bought a lathe, gotta make it better

[Kuffy]

hey guys,
Got back from Newcastle yesterday after a long long drive to pick up an old Woodfast wood lathe. One of those 950mm between centers lathe. Its a great lathe, Aussie built in SA.
372577372578372579

You can see in the third image, the morse taper in the headstock is very corroded. I can buy a MT2 hand reamer and ream the corrosion away. Having never used a hand reamer before, I wonder how easily would I be able to ruin the taper completely. Does the reamer kind of guide itself in, or am I able to redirect the reamers path to be anything but inline with the shaft. I ask because I find it pretty easy to ruin a perfectly good drilled hole in steel bar when trying to tap a thread into the hole.

Also, the lathe is pretty noisy at the moment so I would like to reduce that as much as possible. Sounds like the bearings are grinding, so I will clean them and re-grease. I will also add some convoluted foam inside the motor cabinet (while allowing airflow to continue). Is there anything else which you guys have done to reduce noise from the lathes?

And...I am assuming the spindle thread is 30 x 3.5 unless anyone knows better?

Thanks

[seriph1]

what a lovely machine .... looks light industrial to me ... should certainly go the distance, well done mate

[artme]

I personally would not use a hand reamer on that Morse taper. How to get it done does present
a problem. You will probably have to dismantle the headstock and take tja section to a engineering
or machine shop and get the job done accurately.

If you are going to dimantle the head stock I would also have a good look at the bearings. They may
replacing and it would be better to do it now than have to pull the whole thing apat agin at a later date.

Looks like a good solid machine with a lifetime's fun to be had. Enjoy!!:2tsup::2tsup::2tsup:

[Nubsnstubs]

Hi Kuffy, I can tell you from recent experience how easy it is to ruin something. Just recently I made a female MT2 taper in a spindle for someone. Since I had the set up and an extra piece of steel, I made one for my self as I made a bunch of live centers over the last 3 years. I wanted the female taper to make a cutaway to see how the male tapers fit into the female. I got a reamer, and spent about 2 minutes reaming by hand to clean up the ripples the lathe made in the taper. I then put put live center into the socket, and it was close to the ebd. A couple more twists with the reamer and the live center doesn't seat anymore. Both tapers meet the angle tolerances, but the female is at the high end, and the live center is at the low end size range. . What I'm saying is, I reamed the taper until it became over sized. The live center taper was machined to the size indicated as acceptable for MT 2.

Now for the good news. All is not lost because if you do ream your spindle, and it becomes over sized, grind about 1/16' off the end of your spindle and the MT should now fit. If it's still loose, grind off another 1/16". Looking at the picture of the spindle threads, it looks like you have a lot there. I wouldn't think that removing 1/8" (.125")( 3mm?) would be an issue for your spindle.

I really didn't ruin anything. I did that to find asolution for the problem people run into when they ream out too much material in the socket. Just cut off a little of the socket is to make the male part fit. Cheaper than purchasing a new spindle if you don't really have to. ............ Jerry (in Tucson)

[Yanis]

For a lathe that good I would play the long game. If, as you say the bearings are noisy then I would not bother to re-pack, I would replace. To do that you need to disassemble the headstock. If you are doing that then you would be better off to descale the socket before attempting to ream it. You can use your favourtie descaling compound or use electrolytic descaling. The latter seems to work a treat from the you toob videos I have seen. (Not done it myself .... yet.)

Having descaled it you may find that the taper is fine but in any case if you do have to ream it then it would be very much easier without the rust and maybe only need a very fine touch up.

The other alternative (after re-assembly) is to use a chuck in the tail stock which would make it more accurate.

John

[Kuffy]

Jerry, I don't understand how cutting the spindle back shorter and shorter changes anything. A morse taper is just a straight taper isn't it? or is it a curve? I thought it is just a perfectly straight cone shape. If i reamed the female taper to be bigger than it currently is, doesn't that mean the male drivespur will simply go further into the spindle before locking?

John, to descale can i use white vinegar? I see Michael Cthulhu on youtube soaking his sword blanks in a vinegar bath to remove the rust. seems to work, but i don't know what happens to older rust which may or may not be pitted.

