# Paint? Color?



## great white (Jul 20, 2022)

I’m getting to a point where I’m wanting to give my Atlas TH42 a fresh coat of paint. It’s working well mechanically, but it’s pretty …worn… in the appearance department. It’s old, chipped everywhere and its had at least one repaint in it’s past with what looks like a brush.

it’s orginal color (well, close to it) in that Atlas mint green. While it doesn’t bother me that color, I think I’d like something a bit more along the “Ford” theme I’m following in the garage.

I’m thinking painting the Atlas a Ford engine blue (or maybe a little brighter than the dark ford blue) . Something along these lines:




I’m not concerned with orginality or resale. This little lathe won’t likely leave my possession until my estate sale…

Anyone see issues with this? Things like eye fatigue, dirt accumulation, etc.

It’s just a color and as such, subject to personal preferences, but I’d just like some input on possible issues with a bad color choice that I’m maybe not realizing.


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## mmcmdl (Jul 20, 2022)

John Deere green , Cub Cadet red or yellow , Kubota orange are a few that come to mind .


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## RJSakowski (Jul 20, 2022)

I am reminded of the old adage, " a good horse is never the wrong color".  If you like blue, go for it!


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## benmychree (Jul 20, 2022)

Machine tool grey.


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## Video_man (Jul 20, 2022)

If you're so minded, and have a Tractor Supply nearby, their "Massey Ferguson Grey" with the Tractor Supply paint hardener added looks nice....


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## benmychree (Jul 20, 2022)

To paraphrase L Francis Herreshoff,  "There are two proper colors for a machine tool, one is grey, the other is black, and only a fool would choose black" He was a famed  yacht designer, his actual quote was "There are two colors to paint a yacht: one is white and the other is black, and only a fool would choose black", the quote is to be found in "The Common Sense of Yacht Design". c 1945


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## great white (Jul 20, 2022)

benmychree said:


> To paraphrase L Francis Herreshoff,  "There are two proper colors for a machine tool, one is grey, the other is black, and only a fool would choose black" He was a famed  yacht designer, his actual quote was "There are two colors to paint a yacht: one is white and the other is black, and only a fool would choose black", the quote is to be found in "The Common Sense of Yacht Design". c 1945


That some pretty closed minded thinking. Kinda like “you can have it any color you want, as long as its black”.

I’ll be painting it whatever color I want, and it probably won’t be black….that statement has probably also put me off on machine gray too.

Maybe hot cherry red with hot rod flames and pinstriping?


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## benmychree (Jul 20, 2022)

Strange about machine tool colors, in the early days, say maybe in the 1850s to the 1870s and before the 1890s, some pretty bright colors were used, even with striping and other decoration, then William Sellers introduced dark grey on his line of machine tools, but in the same period most machine tools were painted black with an underlying black filler, I have one such machine, a Monarch Jr. 9" swing which retains nearly all the black, except the legs, which were way too knocked up, they are now a medium grey with the nicks filled up.  Even nowadays, especially automotive machine tools are often painted red or some such color.
Some folks may take my stated opinions too seriously; can't we have a bit of fun?


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## MrWhoopee (Jul 21, 2022)

great white said:


> I’m not concerned with orginality or resale. This little lathe won’t likely leave my possession until my estate sale…


Perhaps, but do consider your poor spouse (if such there be) trying to sell a hot pink (or whatever) lathe.


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## benmychree (Jul 21, 2022)

MrWhoopee said:


> Perhaps, but do consider your poor spouse (if such there be) trying to sell a hot pink (or whatever) lathe.


On the other hand that might appeal to the ladies taking up the hobby ---


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## woodchucker (Jul 21, 2022)

paint brush is standard for a machine.
it's easy to paint around the machined surfaces, and if you get paint on it you just wipe it off with mineral spirits.
That being said, I paint most of my machines with a brush, but some areas, I spray, because I can, I am an excellent sprayer..
But it's not for all of the machine, it's too much to mask. A brush works fine.

As far as color... do whatever you like, it's yours. My machine was ugly blue.. It's now gray.. when I say ugly blue.. here's what I mean.


https://imgur.com/a/6OT4a

it's now SB gray/green using Sherwin Williams mix.. if I had to do it again, it would be rustoleum gray, it seems to do a better job of fighting the oil and is inexpensive.


