Clausing 4914

Are you sure they are cheap? They may have common numbers on them, but they may be high-precision bearings (class 3?) and cost several hundred dollars.
If they are indeed common automotive-grade bearings, then I'd change them.
I'll also concede that current std-quality Timken bearings may well be near equal to the class 3 bearings of 50 years ago.
 
A couple updates.

Yeah I'm sure the bearings are pretty cheap comparatively. They came in around $30 a piece. However, they seem to be in good shape and some other things have come up cost wise so I think I'll just reuse the old bearings.

So the other day I was about to shoot another coat of paint on some parts. Started up my air compressor and was greeted by a motor sound that got continuously lower in pitch until it started smoking... I'm pretty sure my compressor was recalled for exactly this problem. It was a Craftsman 15 gallon 1.5 HP oiless POS. So the weather is getting colder and now I can't paint. Ugh

I have a much better older Craftsman at my mom's house (3 hours away) that used to be my grandfathers. It's has a slightly bigger tank and it's two stage, but I'm not sure I can rewire from 220-110. But it's 3 hours away! Long story short, I went out and bought a new compressor at Harbor Freight. I was going to pick up yet another oiless POS for $160 but it got really bad reviews, in some cases people saying it only lasted a few hours. They had a better 29 gallon, 2 HP two stage compressor for $350. Surprisingly that one gets great reviews. So I bought it, and I have to say it has the nicest fit and finish of anything I've ever bought from HF.

Thanks to a timely bonus check I also picked up some tooling from Shars. I got a 6" 4 jaw chuck, a wedge type QCTP, dead and live centers and some brazed carbide boring bars. So nothing is holding me back now from wrapping up the paint and getting this thing up and running.

As a tool junky I saw this lathe project as an opportunity to have an excuse to buy more tools. I had no idea it would snowball into what is has. I think I may have a problem. Is there a tool addicts anonymous out there? :lmao:
 
Thank you Kent for your posts and ongoing adventures with the 4914 Clausing lathe, you are an inspiration to all that have followed this thread. I, myself, have decided to give it a go at acquiring a good lathe, and have a Clausing 4914 on the way that I just purchaced. I have not run a lathe since highschool shop and after high school at some odd jobs in small machine shops. This has been a good learning thread about some adventure and some misadventures you have experienced, keep up the good work, and get that 4914 running smooth, Thanks


oilslick
 
Thanks for the kind words Oilslick. I am glad that some may find helpful information in this re-hab. I know I greatly appreciate all the info that Sharon and Ken have posted on these machines.

I really need to get my blog updated as it is way behind the actual restoration. I'll try to post some new pics here tonight.

A few more updates, and a few more setbacks. I finally got the bed and chip pan painted up, which meant I could finally start re-assembly. I'm not sure if you guys had help when you put yours together but I sure did a number on my brand new paint job while I was trying to line up all these heavy pieces with each other. After I got the bed, pedestals, chip pan, and base cabinets together I had to squirt a touch up coat on a few heavy scratches. I don't imagine this pristine paint lasting very long at all.

The slab in my shed is not very level or flat so I ended up having to put a piece of plywood under the headstock cabinet to get enough height to get it somewhat level. I will wait till I have all the components back together before final leveling.

I was able to get the motor mounted and wired up. The wiring is still somewhat temporary till I figure out where I want to mount everything. The motor runs extremely smoothly on its own. So I hooked up the motor to the counter shaft. The original ball bearings for the counter shaft were shot so I had installed new ones. I finally started the motor but I was very disappointed when I heard significant vibration in one of the bearings. Upon closer inspection it is now evident that the counter shaft spindle has significant wear and galling at the location of the rear ball bearing, between the two retainer rings. The ball bearing has to be pressed over the end of the shaft but once it reaches it's intended location, its very loose. I think there is enough side to side bearing on the bearing retainers so that I can push the ball bearing out towards the end of the shaft that it has a tight fit on. I see this as a temporary solution so that I can get the lathe running without vibration. Eventually I can make a new counter shaft spindle on the lathe.

So all throughout the re-hab I've had this one special sandwich bag full of the tiniest of parts. Set screws, a few springs, balls, those tiny brass plugs, and of course woodruff keys. I had kept it on my workbench in the same location for months, knowing that these parts would be oh so easy to lose. I even remember having it my hand yesterday morning. But later in the day when I went to start to re-assemble the headstock and needed that big #9 woodruff key for the spindle gear, it vanished. My shop was a mess so I thought it's gotta be here somewhere. I cleaned up the shop. I even dumped the garbage out and sorted through all of it. I searched my apartment top to bottom, the shed, backyard, you get the idea. The bag is gone, nowhere to be found, putting a halt to any reassembly.

