J.J. Mcabe 4014

[theradioshop]

Hi Guys,

Well, I went and bought a bigger lathe than my little harbor Freight.
I found a J.J. McCabe model 4010 just an hour away.

Some information:
Bed length 78 inches
38 inches between centers
Center of chuck to bed 7 1/4 inch
3 jaw 9 inch chuck.
1 1/4 bore ( I think)
Change gears
Lantern tool post
Power cross feed
10 inch back plate
Dead centers (3)
Jacobs chuck
Lots of HSS

The guy had it on market place for two weeks. Only had a few look at it.
I drove there Sunday and fell in love with it. The current owner does not need the lathe and just wanted to get it out of the shop. He is 76 years young and can remember it sitting in the exact spot when he was just a boy. The lathe and shop belonged to his father.

First thing I did was clean the grease and dust from the ways and they looked great. There was some damage near the chuck end (small dents), but other than that I could not see much wear. From what I was told it has been sitting there for over 60 years and was from the early 1900's. Have yet to find a serial number. The whole machine was covered in this layer of black grease, which probably preserved it as there was no rust.

Behind the lathe was a cone spindle mounted to the wall which was turned by an electric motor in the rafters. It fired up and ran with no problems but the flat belt was in bad shape. Other than that there is a loose gear in the apron that has to be addressed.

I cannot really believe the lathe sat there so long without any takers. He was asking 450 dollars for the machine.
In the mean time since I got it home I have been online looking for information on the unit but have hit a dead end. There is not much out there on the J.J. McCabe lathes. Would love to find a manual but does not look good.

Tomorrow I am going to start the inspection and cleaning process. Goin to pull the apron and check out the loose gear. BTW this thing is heavy!
I am going to take plenty of pictures and video the restoration. See if I can document as much as possible.
Attached is the picture from the original listing.

 

[francist]

A link from Vintage Machinery on McCabe lathes for those interested…

J. J. McCabe Lathe & Machinery Corp. - History | VintageMachinery.org

 

[benmychree]

McCabe was quite well known for their double spindle lathes, a lower spindle for normal work and another one above and to the rear of the lower spindle the tailstock also with two spindles to match, and the compound rest with a raising block; the California Railroad Museum has o good sized one at the museum in Jamestown, I think, their whole machine shop is preserved. the lower spindle had a gear screwed on the spindle that drove the faceplate on the upper spindle via internal gears on the faceplate.

 

[benmychree]

Our local electric railroad, the Napa, Calistoga and San Francisco Railway had a McCabe double spindle lathe in their shops, and although the railroad shut down in the late 1930s, the lathe was used by the Basalt Shipyard during WW-2 for work beyond the capacity of their tools.

 

[theradioshop]

Thanks for that link francist, interesting article.

benmychree,

That double spindle lathe was one of the first pictures I pulled up while searching for information.
Looks like a beast and thanks for sharing.

​

 

[graham-xrf]

It looks like some fine old precision iron. Previous owners were a guy and his Daddy. The key phrase there was "fell in love with it"!
OK - clean it up. Use a flat stone to check for raised burrs near the dings, but let the lathe wear them proudly. They are part of it's history!

 

[theradioshop]

It looks like some fine old precision iron. Previous owners were a guy and his Daddy. The key phrase there was "fell in love with it"!
OK - clean it up. Use a flat stone to check for raised burrs near the dings, but let the lathe wear them proudly. They are part of it's history!

Correct!
I tell you looking through this old shop and the way it was set it was very nice. You could tell his dad was very proud of what he did. He still had a few other pieces of gear left. I should had taken pictures darn it. There was a huge metal brake about 8 foot long, a metal shear with q 48 one half inch throat, foot operated. There was also a huge sheet metal cutter/bead roller.

There were six vintage stove pipe metal crimpers, one had an electric motor and gear box attached. My brother that was there helping me could not keep his eyes off of them, so I purchased all six and gave them to him.

I agree about the history part. I see that in a lot of old equipment. In restoring vintage electronics I mention so many times about the history to look for and the story the unit has to tell. I like getting things working and keep it's original patina.

This lathe has two sets of ways, one for the carriage (outer) and one for the tail stock (inner). It is the inner ways that received the dents so nothing will never ride on that surface. This is most likely from work pieces and chuck changes. The outer ways only have a few dings at the chuck end.

 

[benmychree]

Mostly all lathes have two sets of ways as you describe, and nearly all of them, the tailstock ways near the chuck are pretty beat up, but no matter, that part does not get used.

 

[theradioshop]

Thanks, been so long since I used a real lathe I could not remember if they had two sets of ways.

Yesterday I was off and tackled a couple of issues I had noticed.

First, when you turn the carriage hand wheel there was a nut on the front of the apron that seems loose and wobbled around.
Second when the power cross slide is engaged and turn the shaft nothing happened. Cross slide would not move.

I removed the carriage and the apron. This gave me a better understanding how this were built and what the issues were.

First picture shows the nut that was loose.
Second picture shows what is attached to that nut, all I had to do was tighten it up.
Third picture is the assembly removed and found there was a missing pin.
Fourth picture explains why the power feed did not work. It was missing the keyway that rides in the worm gear.

This did solve both of those problems. While I was in there, I removed all the old harden grease and cleaned the assembly up a bit.
Keep in mind that all of this will be disassembled again for a complete cleaning and inspection.
The carriage now runs nice and smooth across the ways now, no binding or noise at all. I engaged the half nut and ran the carriage with no problems. I also ran the power feed and checked that the cross slide now moves. All this was done using a HD power drill to turn the shafts as the lathe does not have its own power connected.

 

[benmychree]

That key in the worm would have gib heads on both ends.