[Yanis]

Jerry, I don't understand how cutting the spindle back shorter and shorter changes anything. A morse taper is just a straight taper isn't it? or is it a curve? I thought it is just a perfectly straight cone shape. If i reamed the female taper to be bigger than it currently is, doesn't that mean the male drivespur will simply go further into the spindle before locking?

John, to descale can i use white vinegar? I see Michael Cthulhu on youtube soaking his sword blanks in a vinegar bath to remove the rust. seems to work, but i don't know what happens to older rust which may or may not be pitted.

This was the one that impressed me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQNvhUYqCkw

There are many examples on you tube though.

No descaling process will leave the surface perfect so depending on how much rust there is it may need more or less work. I had a wasps nest in my taper and I simply cleaned it out and it was as good as new.

Also you can simply soak in vinegar or any of the other descalers.

As for nubnstubs comment, the taper usually has a shoulder to it and the male can bottom out in the female taper.

John

[BobL]

If you get an MT2 hand reamer with a centre hole in the handle end you can use a live centre in the tail stock to locate the reamer accurately.
McJng has the MT2 Reamers for $38.
With appropriate lube and light tailstock / live centre pressure turn the reamer with a spanner until you get a clean surface.

[chambezio]

Bob is spot on with the reamer centred in the tail stock revolving centre.

I cut a #2 morse taper from scratch on my own lathe that I manufactured.

Use a vice grip to hold the reamer still,(lean the vice grip on your tool rest) bring up the tail stock to give support to the reamer then use your left hand to wind the head stock pulley, while your right hand keeps a small amount of pressure on the reamer.

It will surprise you how little effort it will be to clean it up. In my case I drilled a number of different sized holes to remove the bulk of the metal in the spindle, then set up the reamer. The whole job took me 10 minutes. Yours will take even less because you are just "reaming" to clean the existing taper. I think I used WD 40 as a lubricant.

[hughie]

hey guys,
Got back from Newcastle yesterday after a long long drive to pick up an old Woodfast wood lathe. One of those 950mm between centers lathe. Its a great lathe, Aussie built in SA.
372577372578372579

You can see in the third image, the morse taper in the headstock is very corroded. I can buy a MT2 hand reamer and ream the corrosion away. Having never used a hand reamer before, I wonder how easily would I be able to ruin the taper completely. Does the reamer kind of guide itself in, or am I able to redirect the reamers path to be anything but inline with the shaft. I ask because I find it pretty easy to ruin a perfectly good drilled hole in steel bar when trying to tap a thread into the hole.

Also, the lathe is pretty noisy at the moment so I would like to reduce that as much as possible. Sounds like the bearings are grinding, so I will clean them and re-grease. I will also add some convoluted foam inside the motor cabinet (while allowing airflow to continue). Is there anything else which you guys have done to reduce noise from the lathes?

And...I am assuming the spindle thread is 30 x 3.5 unless anyone knows better?

Thanks

http://www.woodworkforums.com/archive/index.php/t-121416.html
http://www.woodworkforums.com/archive/index.php/t-124725.html
http://www.fingerlakeswoodturners.com/downloads/HowareYourBearings-1.pdf
http://www.teknatool.com/products/Chucks/Identifying%20Lathe%20Spindle%20Thread.pdf

Most likely its 1” 10TPI BSF RH

[Kuffy]

Thanks Hughie for the technatool link. definitely a M30 x 3.5 RH thread.

Tried soaking the spindle in vinegar, while still installed in the headstock. It removed some of the rust, but it really needs to be soaked for many more hours. the rust that was removed exposed really nice, not pitted fresh metal. After reading a previous thread on this forum, i am not very keen on removing the spindle...seems like one hell of a chore.

Ill get a reamer and use the tailstock to guide it in as suggested. I wonder how tempting it will be to speed things up a lot by turning the lathe on while the reamer is inside the spindle :D

Thanks guys.

[BobL]

Tried soaking the spindle in vinegar, while still installed in the headstock. It removed some of the rust, but it really needs to be soaked for many more hours. the rust that was removed exposed really nice, not pitted fresh metal. After reading a previous thread on this forum, i am not very keen on removing the spindle...seems like one hell of a chore.


I would use something something like Fertan (which is basically tannic acid but like most other acids it won't attack the steel even slightly) but convert the rust to a layer of Iron Tannate. Iron tannate is friable and will rub off with a stiff cloth.
The way I would do it is stuff the spindle with some sponge and use a syringe to soak the sponge till it dribbles out of the spindle. Leave it overnight and rub off the Iron Tannate.
Repeat several times and then use a reamer.