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## pontiac428 (Jul 21, 2022)

Can you do machine gray with a color-shift pearl?  Make that lathe look like a Rapala!


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## great white (Jul 21, 2022)

pontiac428 said:


> Can you do machine gray with a color-shift pearl?  Make that lathe look like a Rapala!
> 
> View attachment 414563


Lol!

I can paint (hvlp) but I’m not good enough to lay that down right…


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## projectnut (Jul 21, 2022)

I would vote for grey, but for more practical reasons.  Of the machine tools in the shop the vast majority are Machinery grey.  That includes the Bridgeport milling machine, Seneca Falls lathe, Sheldon lathe, Racine power hacksaw, US Machine Tools horizontal mill, Delta Rockwell belt/disk sander, Jet drill press Rockford drill press, Delta jointer, Craftsman table saw, Delta scroll saw, and the Dewalt radial arm saw. The paint will show dirt and swarf but is all but impervious to coolants and oils.  It's almost non Reflectent so there's no glare when trying to do precision work. 

Machines with different shades of green include the Sanford surface grinder AMMCO shaper, and the Startrite horizontal bandsaw.  The Black Diamond drill grinder is blue as are parts of the Baileigh cold saw.  The Greenerd arbor press is cream colored, and the only yellow tool in the bunch is the Rockwell vertical bandsaw


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## 7milesup (Jul 21, 2022)

My brother painted a lot of the stuff in his shop "Hemi Orange."  He did that because it was his favorite color, and... he could.  My only complaint with his color choice was the orange showed dirt pretty quickly.

I have a large drum sander in my shop (for wood) that I built 30+ years ago.  My color choice at the time was blue.  I still like it.  

I would say if you like Ford blue, paint it!  There are a lot of worse colors I can think of.


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## great white (Jul 22, 2022)

Turquoise anyone?




Little bit green, little bit blue. Certainly not a "mainstream" color.

Looks nice and I has kind of a "50's feel" to it (the lathe is from the 50's after all). I have to live with it a bit before I can decide if I actually like it or if its just a fad thing and if I want to paint the whole lathe that color.


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## 7milesup (Jul 22, 2022)

I like it!


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## great white (Jul 22, 2022)

7milesup said:


> I like it!


I'm actually considering doing some striping on it as well.

I'd like to keep it somewhat 50's looking, so I might do something along the lines of the old singer sewing machines:







Now, the old singers are a little over the top with the scrolling and gilding. But it gives me a general pattern/theme/starting point that I can adapt to look decent on the lathe.

Jury is still out, I may just paint it turquoise, polish the bits I that can and call it a day....


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## matthewsx (Jul 22, 2022)

Paint it whatever color is going to make the most accurate parts quickest.


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## Chip Monkey (Jul 22, 2022)

In this day and age wouldn't the most appropriate finish be rainbow colors?


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## wachuko (Jul 22, 2022)

Your lathe, pick the color you want to see every time you are working with it…

Have fun!


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## DiscoDan (Jul 22, 2022)

At the Tuckahoe Steam and Gas Association machine shop museum, I'm restoring a Putnam gap bed lathe and I believe it was originally black, then painted a bright yellow and then a bright red. We are going to paint it a oxblood color. So it's different and it stands out from the black and the gray machines, but it doesn't scream "look at me."


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## Bi11Hudson (Jul 23, 2022)

I vote for sky blue pink if that suits you. I don't care for bright red, but it is suitable for hiding blood. I like the turquoise but it shouldn't be a high gloss. ..
.


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## wachuko (Jul 23, 2022)

mmcmdl said:


> John Deere green , Cub Cadet red or yellow , Kubota orange are a few that come to mind .


I did that with one of my grinders! Decal and all!


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## great white (Jul 23, 2022)

well, had the color on a piece of the lathe for a day now. I’m running hot and cold on the color:






I like the color, but it may be a bit shiny and possibly a little out of place in the garage.

gotta live with it a few more days before making a decision….


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## ARC-170 (Jul 23, 2022)

I vote for mint green.  My Atlas Craftsman is from 1944 and I think it was either gray or blue originally. It came in Sparkle Mint Disco Green. I decided to just go with it.  I couldn't find a rattle-can color that was close,  so I used auto paint when I added the QCGB. The color has held up well.


