B.c. Ames Lathe Delivered Today

Fairbanks

Fairbanks

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Last week I reported that an old friend was shipping me his grandfathers antique lathe. Today it arrived. I am in need of information so please have a look at the pictures that I have attached and feel free to provide your input. As you can see it's a "B.C. Ames." The little bit of research that I have done so far indicates that Ames stopped making machinery in the late 50's and that there isn't a whole lot of information available on the lathes. It seems to be a nicely made lathe approximately 8 1/2" X 15" in size and in reasonably good condition considering its age. Definitely needs a disassembly and through cleaning. I need to figure out how the drive works and set up an appropriate bench once it's cleaned up. It came with a box full of odds and ends that I need to sort through and an incomplete set of collets
Anything you can tell me about this lathe will be helpful. Thanks in Advance!

1. Front View.JPG 2. Rear View.JPG 3. Head Stock.JPG 4. Table.JPG 5. Drive System.JPG 6. B.C. Ames.JPG
 
I have one. Mine is probably older as mine is set up with the flat belt drive. Mine doesn't have that indexing wheel either. That will come in handy.
Mine has oil cups on the spindle where yours has grease fittings (probably not grease fittings they are probably meant for a push oiler)
Some good reading here: http://www.lathes.co.uk/ames/
With zero fussing it is a very accurate lathe.
 
It seems old but the vee belt drive looks younger than the lathe. I do like the indexing set up. good luck with it.
 
David VanNorman said:
It seems old but the vee belt drive looks younger than the lathe. I do like the indexing set up. good luck with it.
Click to expand...

David,

I was wondering about that. I haven't seen any examples of a V belt drive. Do you think flat belts have been replaced with v's?

Steve
 
I may be wrong but I think the flat belt has been changed. It is a nice set up though. I have not seen a lathe like yours to compare it to.
 
I have done a little cleaning and I think I have figured out how the previous owner had the little lathe set up. Here are a couple of pictures:

7..JPG 8..JPG
 
very cool lathe!
you have hundreds of hours of fun ahead! :)
just a fyi,
resist the urge to put synthetic grease in your headstock unless you tear it down and remove all the old grease.
most greases are not compatible with synthetic greases and may cause early, rapid failure. :bang head:
general purpose grease should suffice, unless you know that the synthetic stuff was used before.
 
Last edited:
Ulma Doctor said:
very cool lathe!
you have hundreds of hours of fun ahead! :)
just a fyi,
resist the urge to put synthetic grease in your headstock unless you tear it down and remove all the old grease.
most greases are not compatible with synthetic greases and may cause early, rapid failure. :bang head:
general purpose grease should suffice, unless you know that the synthetic stuff was used before.
Click to expand...

Hey Mike,

Sounds like good advice. I suspect the last time this lathe was lubricated was before synthetic grease had been invented, it hasn't been used in many years. Although it has zerk fittings and looks like it may have been greased I want to find out what it was designed for- grease or spindle oil. Someone may have replaced oil cups with grease fittings, not sure. I am planning to disassemble it soon and clean out the bearings, hopefully this will help me determine what the correct lube is.

More pictures coming!
 
by the look, i'd suspect that it would be oil lubed-
but then again i haven't ever had one apart to confirm that.
a lot of old lathes were oil lubricated.
 
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