat and was barely holding. Considering myself a bit lucky, i went searching for an allen key set, i found one with two allen keys left on it (those ones on a keyring with the little springs to hold em). Went to the big green and red place bought a set and a hot glue gun.
Got back in and fixed the pulley, found two bits of timber that were offcuts of an odd grey hardwood still with bark, about the sized of a closed fist each (Gran thinks they were a corkwood of some sort). Used the hotglue gun to mount one then the other later on, and settled in for the first real lathe work i'd done in 22 odd years. My gran's a knitter/crochet/seamstress so i figured a little box for pins might be worth a try. (latter pics) I surprised myself and didn't expect to turn anything useable other than kindling.
I got a reasonable finish with the few bits of sandpaper i found and a "POP" fit on the lid. Gran had some very old linseed beeswax furniture polish (in a tin) i had to add some linseed oil to make it useable.
After i was done turning, i changed the speed a few times and checked its running at the top speed pulley, the motor began getting hot and little smoke whisps began to appear. I turned it off and dismantled it for transport home. I'm a bit worried about that, i am not sure wether it was a heat buildup over the time i'd been using it and began smoking, or wether it was because it had never run on anything but low speed while pop used it.
I do know i'm up for a belt minimum, I just cant trust a 10-15 year old belt beyond what i did. I didn't hear bearings squealing, again i'm not sure if the motor / spindle bearings are something i can lube or repack. I'd like to see what it and i are both capable of before i retire it to a 12" disc sander since its got a LOT of sentimental value to me.
So again apologies for the long story, and perhaps i should have put this in my blog, and here's why i didn't,
Thank you all, past and present forumites, without some very sage advice and tips and tricks i learnt here from many topics and threads on these forums, i might not have done the visual checks, i might not have used the right thoughts and tools in the right order and might have done myself an injury.
Neal.
Ps: Any thoughts on these things motor's / bearings. And also, should i be retensioning the belt at each speed/pulley change? quite a long time since turning for both the lathe and myself. An odd sticker on the front of the lathe as well seems to indicate some sort of electrical earthing screw? like a cap T.