Be aware that Fertan can make a mess and turns any rust black but it also stains many things it touches. It's quite expensive but it does a good job




Ill get a reamer and use the tailstock to guide it in as suggested. I wonder how tempting it will be to speed things up a lot by turning the lathe on while the reamer is inside the spindle :D

Definitely not, especially of it is a hand reamer as it could end up snapping inside the spindle.

[KBs PensNmore]

Hi Kuffy,
I wouldn't do that, as it will ruin the reamer and possibly the spindle at the same time. That's why they're called a HAND reamer.
Don't be tempted to fit the reamer in a drill chuck either, as a wood lathe is not set up as accurately as a metal lathe, not in line, could be out horizontally or vertically, I know mine is both ways.
Kryn

[powderpost]

I wonder how tempting it will be to speed things up a lot by turning the lathe on while the reamer is inside the spindle :D

Thanks guys.

Don't do it, go steady by hand.... I bought the same model lathe, in 1981. Look on the end of the bed and you will find the model, number made and the date. The thread on mine is 30 x 3.5.

Jim

[China]

If you are going to replace the bearings you will removing the spindle anyway

[Kuffy]

lol guys, dont worry. i wont connect the power to the lathe with the reamer inside, but thankyou for the concern :)

Bob, I have the spindle 100% filled with vinegar at the moment. gonna leave it overnight. I did it your way, stuffing with sponges, first this arvo for a few hours, but then thought of a better way. I jacked up one end of the lathe to create an incline in the spindle (helps fill it up with vinegar). Then i have put a balloon on the low end and wrapped it with plumbing teflon tape to make a fairly good watertight seal around the threads. Then did the same thing with balloon to the other end but left this balloon a little longer. Cut the balloon open, poured in some vinegar until it was completely full and clamped the open end balloon above the waterline. Hopefully when i wake up and remove the vinegar and give it a quick scrub, ill be left with a perfect morse taper not needing reaming. will save myself a few bucks ;)

Jim. mine says "LBL 108 83". model lbl, number 108 made, made in 1983?

[BobL]

lol guys, dont worry. i wont connect the power to the lathe with the reamer inside, but thankyou for the concern :)

Bob, I have the spindle 100% filled with vinegar at the moment. gonna leave it overnight. I did it your way, stuffing with sponges, first this arvo for a few hours, but then thought of a better way. I jacked up one end of the lathe to create an incline in the spindle (helps fill it up with vinegar). Then i have put a balloon on the low end and wrapped it with plumbing teflon tape to make a fairly good watertight seal around the threads. Then did the same thing with balloon to the other end but left this balloon a little longer. Cut the balloon open, poured in some vinegar until it was completely full and clamped the open end balloon above the waterline. Hopefully when i wake up and remove the vinegar and give it a quick scrub, ill be left with a perfect morse taper not needing reaming. will save myself a few bucks ;)

Jim. mine says "LBL 108 83". model lbl, number 108 made, made in 1983?

Sounds good. There is of course vinegar and VINEGAR.
If its plain old household vinegar then overnight should be OK but if its VINEGAR (industrial) I wouldn't leave it overrnight.

[Kuffy]

Just normal white vinegar from coles.

[Nubsnstubs]

Jerry, I don't understand how cutting the spindle back shorter and shorter changes anything. A morse taper is just a straight taper isn't it? or is it a curve? I thought it is just a perfectly straight cone shape. If i reamed the female taper to be bigger than it currently is, doesn't that mean the male drivespur will simply go further into the spindle before locking?.


Kuffy, this is all hypothetical. It's a worst case scenario in case you did ream your taper and messed it up. I will do it to prove my theory today on the one I made. Results tomorrow.

Now, the Morse Taper is a cone. When you shorten the female cone, the male cone will sit higher in the female cone. It works every time. That's just the way things are. A MT2 male taper at the large end is .700", and the small end is .572?" I believe. These two dimensions occur at a length of 2 1/2" (2.50") . I don't know what the actual angle is, 1.4901234°?(hypothetical, but close), but that's the sizes needed to make an accurate MT2. The female socket is the same. I've checked a lot of tapers I've purchased and most are more than .010 larger than the minimum stated above. This causes the male taper to protrude out a little from end of the spindle or quill. When someone reams their quill or spindle and makes it over sized, whatever you insert into the over sized taper, it will bottom out on the end of the spindle/quill, and not seat properly. At that particular time, people panic and go out and purchase another part they just messed up.

