12” Craftsman Lathe acquisition

[Limbsmith]

Greetings all. Have been a spectator until now. I have been generously given a 12” Craftsman lathe.
the motor runs but will not power the lathe. It changes direction of rotation with each cycle of the on/off switch. There is no tooling. I need some hand holding of where to start both mechanically and electrically. I would like to do a full on restoration before turning anything but am terrified of breaking or misassembling something or honestly, getting discourage. Not stupid just ignorant of the machine and machining. Old dog that can be taught. Been a spectator of forum and many many machining videos. Guidance please.

 

[markba633csi]

Great lathe for free! The motor might be a bit small for that lathe- you probably would want a 3/4 to 1 hp. Not sure why the changing rotation but probably it's mis-wired somehow- post some more pics of it and the wires coming out, I can take a stab at fixing it
-Mark

 

[mickri]

Welcome to the forum. Lots of knowledgeable people on here that will help you out. I have the same lathe. The manual is in the downloads or can be found at Vintage Machinery. Your lathe does not look to be in bad condition. Needs to be cleaned and lubricated. The only thing that I see wrong is someone in the past cut off the handle to release tension on the drive belts. Search Ebay for a replacement. You can probably make one too. Also the belt guard is missing. Forum member ARC-170 is parting out a craftsman lathe. He might have these parts.

My lathe has a forward/reverse switch so I can't help too much on why your lathe is changing direction each time you turn it on. And the manual doesn't have a wiring diagram. You should be able to find the wiring diagram for the motor online. There should also be a wiring diagram on the inside cover of the motor.

It is helpful to have each question you have numbered. Then people can respond by number. Look at ARC-170's threads on his craftsman 12 lathes as an example.

Don't get discouraged. We will get you up and running.

 

[Limbsmith]

Great lathe for free! The motor might be a bit small for that lathe- you probably would want a 3/4 to 1 hp. Not sure why the changing rotation but probably it's mis-wired somehow- post some more pics of it and the wires coming out, I can take a stab at fixing it
-Mark

I am not a smart man but free seemed like an excellent price right! I will post more pics as I tear into it. Thanks

 

[Limbsmith]

Welcome to the forum. Lots of knowledgeable people on here that will help you out. I have the same lathe. The manual is in the downloads or can be found at Vintage Machinery. Your lathe does not look to be in bad condition. Needs to be cleaned and lubricated. The only thing that I see wrong is someone in the past cut off the handle to release tension on the drive belts. Search Ebay for a replacement. You can probably make one too. Also the belt guard is missing. Forum member ARC-170 is parting out a craftsman lathe. He might have these parts.

My lathe has a forward/reverse switch so I can't help too much on why your lathe is changing direction each time you turn it on. And the manual doesn't have a wiring diagram. You should be able to find the wiring diagram for the motor online. There should also be a wiring diagram on the inside cover of the motor.

It is helpful to have each question you have numbered. Then people can respond by number. Look at ARC-170's threads on his craftsman 12 lathes as an example.

Don't get discouraged. We will get you up and running.

Thank you sir. I will look for the tension release handle. I have the pulley cover. Part of the hinge is broken so I have it put aside. I will heed your advice on question numbering going forward.Thanks for the reply and encouragement! I will be back often with questions(numbered of course) as I go through it. I am crazy busy at work right now but was excited to present it to the forum as a jump off point. It will be slow in progress for that reason.

 

[markba633csi]

I suspect the start capacitor on your motor may be failing, causing the goofy start behavior. Just a hunch.
I have a similar model and it's a versatile machine. Can even cut some metric threads with the addition of two gears
-Mark

 

[mickri]

Swap the two 48 idler gears for a 52/44 combo gear and you can cut most of the common metric threads just by moving the sliding gear to the inner position. You loose the threads 7.5 tpi and coarser. The manual for the QCGB lists hundreds of threads that can be cut with the right gears. Another must have manual for this lathe.

 

[ARC-170]

Also the belt guard is missing. Forum member ARC-170 is parting out a craftsman lathe. He might have these parts.

It is helpful to have each question you have numbered. Then people can respond by number. Look at ARC-170's threads on his craftsman 12 lathes as an example.

Welcome!

A. LATHE COVER
I'm actually not parting it out; I'm cleaning it up and selling it. It's almost done and looks pretty good. It's not the same model as this (it's a 101.27440, early1950's vintage), so I don't think the cover I have will fit it anyway.

B. NUMBERING YOUR QUESTIONS
I've used letters for my reply, but you can use numbers in the same way. I strongly recommend using numbers since you run out of single letters at 26. I make the question/subject bold and all caps, too. I would also suggest asking specific questions about specific items or subjects and not being afraid to post several questions in one post. The numbers will help people answer them without any confusion.