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## wachuko (Jul 23, 2022)

great white said:


> well, had the color on a piece of the lathe for a day now. I’m running hot and cold on the color:
> 
> View attachment 414803
> 
> ...


Do you like the color? If that is a yes, then paint a few more of the easy parts to do so…

Right now you are comparing it to a sea of the other color…. Then decide if you go with something else…

Again, your lathe, your shop… don’t worry, be happy


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## 7milesup (Jul 23, 2022)

Rustoleum Hammered Verde Green is a dead ringer for the early Wilton bullet vices.  That might be a cool color too.

Rustoleum Verde Green









						The vise that started it all • MIVise
					

Restoration of a Wilton model 600 bench vise.




					mivise.com


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## wachuko (Jul 23, 2022)

7milesup said:


> Rustoleum Hammered Verde Green is a dead ringer for the early Wilton bullet vices.  That might be a cool color too.
> 
> Rustoleum Verde Green
> 
> ...


That is what I wanted for mine… but I could not find it… it is like it was discontinued… 

Ended up with just plain hammered green


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## 7milesup (Jul 23, 2022)

wachuko said:


> it is like it was discontinued…


Hmmmm.... I just went to the Menards website, and it is not listed.  Rotroh.   I think I only have one can of it and I have two vises to paint at some point.


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## wachuko (Jul 23, 2022)

7milesup said:


> Hmmmm.... I just went to the Menards website, and it is not listed.  Rotroh.   I think I only have one can of it and I have two vises to paint at some point.


If you find it, grab them all… I have been trying to find some for over a year now…


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## 7milesup (Jul 23, 2022)

wachuko said:


> If you find it, grab them all… I have been trying to find some for over a year now…


I will do that!


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## great white (Jul 24, 2022)

7milesup said:


> Rustoleum Hammered Verde Green is a dead ringer for the early Wilton bullet vices.  That might be a cool color too.
> 
> Rustoleum Verde Green
> 
> ...


That's not bad, not bad at all.....


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## great white (Jul 24, 2022)

wachuko said:


> That is what I wanted for mine… but I could not find it… it is like it was discontinued…
> 
> Ended up with just plain hammered green
> 
> View attachment 414834


What are those inserts for the jaws? 

Soft face jaws painted a hammered bronze/copper?


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## wachuko (Jul 24, 2022)

great white said:


> What are those inserts for the jaws?
> 
> Soft face jaws painted a hammered bronze/copper?


Those are real copper, not painted.  An accessory for the vise.  Soft jaws, correct.


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## great white (Jul 24, 2022)

More turquoise:




Liking it more as more bits are painted. I think its a keeper.

It has a little bit of a color shift look to it as the tone seems to change depending on the light direction. I especially like how the paint accentuates the curves and shapes of the castings. Makes the “style” of the lathe more evident, whereas I find the green/gray tends to hide it.

It also does nothing to cover the “battle scars”, in fact, I think it makes them more prominent.  But that’s ok, it just shows that the lathe has “time in”.

I thought about giving it a skim of body filler to cover the rough casting look, but decided against it. I’m happy I didn’t as the rough casting almost gives the paint a “hammered” look.

Will take more effort to keep it clean, but thats only a little more effort over what I do now to keep it clean and free of chips and grease.

Brass name plates will look nice against the turquoise and the silver bits will also “kick it up a notch”.

I’m going for a bit of a functional art look.

I also think I got the last 3 cans in Canada. Looked online and every store that carries it has “0” stock.

Talked with the counter girl at HD when I picked up the 3 cans and she looked it up. Valid stock number, not discontinued. She said that the manufacturers are having a hard time filling stock orders for their  ”regular” paints and all the “specialty” ones are waaay behind on order fulfillment. so while I’ve got plenty to finish my job, its anyones guess if there will be any more….


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## wachuko (Jul 24, 2022)

The gears cover looks so different… is that just how the light is hitting it?


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## great white (Jul 24, 2022)

wachuko said:


> The gears cover looks so different… is that just how the light is hitting it?


Yep. It all came out of the same can. Unless you mean the change gear cover on the left side and not the head cover. The side cover came from a different can and is a light coat. I need to give it another coat to finish it up.


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## wachuko (Jul 24, 2022)

The change gear cover, correct.  Makes sense now.


