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- Sep 22, 2010
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How Dennis Turk Polishes Lathe Parts.
(reposted with Dennis' permission)
Hi Rick
You may have seen some of my lathe restorations and what I do for hand
wheels and hand cranks is this. First I remove the bat handle from the
hand wheel. I have soft aluminum jaws in my bench vice that I can hang
onto the bat handle with. Then by twisting I work the bat handle off
the hand wheel. Next using my cordless drill motor I work the bat
handle against my 8 inch medium and fine scotch bright deburing wheels.
Then I go to big Bertha monster buffer and polish the bat handle. Then
using an arbor made of a bolt and nut I mount the hand wheel on the
arbor and again using my drill motor I work the hand wheel rim. if its
badly rust pitted or bad nicks and dings I have a little one inch wide
belt sander.(cheap kind) that I smooth out the hand wheel rim with.
Then again I go to the deburing wheels and then to the cloth buffer. I
do use red and green polishing compound on the cloth wheel.
Most of you guys will not have all these tools but as I am always
restoring something over the years I have collected all the tools that
work well. Total time to polish a bat handle and hand wheel once the
bat handle has been removed is about five to six minutes. Ya get good
at it if you do it a lot like I have.
Now if your bat handle is damaged or broken you can remove what is left
by carefully sawing what is left of the bat handle off very close to the
hand wheel rim. Next file or sand as flat as you can what is left in
the hand wheel. Now center punch what is left of the bat handle so you
can center drill and then drill and tap for a 10-32 thread. Now using a
good quality socket head cap screw you can jack what is left of the bat
handle out of the hand wheel. Not to worry about were to get a new one
because McMaster Carr as well as MSC stock bat handles in the sizes that
SB Dalton Sheldon as well as Champion used on there lathes. the pattern
of the bat handle has not changed in over a 100 years so you can get
exact replacements. If the hole in your hand wheel is oversized or the
bat handle is not a snug press fit use some 635 locketight or equivalent
to hold it in place.
I do the same thing for cross feed and compound counterbalanced hand
cranks. Some times these can be a real bugger to work on so be carful.
Use leather gloves when your buffing and polish the best you can. I
usually cant get the bat handles out of the hand cranks so I just cut
them off jack them out what is left and after polishing the large center
section I install new bat handles. The replacements will have a
different luster to them than what you get with your buffer so I always
polish even a new bat handle so the finish is the same.. When your
polishing the center section of the hand crank it helps to use a rod
that has been turned down so its a snug fit in the lead screw bore and
about six inches long. this is a nice handle to keep a little better
control of a small hand crank.
So there you have what I have used for years.
As to bed ways I use white scotch bright pad as well as 0000 steel wool
and also us an aluminum polish like Simichrome. its a lot of work but
you can bring a nice luster back to your bed ways without really
removing any material. You may rub off a tenth or so but your lathe
wont know the difference. On the machined surfaces I use the same thing
as I did with the bed but I may also use my fine deburing wheel to bring
back a luster or that newly machined look to the part. I try very hard
not to change the surface finish that was originally machined onto the
part. Again the deburing wheels work wonders on rusty or badly stained
cone pulleys and also the sides of gears but never the teeth. I only
use my very fine wire brush wheel on gear teeth. What I have again is
mounted on big Bertha and like the cloth buffing wheel is a 12 diameter
.004 wire size wire wheel. These are very soft and dont scratch. If
you use anything with heavier wire size than .003 to .004 you will badly
scratch the original surface and you will lose the original machining marks.
Now if someone is better with words than I am put this info in the file
section for others to read later.
Turk
(reposted with Dennis' permission)
Hi Rick
You may have seen some of my lathe restorations and what I do for hand
wheels and hand cranks is this. First I remove the bat handle from the
hand wheel. I have soft aluminum jaws in my bench vice that I can hang
onto the bat handle with. Then by twisting I work the bat handle off
the hand wheel. Next using my cordless drill motor I work the bat
handle against my 8 inch medium and fine scotch bright deburing wheels.
Then I go to big Bertha monster buffer and polish the bat handle. Then
using an arbor made of a bolt and nut I mount the hand wheel on the
arbor and again using my drill motor I work the hand wheel rim. if its
badly rust pitted or bad nicks and dings I have a little one inch wide
belt sander.(cheap kind) that I smooth out the hand wheel rim with.
Then again I go to the deburing wheels and then to the cloth buffer. I
do use red and green polishing compound on the cloth wheel.
Most of you guys will not have all these tools but as I am always
restoring something over the years I have collected all the tools that
work well. Total time to polish a bat handle and hand wheel once the
bat handle has been removed is about five to six minutes. Ya get good
at it if you do it a lot like I have.
Now if your bat handle is damaged or broken you can remove what is left
by carefully sawing what is left of the bat handle off very close to the
hand wheel rim. Next file or sand as flat as you can what is left in
the hand wheel. Now center punch what is left of the bat handle so you
can center drill and then drill and tap for a 10-32 thread. Now using a
good quality socket head cap screw you can jack what is left of the bat
handle out of the hand wheel. Not to worry about were to get a new one
because McMaster Carr as well as MSC stock bat handles in the sizes that
SB Dalton Sheldon as well as Champion used on there lathes. the pattern
of the bat handle has not changed in over a 100 years so you can get
exact replacements. If the hole in your hand wheel is oversized or the
bat handle is not a snug press fit use some 635 locketight or equivalent
to hold it in place.
I do the same thing for cross feed and compound counterbalanced hand
cranks. Some times these can be a real bugger to work on so be carful.
Use leather gloves when your buffing and polish the best you can. I
usually cant get the bat handles out of the hand cranks so I just cut
them off jack them out what is left and after polishing the large center
section I install new bat handles. The replacements will have a
different luster to them than what you get with your buffer so I always
polish even a new bat handle so the finish is the same.. When your
polishing the center section of the hand crank it helps to use a rod
that has been turned down so its a snug fit in the lead screw bore and
about six inches long. this is a nice handle to keep a little better
control of a small hand crank.
So there you have what I have used for years.
As to bed ways I use white scotch bright pad as well as 0000 steel wool
and also us an aluminum polish like Simichrome. its a lot of work but
you can bring a nice luster back to your bed ways without really
removing any material. You may rub off a tenth or so but your lathe
wont know the difference. On the machined surfaces I use the same thing
as I did with the bed but I may also use my fine deburing wheel to bring
back a luster or that newly machined look to the part. I try very hard
not to change the surface finish that was originally machined onto the
part. Again the deburing wheels work wonders on rusty or badly stained
cone pulleys and also the sides of gears but never the teeth. I only
use my very fine wire brush wheel on gear teeth. What I have again is
mounted on big Bertha and like the cloth buffing wheel is a 12 diameter
.004 wire size wire wheel. These are very soft and dont scratch. If
you use anything with heavier wire size than .003 to .004 you will badly
scratch the original surface and you will lose the original machining marks.
Now if someone is better with words than I am put this info in the file
section for others to read later.
Turk
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