That's not necessary if you have the length to remove about .060" off the end of quill/spindle. Grind while on the lathe with it running and using a right angle grinder. After you think you removed enough, stop and check the fit. If it doesn't fit, remove the same if you still have the length. Keep it up until you get it right or have to go out and buy a new part. I have 3 lathes. All have only about 1" of threads. Your spindle looks like it has more than 1" length. I think a spindle can work properly with just 6 threads on a 8 tpi threaded spindle.

I hope this makes sense. .........Jerry (in Tucson)

[artme]

Been wondering about the idea of the reamer centred using the tailstock.

I respect Bobble's opinions and experiences greatly but I cannot see how this would
work effectively.As I see it this method relies on a good eye and good luck as the reamer
will not be held on centre and in line. The moment the business end hits the corrosion it is
likely to move off centre and out of line. Dn't forget that rust can be hard and obstinate.

If there were a reamer that had a Morse taper to fit INTO the tailstock I can see possibilities there.

[Paul39]

Kuffy,

After you have soaked the inside of your spindle with vinegar rinse with hot water several times to get as much of the acid out as possible. Run some rags through the spindle to dry things out.

With a MT2 drive center or a tail center that you can get a grip on, liberally oil up and rotate in the MT socket in the spindle, press in gently so it rubs, wipe out the female and wipe off the male, re oil and repeat until the wiping cloth is quite clean.

This should get you a nice tight fit. Don't be concerned about pitting as the high surface will hold the position.

Oil up a rag and run it through the spindle to get some oil on the entire inside.

Some years ago I bought a Woodfast 20 inch swing short bed that had the drive center and tail center rusted in place.

After lots of penetrating oil, heat, tapping with a light hammer, and a couple whacks with a big hammer, they came out. I did the grinding in place with oil as above and it has worked fine since.

It is good to remove, oil and replace anything you keep on the lathe a couple times a year so things do not get stuck.

Drive and tail centers, chuck, face plate, hand wheel. My hand wheel is left hand thread, so check yours before using excessive force.

The cabinet acts like the body of a musical instrument to amplify the noise. You could glue some sound deadening material to the big panels to keep them from resonating. Some thick felt or some foam floor pad material that links together would do.

You can listen to your bearings by putting a screwdriver tip on the front and rear of the housing where the spindle comes through and pressing your ear against the handle end. A good bearing will make a whirring sound. A bad one a crunching, grinding sound. I would not rush into replacing bearings unless you are getting crunching & grinding.

Hold the belt off the spindle pulley and give the spindle a spin, if it turns freely, it should be OK. Run the lathe for 15 minutes on the second lowest speed and shut it down and feel the housing at front and back where the spindle comes through. If it is slightly warm and about the same temperature front and back you are good.

Bearing failure is indicated by any or some of; being able to move the spindle side to side, housing getting too hot to touch, crunching grinding or squealing noise, spindle hard to turn by hand.

The old Woodfasts are wonderful lathes, possibly better than the newer ones.

[Kuffy]

thanks Paul. thats some great info. Your not wrong about the cabinet resonating noise. If the doors are closed and the handles are left or right of the one exact good spot, the cabinet just resonates a high frequency rumble. Im gonna glue some cut pile carpet in there (its what i have available for the right price). Using your method to check the bearings in the same way as checking for knocks in a crankshaft worked well. I reckon the bearings are good enough as they are. Ill see what happens to them if i ever choose to spin a 500mm diameter bowl blank.

left the vinegar soaking the spindle overnight for about 13hours. to my eye, it didn't do anything, and i am beginning to wonder if it is rust or caked on burnished wood dust. it doesn't flake off or cut easily so i guess it is rust, just strange that the vinegar had such little effect. I have cleaned it out with rags to dry up the vinegar and sprayed with WD40 several times over the course of the day. I have a reamer on order which should arrive mid next week.

[Paul39]

Kuffy,

A few middle of the night thoughts:

If the gook in the taper is oil and rust the vinegar would not do much. WD40 should soften that a bit. If it is wood dust, shellac, and linseed oil from French Polish, same. Wood alcohol, methyl spirits?, should soften that. If wood dust and lacquer, or linseed oil, lacquer thinner.