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## great white (Jul 25, 2022)

Started pulling the lathe apart today. So far the saddle is off, the change gears and arms removed, and the leadscrew is removed. Was worth pulling the saddle off if for no other reason than to clean and inspect the gubbins inside the apron. Its all in good shape, but the oil, wear materials and just general age had everything covered in some of the most oily, metal infused, dried up greasy disgusting mess I’ve seen in a while.

Also managed to give the change gear cover another coat and paint the compound slide parts.


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## great white (Jul 27, 2022)

Getting there:




They’re all the same color, the metallic flake in the paint makes it look like a slightly different shade depending on how the light hits it.

Tomorrow I’ll paint the bed ways and maybe the gear head.

Theres a couple small bits after that to be painted, but then its done and I’ll be in to reassembly. I figure by Saturday it should be going back together.

The cabinet is going a metallic silver to compliment the metal bits on the lathe and to make the black/smoke plexi doors on the cabinet pop. For now though, the top will just be painted so I can put the lather back together.

The chip tray I think I’m going to go with a black engine enamel. Tough, thick and oil resistant.


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## Boswell (Jul 27, 2022)

looking forward to seeing the completed project


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## great white (Jul 28, 2022)

Bed is done and hardening up:




Decided to paint the cabinet a darker tone of metallic silver:




I only painted the top surface for now. I still have some work to do to the rest of the cabinet (ie:welding) and I only had one can of the silver paint. But I wanted to get the top surface painted so I can start building the lathe back up on it on the weekend.

When I get around to it, I’m going to paint the backer board gloss black to match the chip tray.


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## wachuko (Jul 28, 2022)

It is looking great.  Can wait to see photos of it going back together...


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## great white (Jul 28, 2022)

Headstock and “brain box” painted:






All thats left to paint is the motor/pulley brackets and a couple “shields“ that go between the change gear-train and the change gear cover.

Then on to reassembly. I still think that will be Saturday at the earliest. The paint says it can be handled after 1 hr, but I prefer to wait for the 24hr full cure time before handling it too much.

I also now believe the lathe was originally a dark gray color (almost black) as under all the multiple layers of green it was the dark gray and then metal. Either that, or they used a primer/filler that was the dark gray color.


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## great white (Jul 29, 2022)

I did a quick assembly of the main parts to get an idea of how it will look:




 Nothing is bolted together except the ways and the feet, the rest is just sitting in place.

But I can sure see how its going to look when finished and I think its going to be a stunner.

It’s going to go nicely with my eventual “man-cave-i-zation” of the garage, all while still being a functional tool.

I like it!!



And as usual, my “luck“ still holds. I broke my back flying a sar mission 250 miles off sable island many moons ago and its been a problem ever since. So I tweaked my bad back lifting the bed ways over the cabinet and out into place. So its a day of sitting on the couch, waiting for my back to calm down again….


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## pdentrem (Jul 29, 2022)

I like the colour, better than the med gray like most modern machines are painted. Notice the colours that BMW and most of the Japanese vehicles are using this year? Machine gray and similar colours. Ug
Pierre


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## wachuko (Jul 29, 2022)

great white said:


> I did a quick assembly of the main parts to get an idea of how it will look:
> 
> View attachment 415442
> 
> ...



Amazing how much better it looks with some TLC and a fresh coat of paint.

l hope your back heals quickly, ouch…


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## pontiac428 (Jul 29, 2022)

That paint sure looks great against the polished metal parts.  Grey is neutral, but it sucks the life out of chromy bits.  The industrial design of the 1940s deserves the nice paint.  Like Pontiac blue...


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## great white (Jul 29, 2022)

pdentrem said:


> I like the colour, better than the med gray like most modern machines are painted. Notice the colours that BMW and most of the Japanese vehicles are using this year? Machine gray and similar colours. Ug
> Pierre


Not just imports, domestics also. I wanted an f150 in a magnetic gray color. I ended up with black (end year purchase, limited stock left) but would have taken gray over it.

Outside of the racer boy opinion that it makes it more “stealthy” around police, the gray hides dirt much better than most colors. Even more so if its more to the flat than gloss.

Its a fad though, it will pass as soon as the accounting boys figure out it doesn’t (or does) boost sales..


