After a year, CVA has returned home. The rebuilder had some family health issues that delayed the process but i was busy most of that time working on the old Monarch 60. The bed was ground and about .010 taken off the Vee and Turcite of approx .030 was added to the saddle and scraped in. The CVA is a very close copy of a 10EE but with a 6 speed gearbox located near the motor. There is a back gear but like the 10EE, there are no gears in the headstock. My Smart Brown is similar in that regard which makes for a fine finish. The gearbox runs in oil and originally had several leaks, as did other areas. All is dry now. The feed and thread gearbox had issues but i found replacements for the broken parts in the UK. I had been into the lathe and fixed enough to get it running and assess what i had. I'm fair at rehabbing the mechanical stuff and decent at the cosmetic but don't have the ability or desire to grind and scrape. It has been nice to have a machine that is like new but built as they were in the 1950s.
I still need to level, convert the drive to a vfd system Mark Jacobs did for me, and do some real testing. As it stands, with an old chuck and a stick out of 4", a 1.5" steel bar tests within .0004-.0006. I expect to dial it in a little better when I sort through the variables. Cross slide screw has .005 backlash but was good enough to leave alone. There was some wear in the center but not much given the .005 compromise si it was not replaced. Seals, and assorted parts were replaced, motor was swapped to a Baldor ECP 5 hp, and oiling system was repaired.
All in all, I'm happy with the work. Not a Concours or Tailstock 4 restoration but I wouldn't want to pay for that level ( at least cosmetically ) either.
I'll have more later and will talk about the economics vs fixing what doesn't work and saving the money if there is interest. I'm an accountant in real life so the money part of the experiment is of interest in my world.
Dave
