Thread: Lathe restoration

A foot ring is more stable than a flat bottom for a bowl. An easy technique for professional treatment is to use a plywood disk on a faceplate, with a groove turned to mate with the rim of the bowl. Wrap some tape (duct, masking, filament strongest) across to the back of the disk to hold the bowl. It's described by Betty Scarpino on page 111 of "Lathes and Turning Techniques - The Best of Fine Woodworking" - ISBN 1-56158-021-X.

Cheers,
Joe

Paul: I see why the breadknife now. The thinner cut would make it much easier to saw straight afterwards, I imagine. And on sharpening, Rowley's companion video to his book has an excellent section on sharpening a variety of tools using a simple jig and a grinder similiar to the one I have here at home, so hopefully I'll be able to keep sharp tools without too much trouble (although I imagine getting the bevel right will take a bit of practice - it looks so easy in the video!).

Joe: Thanks. I'll look up the book if I find I'm unsatisfied with the methods I have available to me now.

(double post - different topic)

I've cleaned it up enough to start playing, and started just with some small square pine. As I'm rough cutting it to round, the threaded part of the tailstock (i forget the name - you do it up to clamp in the wood) is slowly undoing itself.

What might be the cause? My thought is perhaps the bearing in the tailstock isn't loose enough, but it doesn't feel rough at all when i spin it with nothing in there.

It has a collar on the thread which seems to do nothing at all (see tailstock photo from my second post). I assume this should be tight up against the post? It becomes loose again immediately on turning the lathe on.

How tight should I be doing it up? The points at each end are several mm into the wood, and it feels fairly tight to me.

For now I'll just keep turning and stop every few minutes to retighten.

Most tail stock have a spindle lock on them to stop that happening.

On yours I would hazard a guess and say that you have to tighten the knurled nut after you have the centre in the timber.

Loosen the knurled nut, tighten the spindle and then lock the knurled nut to the housing.

Originally Posted by

Most tail stock have a spindle lock on them to stop that happening.

On yours I would hazard a guess and say that you have to tighten the knurled nut after you have the centre in the timber.

Loosen the knurled nut, tighten the spindle and then lock the knurled nut to the housing.

Yeah, that's what I was doing. It seems to do nothing at all - the nut comes loose as soon as the lathe is started.

Brendan

OK then. Try this.

Tighten the spindle up, loosen it just a fraction, tighten the knurled nut up to the tailstock, hold the knurled nut and tighten both the knurled nut and spindle together.

Really stretching the imagination, but it's possible a previous user dismantled the tailstock and re-assembled it wrong. For RH threads (which is customary and appears here), the knurled jam nut would function better for locking on the live- (or especially dead-) center end of the tailstock, for normal rotation of the lathe. The hand wheel is probably attached to the shaft with a grub screw. (I hope).

The book has more info, of course, but my summary should be sufficient for trial.

Cheers,
Joe

Originally Posted by joe greiner

Really stretching the imagination, but it's possible a previous user dismantled the tailstock and re-assembled it wrong. For RH threads (which is customary and appears here), the knurled jam nut would function better for locking on the live- (or especially dead-) center end of the tailstock, for normal rotation of the lathe. The hand wheel is probably attached to the shaft with a grub screw. (I hope).

The book has more info, of course, but my summary should be sufficient for trial.

Cheers,
Joe

See, that's what I thought. The nut should be on the other side of the post so that it pushes up against the post rather than just wandering along the thread towards the handle as it does now (I think that's what you're saying). But I can't see any way to take off the spindle bearing. The handle is attached with a grub screw, so I can take the nut off one side but not put it on the other.

The handle is also loose and needs a replacement, but that's a different story.

Originally Posted by

OK then. Try this.

Tighten the spindle up, loosen it just a fraction, tighten the knurled nut up to the tailstock, hold the knurled nut and tighten both the knurled nut and spindle together.

I'm guessing this is just to do it tighter? I haven't tried this but I did tighten the nut with some vice-grips yesterday and that seemed to help a bit. I was then cutting small round green wood rather than roughing square dry wood, so there was a lot less force pushing on it. I only had to rewind it every ~10 minutes rather than every ~5 (or 15 at one point when I forgot, and almost lost it all...)

Brendan

The live center bearing is probably attached by mysterious means, so this might improve the (likely) erroneous re-assembly:

Wind the knurled jam nut back to the handwheel.

Advance the quill with the handwheel to almost the back end of the tailstock, so as to expose lots of thread at the live center end.

Remove the handwheel and the knurled jam nut.

Wrap the exposed threaded shaft with inner-tube material (or similar) for protection.

Grip the protected shaft with pliers, and remove it from the tailstock body toward the headstock. Lubrication may be needed.

Clean all parts, and lubricate lightly.

Place the knurled jam nut on the threaded shaft, and run it almost to the live center.

Replace the threaded shaft into the tailstock body, with protection and pliers as for its removal.

When the threaded shaft projects far enough from the back of the tailstock, re-attach the handwheel, and wind the quill back to the parked position.


Proceed with normal operation, using the knurled jam nut for locking.


Cheers,
Joe

My brother pointed this out to me earlier, and was quite amused that I didn't think of taking the whole thing out myself. I can't try it today (I have to go to work shortly) and this super long weekend is pretty busy. I'll let you know when I've had a chance to get back to it.

I made a cute mushroom though

Brendan

Very nice mushroom!!

G'Day Randir
My first lathe was identical to the one in your photos. Whilst I can't remember the exact configuration of that knurled lock-nut on the Tailstock, I reckon it would be better placed on the inside rather than on the outside. Possibly the handwheel would be easier to remove than the live centre. Then wind the spindle all the way through and re-position the lock-nut. Worth a try? The headstock spindle size was, if I remember correctly, 3/4 inch x 16 tpi. This size was, I think, on early Coronet and Record lathes, and so there were some Multi-Chuck thingos available in the early 90's to suit those lathes. You could possibly get spindle inserts to suit modern scroll chucks in 3/4 16 tpi, but really, I suggest you play with spindle turning initially without spending any money on this lathe. If you find you like woodturning and want to continue - then buy a second hand lathe - a MC1100 or whatever you can afford. Then you can join the rest of the woodturning fraternity in pouring money into a bottomless pit of having to buy a certain something to do that certain something.
Bon Voyage
Mick C.

Originally Posted by mañana

If you find you like woodturning and want to continue - then buy a second hand lathe - a MC1100 or whatever you can afford. Then you can join the rest of the woodturning fraternity in pouring money into a bottomless pit of having to buy a certain something to do that certain something.
Bon Voyage
Mick C.

Ah yes, the madness

Joe and Mick,
I did as you both suggested and put the lock nut on the head-side of the post. Tightening the nut by hand it actually appeared to be worse than when it was on the handle-side, but when I tightened it with vice-grips I turned for a good 15 minutes without having to retighten it. It's a pain having to use vicegrips every time to tighten and loosen it, and it damages the nut, but perhaps I'll have to make do with that for the moment. At some stage I'll make a nut with a handle so that I have a bit of leverage without using seperate tools.

My newest problem is to do with the headstock. If you look at the 'headstock.jpg' from my second post in this thread you'll see that there's an enourmous green faceplate with the point only sticking out of the centre perhaps 12-14mm. This means I have perhaps 2-5mm past the wood that I'm turning before my tool would hit the metal faceplate, which means I have to be painfully slow and careful at that end.
Any idea how I would take that faceplate off? I can't see any grub screws like on the handle, and it doesn't seem to just tug off (although I haven't been too forceful with that).

Brendan