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## great white (Jul 29, 2022)

pontiac428 said:


> That paint sure looks great against the polished metal parts.  Grey is neutral, but it sucks the life out of chromy bits.  The industrial design of the 1940s deserves the nice paint.  Like Pontiac blue...



Yup, those are mostly my thoughts.

Designed in the 30’s and built in the 50’s. It’s a little bit art-deco and a little bit 50’s “space race” flash.

A lot of the color inspiration actually came from some of the vintage sewing machines I also have a small collection of. I even have a singer 328 painted with the same metallic turquoise paint.


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## pontiac428 (Jul 29, 2022)

IIRC, the grey (gray?) vehicle fad started when Audi resurrected the original Volkswagen gloss grey from the 1930's.  Just a decade back, silver was the most popular color (just look around any parking lot).

*America’s Most Popular Car Colors (according to iSeeCars.Com)*​
*Rank**Color**Percentage Share*1White23.9%2Black23.2%3Gray15.5%4Silver14.5%5Red10.3%6Blue9.0%7Brown1.4%8Green0.7%9Beige0.4%10Orange0.4%11Gold0.3%12Yellow0.2%13Purple0.1%


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## great white (Jul 29, 2022)

pontiac428 said:


> IIRC, the grey (gray?) vehicle fad started when Audi resurrected the original Volkswagen gloss grey from the 1930's.  Just a decade back, silver was the most popular color (just look around any parking lot).
> 
> *America’s Most Popular Car Colors (according to iSeeCars.Com)*​
> *Rank**Color**Percentage Share*1White23.9%2Black23.2%3Gray15.5%4Silver14.5%5Red10.3%6Blue9.0%7Brown1.4%8Green0.7%9Beige0.4%10Orange0.4%11Gold0.3%12Yellow0.2%13Purple0.1%


Oh yeah man, I was also part of the “silver wave” with a 2004 chrysler 300M Special. Loved that car, I actually regret getting rid of it.

But back then, you couldn’t swing a dead cat without hitting a silver car/truck…


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## great white (Jul 29, 2022)

With my back out (and I could use a break from sucking up paint fumes) I took the day and did a little reassembly with the parts that were ready:




I did take the time to run all the fasteners under the buffing wheel to give it a little more “pop”. Besides, I couldn’t put dirty and dull fasteners on the new paint job.

Nothing is adjusted yet, its just assembled. Adjustments will come later once its all back together.

It’s coming along nicely. I‘m pretty stoked that the colors look as good as they do!


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## great white (Jul 31, 2022)

Got up today with the intent of getting a lot done around the house and on the lathe.

Well, my bod had different ideas.

About 10-odd years ago, I was flying a night mission on NVG’s. While hanging out the door and conning my pilots down into a confined area, the rescue door came off its lock and slid back.

It caught me square in the helmet and crushed my head between the 5’x7’ sliding door and the aircraft door frame. Cracked my flight helmet nearly in half and 15 grand worth of NVG’s went flying out into the blackness. They’re classified as weapons and thankfully the Army guys found them the next day on exercise. That would have been one hell of a lot of paperwork.

But, in the process of crushing my helmet, the door actually broke my neck. We would find out later I had a fractured C5 vertebrae and the C4/5 disc had almost exploded to mush. That was the end of the mission and the SAR Techs had me strapped to a backer board and in a cervical collar until we RTB’d where they already had an ambulance waiting for me. Takes a lot to freak those boys out and they were genuinely worried I was going to end up a quad. So much so that they strapped me down so tight I could barely move my fingers and even when I did, they’d loose their minds and order me not to even move my hair. Took many months and lots of mind numbingly boring physio before the flight surgeon would clear me to fly again.

It never healed quite right so its a problem from time to time. To this day, I can’t do a left shoulder check when driving. Neck just won’t rotate that way anymore.

As I was starting my day, my neck went “crick” and dropped me to the ground.

Well, so much for getting lots done.

Took about 30 mins before the wife could get me off the floor and a couple hours before I could get up off the bed. VAC actually gave me one of those “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up things” and it tripped when I fell to the floor. They called and the wife had to assure them that I was ok, even though she wanted to call 911 herself. I wouldn’t let her….

I did manage to do a few small things though. One of them was removing the lathe backer board and giving it a fresh coat of black engine enamel:






Came out pretty good and compliments the smoked plexi doors on the cabinet nicely.