Argh!

The worst part is I'm not exactly sure of every part I had in there. When I'd come to needing a set screw or a key, I'd just find the matching one in that bag. I'm pretty sure I can get replacements for everything but it's just a pain in the butt. I'll probably head up to HF and pick up their assorted woodruff key and set screw box sets and hope everything I need can be found within them.

Just another bump in the road on this never ending lathe re-hab.
 
Happens to me all the time. Find something else to do.
It will turn up.
 
architard said:
So all throughout the re-hab I've had this one special sandwich bag full of the tiniest of parts. Set screws, a few springs, balls, those tiny brass plugs, and of course woodruff keys. I had kept it on my workbench in the same location for months, knowing that these parts would be oh so easy to lose. I even remember having it my hand yesterday morning. But later in the day when I went to start to re-assemble the headstock and needed that big #9 woodruff key for the spindle gear, it vanished. My shop was a mess so I thought it's gotta be here somewhere. I cleaned up the shop. I even dumped the garbage out and sorted through all of it. I searched my apartment top to bottom, the shed, backyard, you get the idea. The bag is gone, nowhere to be found, putting a halt to any reassembly.

Argh!

The worst part is I'm not exactly sure of every part I had in there. When I'd come to needing a set screw or a key, I'd just find the matching one in that bag. I'm pretty sure I can get replacements for everything but it's just a pain in the butt. I'll probably head up to HF and pick up their assorted woodruff key and set screw box sets and hope everything I need can be found within them.

Just another bump in the road on this never ending lathe re-hab.
Click to expand...

hate when tht happens. usually if you'll try to find something ELSE, this bag will just show up on it's own.

for future use - I use 2 techniques for these cases depending on which one is more suitable:
1. during disassembly - place each set screw/key/plug in it's threaded hole as a place holder - this way each set of screw/bolt/nut/hole are always matched and in-situ, and during re-assembly you simply take them out , clean, and place them back in their same place.

2. make a printout of the layout of screws, and using masking tape, stick each bolt/screw/nut/part in it's place on the printout, store in closet, and take out during reassembly

hope you find the parts, or replacements.
cheers
 
I came home from work today and went through my now clean shop, shed, backyard, etc and still couldn't find the blasted bag of parts. So I went to HF and picked up some woodruff keys and set screws. Of course the HF woodruff keys are metric, so it took some light grinding to get them to fit snugly.

So I started pressing the headstock spindle together and was not happy at these sounds coming from the bearing. I couldn't figure out how to embed the video in this post so here is a Link

Does that sound like a bad bearing? I'm not sure if I should be worried about that noise or not. I think I probably should replace the bearings. Argh. :whiteflag: I may have to take a break from this project for a few days before I pull all my hair out.
 
definitely does not sound right. unless the feed gears are engaged the spindle should be almost completely silent when turned.

sounds like something is misaligned and is hitting an adjacent surface every time it makes a turn. can you locate what is causing that sound? a specific bearing? a specific cylinder?
 
Have you oiled the bearing? It's not clear from the video, but the bearing will sound like that without lube and without both ends supported in line, try lubing both bearings, reinstall them and gently take up any slack then gradually adjust the pre-load, tapping each end of the shaft with a soft hammer to settle things, check for noise all the way by turning the shaft.

It often helps to over tighten a bit then back off, hope this all makes sense to you.

Bernard
 
Bernard,
I had not oiled it yet. I was thinking along the lines of what you are saying, in that since the bearing wasn't oiled and the opposing bearing hadn't been installed and there was no pre-load I might be getting concerned over nothing. I've kind of resigned myself to the fact that anytime I put an assembly together on this thing I have to put it together, realize something is wrong, take it apart, put it back together, ad nauseum. So I can already foresee myself pressing the headstock together a few more times until everything is right.

Sharon,
As far as I can tell when the bearing is out of the cup, nothing seems wrong with it. All of the individual rollers seem to move properly. There is no noticeable wear or galling on the bearing or its cup.

I went back and found a video I made of the machine running before I tore it apart. I'm not sure I can hear anything that would cause alarm. As far as I remember when I spun the spindle by hand before the tear down everything felt silky smooth.

I'll go ahead and get everything back together with the other bearing, and the bearing take up nut, adjust the pre-load and oil the bearings and see if I still have that vibration. I just didn't want to get to far into the headstock re-assembly if the bearing was no good.
 
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