Before using your MT reamer try to scrub or scrape out as much of whatever is in there first. A tooth brush with any or all of the above solvents, and a small bladed paring knife might do it. If the gook is rust, hard and abrasive, which will dull your reamer quickly.

When you ream, lock the spindle with the stop if your lathe has one, or wrap rope tightly around the space between the hand wheel and headstock until it will not turn.

There should be a hole in the center of the back of the reamer. Put the reamer into the MT socket of the spindle and bring the tail stock up to the reamer with preferably a 60 degree live or dead center.

Lock the tails stock to the bed and bring the center in the hole up until the reamer gently touching the inside of the taper. Squirt some WD40 into the MT. Turn the reamer with a wrench until it turns freely. Keep turning and advance the tail center slowly, adding WD40. After a couple advances take out the reamer and wipe out the taper to see how things look. Keep repeating the above until you see mostly shiny in the taper.

My reasoning for locking the spindle and reaming, rather than centering the reamer and rotating the spindle is that wood lathes are usually not built as tightly as metal lathes. If the tail center is one or two thousands of an inch off it would bell mouth the taper and any correct angle taper put in it would be held at the back and flop around in the front.

By reaming with the spindle held in one place, the male MT would be held snugly. It might be at a small angle and not make a difference to a drive center. It might make a small difference with a MT drill chuck holding a drill.

Proceed slowly and carefully, and check frequently. After cleaning out a fair amount, you might stick a clean drive center in the spindle to see how things are going.

You might refer this thread to the metal working section to cross check the above. Most engineers / machinists are quite opinionated, so you will likely get a variety of comments. I am far enough away so that my dog is not likely to be shot and my house burned down.:D:D:D

[Kuffy]

The reamers arrived this morning after being ordered friday morning. Gotta love AusPost.

I have reamed out the taper as much as I dare at the moment. I didn't realise it would be so difficult. It started off really easy, and I was questioning why its so bad to turn the lathe on. But...then as I had cut through much of the proud sitting corrosion and started to bite into the actual steel, it got really hard really quickly. I can't believe the amount of torque needing to rotate the reamer! There is still some/lots of rust inside the taper, but its all sitting low of the reamed surface so it doesn't foul anything.

Would it be worthwhile to clean it properly removing all of the corrosion (does rust spread like a plague)? I did put the old drive spur which came with the lathe, which is in very very average condition (will be replaced by a crown spur), but it did lock into the taper nice and tight needing a screwdriver shoved through the back to pop it back out.

So far I have just been holding the spindle pulleys by hand to stop rotation and spinning the reamer with a short 11mm open ended spanner. to do it further I will need to rig something to stop the spindle from spinning and use a much bigger spanner.

My photography is as good as my metalworking, you can kind of see shiny parts inside the taper, thats the fresh metal.
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[Paul39]

Kuffy,

Is the knob to the right of the spindle in the photos the spindle lock? If it is, there will be a rotating plate with holes, or there will be holes in the pulley inside. The holes are engaged by pulling the knob out and turning 1/4 turn and pushing in, then gently turning the spindle until the pin drops into the hole.

At this point I would oil up the drive center and put a bit of household abrasive cleanser on it and hone the inside of the taper. That will also hone the outside of the drive center and make it fit snugly. Hopefully your new drive center will fit as well. If not you can hone it in with oil and abrasive.

If you keep the tapers lightly oiled the rust will not spread. Give the spindle taper a liberal soaking of auto engine oil and stuff a rag in it overnight so the rusty places will absorb oil.

Things don't have to be pretty to work. Rude Osolnik's lathe, from: Rude OsolnikMaster Woodturner1915-2001 - Home (http://www.rudeosolnik.com/)
http://www.rudeosolnik.com/uploads/5/4/6/0/54603561/1765040_orig.jpg

[DaveTTC]

Whats not pretty about that. ... its gorgeous!

Dave TTC
Turning Wood Into Art

[Paul39]

Whats not pretty about that. ... its gorgeous!

Dave TTC
Turning Wood Into Art

The power goes from a motor through a 4 speed truck transmission, see gear shift on right, then to the counter shaft.