Not bad for a guy with a broken back and broken neck…even if the wife gave me a thorogh dressing down when she saw me xrossing the garage with the backer board in hand….lol!


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## wachuko (Jul 31, 2022)

You are very fortunate to be alive and moving around.  Thank you for sharing your story and for your service.


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## Boswell (Jul 31, 2022)

Glad you are around to tell the story. BTW, the black backer board really makes the whole setup look much sharper.


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## Bi11Hudson (Aug 1, 2022)

As an aside, I would highly recommend a bushing of some sort in the holes in the top of the cabinet. Just a piece of hose slit lengthwise if nothing more. Just the old school electrician in me bubbling up. . . 

.


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## great white (Aug 1, 2022)

Bi11Hudson said:


> As an aside, I would highly recommend a bushing of some sort in the holes in the top of the cabinet. Just a piece of hose slit lengthwise if nothing more. Just the old school electrician in me bubbling up. . .
> 
> .


I use “caterpillar” linings. Basically, a plastic insulator that lines the cut hokes.


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## great white (Aug 1, 2022)

Not much to see today:




It was a day if building up the head. But, its together and its done. Big hurdle to clear and now its mainly just polishing and painting bits and pieces.

One thing I did have to change was to flip the change gear bull gear on the spindle over. I was using the lathe a while back and it picked up a lot of noise all at once. Shutdown and inspection revealed the small driven gesr and the bull gear had gotten swarf between them and scarred the faces. Worse than that though was the bull gear had developed “steps” where the driven gear had worn into it. This made the whole train loud and rattle-y. So I flipped it and it runs pretty quiet again. There was some binding at point in the rotation,  ut a little careful work with the swiss files cleaned up some mushrooming and casting flash. Runs smooth and quiet again…


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## great white (Aug 2, 2022)

Aaaannndddd…..I just realized I didn’t put the belt on the spindle……


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## 7milesup (Aug 2, 2022)

great white said:


> As I was starting my day, my neck went “crick” and dropped me to the ground.


First, awesome job on the paint.  It really looks nice.
Thank you for your service.  Glad you survived that incident.  I know what you mean about looking left, though.  I have a genetic disorder (not sure if I agree with that diagnosis) where my neck has no room in the spinal canal for my spinal cord.  I have a hard time looking up, left, and right. Also 3 low back surgeries plus a tree fell on me in 2020, which bought me a trip to the trauma room in a heli.  
Yeah, I get your pain.  Glad you are "ok".


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## pontiac428 (Aug 2, 2022)

great white said:


> Aaaannndddd…..I just realized I didn’t put the belt on the spindle……



Good time to try a link-twist or Fenner type belt!


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## great white (Aug 2, 2022)

Today was mostly just grunt work. I took the motor support and the jackshaft pulleys apart. That was a major cluster eff.

First, the threads where the grease cups go had been mushroomed slightly by a PO. So nothing would slide over them. I didn’t have a die big enough to chase the threads, so that meant lots of file work with the swiss files. Luckily, the threads were the same as the setup nut I use for rebuilding Ford 8.8 rear axle gears, so I at least had a nut that I could use to partially chase the threads and make them somewhat proper.

Once that was fixed (took hours and lots of sore hands/joints and the occasional curse word), I tried sliding the bearing retainers, bearing housings and pulleys off.

No joy.

Someone had crunched down so hard on the grub screws they had made sharp, high burrs. So I ended up having to drive them off over the burrs the grub screws had created. No way to get to the burrs before I drove the parts off, so I just had to deal with it.

As if that wasn’t enough, someone hadn’t lined up the motor pulley grub screw with the divot in the shaft, so that had spun and scored up the shaft leaving more burrs to be forced over.

The final middle finger was that whoever had it apart last had left out (or lost) the woodruff key for the spindle belt pulley. This was another “crush down the grub screw till it holds“ deal. But without the key in place, the pulley had spun on the shaft and massively scored/burred the shaft until the burr became so large the pulley bound up and stopped rotating. With no other choice, I had to pound on the shaft until the pulley can off. that took about an hour because I had to be careful not to damage the Zamak motor pulley and spindle belt pulleys while pounding on the shaft (brass hammer and sacrificial aluminum blocks).

