Worn Engine Lathe Evaluation

[Bob Korves]

Wes Johnson has a fairly new but interesting and useful channel. Here he looks at the condition of his job shop lathe "by the book."

 

[mikey]

Thanks for that, Bob. Useful to see someone evaluate a lathe like that. I downloaded the book, too, and I appreciate that resource.

 

[Silverbullet]

Some of his problem can be helped by tightening the gib on the slide with that much movement it needs adjustment. And 14 thousandth feed is like cutting threads . It's an engine lathe not a CNC.

 

[4GSR]

I've worked on a lathe or two that tightening the gibs to solid did not help! Slides still moved around as much as .025".

 

[eeler1]

Well, seems like it's all problems, no solutions.

This is one reason I give the my old lathe a shot at level, but then work around wear in the various places. We do the best we can.

Still, good exercise to get a blueprint of the lathe, that alone is a worthy result from the video.

 

[eeler1]

Oh, he's a scrape artist. Now it makes more sense.

 

[Downwindtracker2]

The next vids on the rebuild are interesting.

 

[C-Bag]

I found his methodology facinating and very accessible. What I love is how he went through the whole process and thought he could rule out the spindle bearings because there was no play. But when he put it all together after doing all the checks he knew it had to be the spindle bearings, and sure enough it was. There were so many times as a mechanic I thought I knew what was the problem, but after doing like I was taught and doing as much checking and testing as possible, my first thought was wrong. It pays to be thorough and he's not afraid to show when he's led astray. I've subscribed and will be following his channel.

 

[ericc]

I tried to follow this meandering story, and it seems to have no end. It looks like a mysterious problem with no solution. Is there some kind of summary, somewhere, that ties everything together?

 

[Ken from ontario]

I tried to follow this meandering story, and it seems to have no end. It looks like a mysterious problem with no solution. Is there some kind of summary, somewhere, that ties everything together?

Good question, any solution short of resurfacing/remachining the worn parts seem to be just temporary , I would love to own one of these old and well built lathes in my shop but it is quite a gamble to buy used without knowing what you're doing ,where to look ,what's fixable and what's not.
Videos like the one Bob posted and or blogs like this one I found here a while ago, can make a huge difference.