16 speeds forward, four in reverse. The lathe is an old Oliver. One can buy a very nice used car for what big old Oliver or Wadkin lathes sell for nowadays.

[DaveTTC]

Slight change to op. I thought of running a line shaft off an old car front end

Dave TTC
Turning Wood Into Art

[Kuffy]

Things don't have to be pretty to work.

Yeah....I'm reminded of this everytime I look in the mirror.

Its a good idea to hone the male and female tapers together using abrasive. Something along the lines of valve grinding compound? Or will this only work on alloy and cast heads?

[DaveTTC]

You should only need the reamer as far as i know

Dave TTC
Turning Wood Into Art

[jmk89]

You should only need the reamer as far as i know

Dave TTC
Turning Wood Into Art

That's my belief as well, ,but if I was going to use a grinding medium, I would try some jewellers' rouge, rather than valve grinding paste.
I have, on one desperate occasion, used tooth paste as a grinding medium - I don't know if they still put pumice in there, but I know that it does work OK if you can't get proper stuff. (in the case I was dealing with, I was still at uni and one summer I was helping a geologist on a field trip. I can't remember quite what the doohickey was for, but we were miles from anywhere and needed to lap two pieces of metal for an experimental device - if it worked (which it did), we could use it on that field trip. If it didn't, then he would make it in workshop back in Perth. So no downside in giving toothpaste a go - gives a new meaning to the old advertising slogan "Are your Macleans showing?" :U)

[Paul39]

Yeah....I'm reminded of this everytime I look in the mirror.

Its a good idea to hone the male and female tapers together using abrasive. Something along the lines of valve grinding compound? Or will this only work on alloy and cast heads?

I think valve grinding compound would be too aggressive. You want more of a polish than a grind. As stated below the reamed surface should be fine, unless you have some chatter, or some stuff lifted out of the rusted pits.

A few times a year I oil up all my taper accessories and twist them around in the MT sockets in the head and tail stock. I am amazed at the rust and gook that comes off clean looking surfaces when I wipe out and off the tapers.

I think it is good to have the tapers snug together with not the slightest wobble.

[Kuffy]

After spending the day with a master woodturner, I checked out his woodfast lathe. His spindle runs much more quietly so I have decided to bite the bullet and replace the bearings on my lathe. It didn't take long before I knew this wasn't going to be an easy chore, when is anything ever easy!

I have removed all grub screws in the pulleys and on the lefthand thread locking nut. Im trying to remove the LH locking nut which 'i believe' is threaded to the shaft, so i need to twist it off. But the issue is that it is a round nut, no flat surfaces to grip with a spanner. There is 2 grub screw holes on opposite sides to each other on the locking nut. Does anyone know of a tool that will be able to reach into the two holes and use that as the gripping point like a spanner? Failing that I can grind two flat sections on the nut. I have tried using an allen key in the hole and using that as leverage, and also tried to attach a clamp to the nut and use the clamp as a spanner. But the locking nut isn't budging. My guess is because when the grub screws were drilled in, it has left a mighty burr between nut and spindle! I have the locking nut dripping with WD40 at the moment.

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[Kuffy]

Nevermind. I went to maccas to get some brain food and it cleared my mental block. I need a C spanner :doh:

[NeilS]

I had and used that model of Woodfast for many years and it is a good lathe; well worth the effort you are going through.

While you have the spindle disconnected I recommend that you also replace the belt with a new one and also install a spare belt (just loop it over the spindle and secure it out of the way for when it may be eventually needed). The cost of belts is minimal but the effort involved in removing and replacing the spindle to install a replacement belt is quite an effort, as you are finding out.

If you are still not satisfied with the surface finish of the MT2 in your spindle, you might also consider getting a competent machine shop to re-machine that back to specification while it is off the lathe.

The chaps at Woodfast are helpful and can give you good advice on removing and reinstalling the spindle.

Phone: (08) 8241 2205
E-mail: [email protected]
Business hours 8:00am - 3:30pm MON - FRI

[NeilS]

On the cabinet noise, wait until you have replaced the bearings to see what improvement that makes, then tighten up the grip on the door catches if noise is still an issue.

Also check to make sure that the feet are all taking an equal weight on the floor. I added weights (railway line sections) to the bottom of the cabinets to increase stability that would have also been beneficial for vibration noise.