Well, once I got it all apart, to say the shaft was a bloody mess was a bit of an understatement. It was just horribly chewed up all over. Thankfully, at least the bearing portions were still in good shape.

I thought about making up another shaft, but I needed the lathe to make the shaft and I needed the shaft to run the lathe.

A big ol’ catch 22.

I though about chucking the shaft up in the drill press and try to clean it with different grades of sandpaper, but the shaft was juuuust a touch to big to fit in the 16n.

So with no other choice, out came the fine tooth file and another couple hours of fine detailed PITA work.

But, after an hour of two of mind numbingly careful and slow work, the shaft was usable again. All the damage to the shaft was in places where it didn’t really matter if they was a divot or not and the components now slid on and off easily. No play on the pulleys and bearings, despite all the misuse they had been subjected too.

So I painted the motor brackets and the bearing races on the jack shaft to get ready for reassembly.

I didn’t have a woodruff key to fit the shaft and pulley, so I dug out a scrap piece of hss that fit the slot in the shaft and the pulley slot and carefully ground out the proper half moon shape to fit the shaft groove and a snug fot in the pulley slot.

I inspected the roller bearings after a varsol wash and air dry. They checked out good so I repacked them and back on to the jackshaft they went.

I installed the back gears and the control box and that pretty much used up the rest of the day.

I’m going to take tomorrow off from working on the lathe. I‘m scheduled to get my fourth booster in the afternoon and I don’t want to show up smelling of paint, grease and varsol.

Besides, I’m just tired of getting covered in grease/grime and having to fix one PO “eff up” after another. It doesn’t seem to matter how much I clean and paint it, there’s always another blob somewhere waiting to cover me in filth/grease/oil/grime.

I’ll finish this post with some pics of how it currently sits:


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## pdentrem (Aug 2, 2022)

When I did a rebuild on my Atlas (sold a few years ago) I ran into the exact same issues! 
Pierre


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## pontiac428 (Aug 2, 2022)

Yep, it's an Atlas thing, the whole head of the lathe is held together with grub screws.  Hey, it was marketed for home shop users, they needed to keep the construction simple and cheap.  

Good thing all you had was a fine file, deburring like that is best done with a stone or file rather than a drill press.  Remove the offending metal, no more than necessary.


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## Ben17484 (Aug 3, 2022)

Your lathe is looking really nice  I’m having the same thoughts about being covered in paint and grease daily as no matter how careful I try to be fixing my lathe up, I always seem to come in the house afterwards covered in the stuff. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Bi11Hudson (Aug 3, 2022)

You need to scratch a part before you power up the first time. If you scratch it the first time while using it, it will ruin the job. And probably break your heart. That thing is going to come out like a museum piece. . . 

.


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## great white (Aug 3, 2022)

Bi11Hudson said:


> You need to scratch a part before you power up the first time. If you scratch it the first time while using it, it will ruin the job. And probably break your heart. That thing is going to come out like a museum piece. . .
> 
> .


Oh, theres plenty of scratches from just reassembling it. 

It’s going to have to sit idle for a couple weeks to a month so the paint has enough time to cure and reach full hardness before it goes back in to regular use...


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## great white (Aug 3, 2022)

I said I was going to take a day off, but just couldn’t do it.

So I stuck to putting things together that were already clean and painted:






Looking good.

I also realized that while I did pull the spindle and install the belt, I used the motor belt and not the spindle belt. So it has to come apart again. The motor belt is just a bit too long to work on the spindle.

I’m getting pretty good at pulling the spindle out of the head by now…..


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## great white (Aug 3, 2022)

Score!

After my 2nd booster shot, I decided to check out the local hardware stores (had to go 45 mins down the road for my appt) to see if I could find any more of the rust-oleum metallic turquoise.

Struck out at about 3-4 stores I stopped at. Nothing.

Theres a home hardware store buried in the local mall and its mostly a “homeowner” dept store type of deal. I had checked thier online stock and they weren’t supposed to have any left. I dropped in anyways because it was on the way home and surprise surprise: they had 5 cans sitting on the shelf.

It was 22 bucks a can (!) so I grabbed 4 cans and made for the cash.

Thats more than enough to finish and also paint the steady rest, milling attachment, etc.

I’ll also probably have 1-2 cans left over to put away for touch ups and such.

