# Worn Engine Lathe Evaluation



## Bob Korves (Jul 26, 2017)

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."


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## mikey (Jul 26, 2017)

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


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## Silverbullet (Jul 26, 2017)

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.


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## 4GSR (Jul 26, 2017)

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".


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## eeler1 (Jul 26, 2017)

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.


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## eeler1 (Jul 28, 2017)

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


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## Downwindtracker2 (Aug 16, 2017)

The next vids on the rebuild are interesting.


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## C-Bag (Oct 13, 2017)

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.


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## ericc (Oct 13, 2017)

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?


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## Ken from ontario (Oct 13, 2017)

ericc said:


> 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.


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## C-Bag (Oct 13, 2017)

Guess you guys didn't go all way through for the "money shot". He stated at the beginning the problem was the poor finish. No amount of resurfacing/scraping was going to fix the spindle bearings that had pits in them. That was the reason for the poor finish. At the end he showed how replacing the bearings gave him a good finish and like with many machines you can compensate for some wear. I'm hoping he comes back and scrapes in the cross slide where the greatest wear was.

For the record it's a crap shoot buying new Chinese/Tiawan as like in the cross slide on my little used 9x20 was just plain old not machined right. It still had all its original machine marks and was never fitted so was impossible to set the gibs right. Not to mention the slew of other things I've found. Videos like Wes's have given me the hands on to test and understand what to do when I can't get out of my machine what it should do.


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## Ken from ontario (Oct 13, 2017)

C-Bag said:


> Guess you guys didn't go all way through for the "money shot". He stated at the beginning the problem was the poor finish. No amount of resurfacing/scraping was going to fix the spindle bearings that had pits in them. That was the reason for the poor finish. At the end he showed how replacing the bearings gave him a good finish and like with many machines you can compensate for some wear. I'm hoping he comes back and scrapes in the cross slide where the greatest wear was.
> 
> For the record it's a crap shoot buying new Chinese/Tiawan as like in the cross slide on my little used 9x20 was just plain old not machined right. It still had all its original machine marks and was never fitted so was impossible to set the gibs right. Not to mention the slew of other things I've found. Videos like Wes's have given me the hands on to test and understand what to do when I can't get out of my machine what it should do.


Just subscribed to Wes Johnson on  youtube ,glad to have found out  about him ,I'll be watching the next video and many more after that. I'm entertaining the idea of buying a used lathe that needs some work  as my winter  project, I need all the help I can get.


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## C-Bag (Oct 14, 2017)

Ken from ontario said:


> I'm entertaining the idea of buying a used lathe that needs some work as my winter project, I need all the help I can get.



LOL Ken. Down here it's a given now that I know a little, if the ad says it's in good shape, it just needs a lot of work. If it says it needs some TLC, it's barely usable, and if it says it needs some work it's a boat anchor. Consciously looking for some old iron to restore is a noble aspiration but it brings out the OCD in me. That's why I like Wes's approach. Get er done and let other tweeky stuff slide. Yeah, I need all the help I can get too and thankfully guys in the biz take time to do vids for YouTube.


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