And, if noise is still an issue after that, screw plywood or MDF, strategically located, inside the cabinet (screw from outside). Add a layer of carpet or whatever between the wood and cabinet if you think it is needed, although that will catch dust.

[Kuffy]

A C spanner arrived this morning, so instead of doing actual urgent work. I decided to spend "a few minutes" pulling the spindle out of the lathe so i can order the appropriate bearings and vee belt. 3 hours later, here I am with one removed spindle and a minor problem.

I removed the spindle by hitting it towards the tail stock. first with my standard 560gm claw hammer. too small, too light, damaging the LH thread etc. So i stepped up to my heavier rubber mallet. This moved the spindle up to where the pulley was about 1/4" away from the LH thread and then it wouldn't budge anymore. After a few minutes scratching my head, I remembered my good ole 3 pound sledgy! That thing made short work of the process ;)

the problem I have, as I hit the spindle, the bearings and spacers popped loose. they spilled out onto the ground. I only have a partial idea as to how to put humpty dumpty back together again.

Does this picture look about right? working left to right in the picture i have..

big flange, bearing, spacer, some kind of flange thing the same diameter as the bearing with a vee groove around the edge, spacer, PULLEY, spacer, vee groove flange thing, spacer, bearing, LH thread locking nut.

I am unsure as to whether there should be a spacer between the bearing a vee groove flange.
375984375985

Thanks :)

[NeilS]

A tip for next time, courtesy of the boys at Woodfast, run a bar through the shaft before dislodging it. That way you get to see the order and orientation or the components before replacing the bearings.

[Kuffy]

I got the lathe back together, and it only took me 3 attempts.

The first attempt I got about half way and realised I had put the pulley on backwards, which wouldn't be a problem if I wanted 4 belt locations all giving the same 1425rpm speed :club:

The second attempt went perfectly. Was relatively easy to knock the spindle through, as I had smoothed out any burrs and polished the inside of the pulley. There was actually quite large bumps in the spindle where the grub screws which lock the pulley down had pressed into the spindle. Then I went to switch it on. Start on a slow speed seems like a good idea. Turn around to see the vee belts on the bench!!!!!! :upset:
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Third and final attempt! knock the spindle back through enough to get the vee belts in and the re-assemble. This was actually really really easy. took about 3 minutes. The hardest part was winding the LH thread lock nut that last 1/16th of a turn to get the grub screw holes to align properly. I nearly pulled the lathe over on top of myself, thats how much force I was using ;)

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Only thing I need to do now is figure out a good, duarable method of holding the spare belt out of the way of the active belt. There isn't much room inside between the cast walls and active belt. I think its a job for duct tape or similar ;)

Its pretty quiet now when running at max RPM. You can clearly hear the motor, but you cant hear the spindle. I replaced both bearings with shielded bearings, saves me having to buy a grease gun and grease etc etc. 3206ZZ and 6206ZZ. The double row bearing is really expensive, 100bux was the initial quote before the guy saw the shocked look on my face and gave it to me for 70bux.

Thankyou guys for all of the help given.

[NCArcher]

Why the spare belt? Now that you know how to do it it's fairly simple to replace the belt.
Or if it does break, replace it with a link belt. Cut the old one off and use the new one.
As long as the pulleys are lined up it will last many years.
Mine is a similar vintage to yours but it had two bearings on the drive spindle end rather than the double race bearing
I've just this weekend gone, set it up with a VFD and given it a run. The new bearings felt a little stiff when turning it by hand but it runs beautifully with very little noise.

[Kuffy]

It was suggested to me to install a spare belt in case the active one breaks. easier to fix etc etc. When I was at the bearing shop, I asked how much for a A66 belt. he said 33bux. if it was 50bux I would have passed, but for 30bux I'll just skip maccas for dinner tonight and tomorrow night.

I thought about putting two double row bearings in the drive end of the headstock. but at 70bux each, it was pretty expensive. it could have easily been done by putting one bearing on the right side of the circ clip inside the headstock bearing chamber and the other bearing on the left side of the circ clip. Just need to toss one spacer and one vee groove flange thing in the bin. it works out to be the exact same width of 47mm. but with a max 12" swing, I doubt I will need the added support, so i didn't deem it to be a worthwhile expense.

my new bearings are also stiff when turning it by hand, but yes, it does run quietly.