Thread: Sheraton AR, another 9" Australian clone

Very nice work, No one ever seems to say a bad thing about Sheraton lathes..

BH,

That's one hell of a restoration job, congratulations. It looks as though you have put in many, many hours of work, will be a pity to get it dirty. How far did you take the restoration, ie, back to bare metal? Would like to hear what processes you used, spray or brush, metal polishing etc.

Ken

looks excellent. Much patience.

Tis that a new chuck?

So a curiosity question - what is the spindle nose on the Sheraton and if the chuck is new what did you choose?

Thanks for the kind replies guys, happy to answer any questions as well.

In my mind, the looks come second to the mechanical condition of any machine, however, this looked awful as the green paint had been chipped away to reveal a pink bodyfiller/undercoat. I wire brushed the old paint off some of the parts to bare metal, or just rough sanded the rest.
Simply sprayed on an industrial undercoat and top coated with an industrial grey enamel. This was as close to the original colour I could easily get.
Later on I found the hard enamel was easy to chip, so the last 30% of the machine was painted with a White Knight brand of single coat epoxy, with a hand brush. A better idea, as I could get away with one coat most of the time.
Also, if it gets scratched in future, easy to quickly paint over.

As I stripped everything down, I wire brushed (on a bench grinder) various steel bits to clean the crud off. Bolt threads cleaned up make it easier to assemble.
As for the metal, the Sheraton is easy, as the handwheels and levers are chrome plated as standard. The hardened bed ways are just cleaned up and other smaller parts have been "blackened" to avoid rusting.

Yes, it has a new "TOS" chuck, a small one but accurate. I have the older large chucks but they are a bit worn. The spindle thread is same as the Hercus, but the mainshaft is a harder steel and less easily bruised. Looking at the rear gear, it shows nominal wear.

I hope I don't sound like I am putting the Hercus down as a comparison, but I like to compare it to another copy of the 9" Southbend. It has some older methods used in the motor drive, including a flat pulley and a tedious method of taking the cover off to change the belt for pulley speeds. But then it has a nice tailstock clamp with split brass sleeves, and a spring under the tailstock clamp to make it move smoothly. There are lots of differences with the smaller parts.

Regards,
Peter

great job

have you got the full tapper turning attachment to go with that slide?

Hi Patrick,

No I don,t have any more parts to the taper slide.
Probably used as a missile by a hostile student.
As there was a small production run (my number is 221) perhaps they all had the same slide?

I have not even seen another bearing headstock sheraton 9" lathe, just a few of the earlier plain bearing models.
It would be interesting to hear from other owners, as information is scarce.

I should mention that my next project is a restoration of a Sheraton 10" Conquest model, that was made exclusively for the army. It has an internal geared headstock, but similar bed. I was fortunate to get some info on this model from another forum member (sheraton) who owns a good example.

Regards,
Peter

BH,

Thanks for the feedback on your restoration, and I should say, brilliant photos.

You mentioned in your post, that some of your parts were blackened. No more secrets, what blackening process was used, who did it, and at what cost?

Ken

Hi Ken,
Sorry, this is the way they were supplied new. I have no knowledge, but
have seen discussions from other blogs on this blackening subject.
I think if you searched up gun or rifle restoration, there are commercial products available from the states.
Regards,
Peter

it would be interesting to know the price difference between hercus and other clones as yours looks like a quality lathe

Thats a good question Bart.
Maybe someone a bit more experienced may have an opinion.
Have just stripped the metric machine apron down to clean. Looks like new, put it back without using any undue force.
Only problem is the taper pin to the handwheel has been previously forced in cracking the cast flange. I really wonder why they persisted with taper pins as used in the 1930's, when everyone else changed to roll pins?
Probably bore out the centre and machine a bush to fix.
By the way, I noticed this on the web about blackening
ASTEG - Blackfast Chemical Blackening
Could be of interest to Ken.
Regards,
Peter

so here' s the BIG question: do you sell them after restoring????
(beautiful job, makes the rest of us keep dreaming)

it would be interesting to know the price difference between hercus and other clones as yours looks like a quality lathe

Yes that would be interesting, surely competion would have made their prices very similar. In contradiction to the opinions expressed here I recall the opinion of someone with a great deal of experience with these lathes that the Hercus was better made than the Sheraton. Personally I'd say both were well made. The Hercus Crafstman which came standard with a hardened bed and the 260 would compare very favourably with the late model Sheraton, I'd take either of them in top nic hands down over a top nic late model 9" Sheraton.

Dear BF could you post a close up photo of the crosslide and the quick change tool holder. I made some crosslides for Hercus machines But I havent had much to do with Sheriton. I also made castings for a quick change tool holder these were cast in SG Iron and were popular. 4-6-4

I will take some shots of the conquest crosslide, it has slots as standard.
I think It could probably interchange with a hercus bed, as the slides are similar.
Regards,
Peter