Barnes 4 1/2 lathe

[Crank]

There I was, just minding my own business yesterday, when suddenly a lathed darted out of the bushes and jumped into the back of my truck . It was scared, dirty and injured, so I did the right thing and brought it home, gave it a bath and fed it some oil.

The old bugger is a Barnes 4 1/2, originally human powered lathe, missing some major parts, but ran quietly with the redneck motor swap. It would be quite an endeavor to restore it back to the velocipede drive, but I think I will make some repairs to get it operating normally. At least I saved the legs from being stolen to create some kind of hipster/steampunk furniture.

Here is a video of it running:

Shortly after that I took it completely down to the ways with the legs still attached so that I could assess what needs to be repaired, replaced or found. My wife was less than thrilled that I got another lathe, but she did think it was neat looking and liked the color (WHEW!)

If anyone happens to have some reasonably priced drive parts, I might consider returning it to human power so let me know by PM. Otherwise, what I have found that will need repair or replacement, I most likely will be able to machine replacements, but some of the cast parts and gears might be easier to just find replacements.

If you have one of these, feel free to chime in and show off what you have, I never knew these existed until I found it, but they are a neat piece of history.

Mark

 

[Ulma Doctor]

cool lathe!

 

[Crank]

Thanks. It's typical of me to wind up with more projects than I have time to mess with, but this thing just looked too neat to pass up. Luckily, the price was very fair because the owner needed rent money and wasn't using it. I will hopefully finish painting the carriage and tailstock on my Takisawa, so that I can get that back in service as my primary lathe. That will let me start making parts for this one and the revamped drive for my Schaublin 102.

I realized that after about 16 years not doing it, I have completely lost my skill at brazing when I tried to make a simple repair with MAPP gas on the spindle pulley. I will need to fire up the O/A and spend some time practicing.... I will most likely need to braze some teeth on the rack for the carriage. I hopefully can find a small horizontal mill or a shaper to cut some teeth. I really don't want to get a conversion unit for my BP mill, I would rather a dedicated machine.

Mark

 

[Crank]

Here is one of the items I think I can mill out of steel and make it better.


That is the carrier for the half nut selector, it's already a creative repair but not worth fixing.

Mark

 

[Ulma Doctor]

Thanks. It's typical of me to wind up with more projects than I have time to mess with, but this thing just looked too neat to pass up. Luckily, the price was very fair because the owner needed rent money and wasn't using it. I will hopefully finish painting the carriage and tailstock on my Takisawa, so that I can get that back in service as my primary lathe. That will let me start making parts for this one and the revamped drive for my Schaublin 102.
I realized that after about 16 years not doing it, I have completely lost my skill at brazing when I tried to make a simple repair with MAPP gas on the spindle pulley. I will need to fire up the O/A and spend some time practicing.... I will most likely need to braze some teeth on the rack for the carriage. I hopefully can find a small horizontal mill or a shaper to cut some teeth. I really don't want to get a conversion unit for my BP mill, I would rather a dedicated machine.
Mark

Hi Mark,
i know the feeling of having too many projects - i too, keep finding orphans that nobody loves anymore.
i'm also accustomed to making a broken machine work to fix another machine, that's half of the fum!!!

i wish you the very best of luck in finding a shaper or small horizontal mill, and with the lathe too !

 

[Lockman]

I replaced my rack in 2 long pieces of steel. The original cast iron was too brittle. It had been to be milled thinner to clear the carriage.

 

[Crank]

Lockman,
Handy to know that. I have a feeling some of the repairs are going to be way better/durable than what the factory had.

Mark

 

[Crank]

I'm going to nudge this thread back to life. Life has been a wee bit hectic, especially over the past six months and after an "intervention " with my friends last weekend to help me get my shop cleaned up I have decided that I need to pass the torch to get this little guy fixed up. If any of you "old iron" types think you have any interest PM me. It's still apart, so the whole thing could fit in a hatchback or reasonable sized trunk.

Hopefully, I can get my life a bit more streamlined and limit myself to just two lathes. I'm not going to post this in the for sale section just yet, I want the regulars that haunt this section to know it's coming available. I have some other stuff, that I'll be posting in the classifieds first (RPC, transformer and a DRO head) once I figure out how to upload pictures from my newer phone.

Mark

 

[TrollForge]

There I was, just minding my own business yesterday, when suddenly a lathed darted out of the bushes and jumped into the back of my truck . It was scared, dirty and injured, so I did the right thing and brought it home, gave it a bath and fed it some oil.

The old bugger is a Barnes 4 1/2, originally human powered lathe, missing some major parts, but ran quietly with the redneck motor swap. It would be quite an endeavor to restore it back to the velocipede drive, but I think I will make some repairs to get it operating normally. At least I saved the legs from being stolen to create some kind of hipster/steampunk furniture.

Here is a video of it running:

<snip>

Mark

Awesome, I already had this in my Barnes Play list...

 

[Robwell]

There I was, just minding my own business yesterday, when suddenly a lathed darted out of the bushes and jumped into the back of my truck . It was scared, dirty and injured, so I did the right thing and brought it home, gave it a bath and fed it some oil.



Mark

Hello all,

I just picked up a Barnes 4 1/2 from an auction for NZD$45. Apart from being filthy it is in pretty good condition. Still has the legs, so as Mark pointed out I'm intentionally depriving a hipster of a lampstand. The motor has been hung from the main treadle wheel, but has broken off, so I'll need to see if anyone can do cast iron welding, or I'll make an overlay plate to hold it. But my biggest issue is that I'm missing the gearing to drive the twin screws. Even though I know exactly what I need I'm thinking it's going to be difficult to find them in little old Aotearoa.

Robert.