Worn ways?

Thanks again Pacer. You, me and Tony will have to get together for coffee. And the coffee is on me, as long as you drink Community Dark Roast!

I've got a couple of good Starrett machinist levels and I'll go to work on the lathe tomorrow. Well, maybe not tomorrow since I have to get some work out of the shop asap. But as soon as I can, I'll make sure things are dead nuts level.

Thanks again for all the help.

Harry
 
canerodscom said:
Hmm, I'm not sure what ARF is, Tony. Can you give me a hint? Believe it or not, there are several hundred makers of bamboo rods working today. Very, very few make rods full time like I do, but there are plenty of garage makers and weekend warriors. I suppose that's a little like garage machinists and tinkerers.

And thanks for the welcome. The spirit of helpfulness here is a joy to be around. I'm looking forward to soaking up the information and sharing what I can as opportunities arise.

Best,
Harry
Click to expand...

You'd know if it was you. ARF is Antique Radios Form. World's best forum for old electronics. Tube stuff from the beginning. There is a "canerods" there, but come to think of it, I believe he is in New England somewhere.
 
Tony Wells said:
You'd know if it was you. ARF is Antique Radios Form. World's best forum for old electronics. Tube stuff from the beginning. There is a "canerods" there, but come to think of it, I believe he is in New England somewhere.
Click to expand...

Thanks Tony,

I tried looking ARF up and mostly came up with Animal Rescue Fund sites. Antique Radios sounds more uplifting to me.

No, I guess that "canerods" is somone other than me. But please tell him hello for me.

Harry
 
Thank you Rick. My dilemma fits well with your description. I have no machine training and would need to drive 3 hours each direction to find training. My machines are small and were well used when I bought them. If there is slop in the machine I think it makes it more difficult for someone like me to learn to use the machine well. Not that it cannot be done, just that it is more difficult. For instance, I'm learning which cutting speeds and shapes give me the best finishes, though more often than not I wind up sanding and polishing extensively to get the look I'm after.

Thanks again for your help. I'll dig out my torque wrench!

Harry
 
Harry,

I rebuilt an Atlas lathe for my dad that had similar problems. Fortunately, compared to the V ways of other lathes, wear on the flat ways of the Atlas lathe is fairly easy to repair. I set mine up on a mill and re-machined the top and sides of the ways. It took several setups because of the length of the bed. Once the ways were machined, I hand scraped them straight and to size, a process that was easy to do, but very tedious. I set the apron on the ways in the center on the bed with the gibs snugged up and then moved it left and right, scraping the high spots down with the end of a sharpened file, using Prussian blue as an indicator. Eventually, the travel became smooth the entire length of the ways. It's a labor intensive process, but something that can definitely be done at home. If you don't have a mill at your disposal, the entire process can be done by hand although it will take significantly longer to accomplish.

There are a lot of videos on YouTube about hand scraping to give you a better idea of what is involved.

Tom
 
Thanks Tom,

I'll look up some videos on how to correct any problems with the ways. There are precious few machine shops in this area and I'm not sure how much I trust myself in breaking down the lathe into a million parts. Funny, I work bamboo with a block plane to tolerances of .001" every day, but I have little confidence in my ability to do the same with metal...

Best,
Harry
 
Thanks again Rick. I'll try to keep each of those points in mind as I move forward with this little lathe.

Best,
Harry
 
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