- Joined
- Mar 10, 2021
- Messages
- 5
Hello all
First post here after joining. So much valuable and useful information on here. Cant wait to learn from all the previous posts and experiences.
Ive jumped into the home fabrication game after finishing up my masters degree and having some extra time to fulfill my home fab shop bucket list. Ive always wanted a Lathe and a Mill.
i found a great deal on a PM728V-T vertical mill with DRO. It was in great shape and is ready to go.
Lathes however were tough to find. After some searching and waiting i pulled the trigger on a bit more of a project than I had originally wanted but figured what better way to learn these machines than tear one apart and put it back together.
I purchased a Grizzly DF1237G gear head lathe. Used, neglected for some time. The owner bought it new in the 80s. Very low hours but lots of sitting.
I purchased the lathe for about $2000 with a bunch of tooling and attachments. The lathe was about 2 hours from my home. The seller lived down a 12 mile desert dirt road. It was a very slow trek to get back to pavement. And of course drama ensued as my trailer got a flat on the freeway as I was driving home, thankfully its a tandem axle trailer and new tires were sourced very quickly.
It spins smooth and true (to my inexperienced eyes). Ive turned a few parts since completion. Still getting used to a threaded spindle.
I took a good chunk of pics as I went through the restoration process. I left the spindle assembly and thread gears pretty much alone but everything else I took down to its individual parts. Stripped and painted.
A Bench grinder with brass and steel wire wheels and the wire wheel attachments for a 4.5in grinder was my best friend through this. Judicious use of WD40 to degrease and cleans eh parts once down to bare.
Once everything was apart, I decided to give the lathe a refresh and went with a black/white theme rather than grizzly green.
I think the lathe came out pretty good. the project took me about 2 weeks working on my days off.
I appreciate any feedback or other areas I should be looking in this lathe to make sure it is accurate and reliable.
Regarding the help:
The lathe was nearly complete. One piece that was missing was the Worm for the power crossfeed. The gear is there, but the worm that the feed rod goes through in the back of the apron is missing.
I’m assuming it’s something I can make myself once i get some experience. The manual for the lathe has a part number but there hasn’t been much help from Grizzly on finding a replacement or even dimensions of the worm so I can turn one myself.
Anybody happen to have this lathe who would be willing to measure pitch and TPI of their worm in the back of their apron? Would be much appreciated.
Thanks again for looking. Here’s a bunch of pics of the restoration. I wish I had more during the cleanup part but alas, I do not.
First post here after joining. So much valuable and useful information on here. Cant wait to learn from all the previous posts and experiences.
Ive jumped into the home fabrication game after finishing up my masters degree and having some extra time to fulfill my home fab shop bucket list. Ive always wanted a Lathe and a Mill.
i found a great deal on a PM728V-T vertical mill with DRO. It was in great shape and is ready to go.
Lathes however were tough to find. After some searching and waiting i pulled the trigger on a bit more of a project than I had originally wanted but figured what better way to learn these machines than tear one apart and put it back together.
I purchased a Grizzly DF1237G gear head lathe. Used, neglected for some time. The owner bought it new in the 80s. Very low hours but lots of sitting.
I purchased the lathe for about $2000 with a bunch of tooling and attachments. The lathe was about 2 hours from my home. The seller lived down a 12 mile desert dirt road. It was a very slow trek to get back to pavement. And of course drama ensued as my trailer got a flat on the freeway as I was driving home, thankfully its a tandem axle trailer and new tires were sourced very quickly.
It spins smooth and true (to my inexperienced eyes). Ive turned a few parts since completion. Still getting used to a threaded spindle.
I took a good chunk of pics as I went through the restoration process. I left the spindle assembly and thread gears pretty much alone but everything else I took down to its individual parts. Stripped and painted.
A Bench grinder with brass and steel wire wheels and the wire wheel attachments for a 4.5in grinder was my best friend through this. Judicious use of WD40 to degrease and cleans eh parts once down to bare.
Once everything was apart, I decided to give the lathe a refresh and went with a black/white theme rather than grizzly green.
I think the lathe came out pretty good. the project took me about 2 weeks working on my days off.
I appreciate any feedback or other areas I should be looking in this lathe to make sure it is accurate and reliable.
Regarding the help:
The lathe was nearly complete. One piece that was missing was the Worm for the power crossfeed. The gear is there, but the worm that the feed rod goes through in the back of the apron is missing.
I’m assuming it’s something I can make myself once i get some experience. The manual for the lathe has a part number but there hasn’t been much help from Grizzly on finding a replacement or even dimensions of the worm so I can turn one myself.
Anybody happen to have this lathe who would be willing to measure pitch and TPI of their worm in the back of their apron? Would be much appreciated.
Thanks again for looking. Here’s a bunch of pics of the restoration. I wish I had more during the cleanup part but alas, I do not.
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