Now I’m going to go lie down and get ready for a day of misery as my body deals with the vaccine.  Othing serious, I’m just going to be miserable for a day or so. Happens every time I get a vaccine of any sort. Flu shots mess me up too. Its just the way my body works…


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## pontiac428 (Aug 3, 2022)

great white said:


> I also realized that while I did pull the spindle and install the belt, I used the motor belt and not the spindle belt. So it has to come apart again. The motor belt is just a bit too long to work on the spindle.
> 
> I’m getting pretty good at pulling the spindle out of the head by now…..



I'll just leave this here... In case you decide to catch on.


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## great white (Aug 3, 2022)

pontiac428 said:


> I'll just leave this here... In case you decide to catch on.


Maybe someday. But the v belt is still good so I’ll run it until it wears out, then look at options…


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## great white (Aug 4, 2022)

The Atlas used to throw grease from the jackshaft bearings on to the backer board and the wall behind it. Theres felt seals there to supposedly stop the grease from getting out, but its a halfway measure at best.

I decided I wanted to see if I could do something to cut down on that so I made a couple “shields”:







They won’t do anything to stop it from slinging grease, but hopefully they’ll catch most of it. I made them so that I can remove one nut on each and pull them off for cleaning.

We’ll soon see if it was worthwhile or just a waste of time….


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## pdentrem (Aug 4, 2022)

I did the same but used magnets to hold them in place. You can just make them out in the photo.
Pierre


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## great white (Aug 5, 2022)

More grunt work today:







Got the motor and jackshaft/pulleys mounted.

I use a big Baldor dc motor so its got pretty big permanent magnets in it. That often means chips get stuck to the outside of the casing. So I built the chip shield/ deflector you can see under the jackshaft stand.


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## wachuko (Aug 5, 2022)

great white said:


> More grunt work today:
> 
> View attachment 416341
> 
> ...


That is looking amazing!


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## great white (Aug 5, 2022)

wachuko said:


> That is looking amazing!


Thanks. I’ll probably have to cut back the motor shield when I reinstall the chip deflector behind the lathe, but thats not a big deal. The one over the motor is just a thin piece of aluminum and cuts easily.


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## great white (Aug 5, 2022)

Yep, shield was too long:


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## wachuko (Aug 5, 2022)

Ohh that is nice!! I like it!


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## great white (Aug 6, 2022)

More progress today:




Incremental, but still moving forward…


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## great white (Aug 8, 2022)

Opinions wanted. I’m getting ready to refurb the labels and data plates. The Atlas roundel that I’m using is made of brass. The orginal from the head cover is smaller and it isn’t brass, its some sort of tin or similar material so it won’t polish up Like the brass. 

The larger brass one is the same one on the change gear cover.

I like the polished brass look, but I’m trying to decide on what color to paint the “painted” parts of the medallion. For example:




Obviously, red is an option. I know its the Atlas color, but sonehow it just doesn’t seem to go quite right with the metallic blue.

So any opinions on what color to add to it where the red orginally was?

Black? Blue? Original red? Purple? Pink? Same color as the lathe?


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## wachuko (Aug 8, 2022)

I would go original color, but I do not know what the shade of red that is...  If not red, then I would suggest black...  Not sure I would do the same color as the lathe because it would disappear...  

But back to the initial answer... lol... paint it the color you like!


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## pdentrem (Aug 8, 2022)

Used car dealer Red!


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## 7milesup (Aug 8, 2022)

Black, red or a very dark blue.  Or any other color you like!


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## great white (Aug 8, 2022)

Figured I might as well start paint matching accessories. Steady rest first:






Still waiting for the paint to harden fully before reinstalling the brass fingers and bolts.

I think the milling attachment is going to be next after I paint the solid plinth mount for the qctp…


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## WobblyHand (Aug 9, 2022)

This looks like a museum piece.  Really beautiful.  The paint job accents the shapes of the lathe.  Well done!


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## great white (Aug 9, 2022)

WobblyHand said:


> This looks like a museum piece.  Really beautiful.  The paint job accents the shapes of the lathe.  Well done!


Thanks, but it's just your average TH42 with polished up shiny bits and wearing a party dress.

Not quite sure what to do with the raw Zamak pulleys though. Probably just give them a light pass with a nylon or wire brush once it's up and running again. Mostly just to take the dirt and discoloration off them. They've lasted this long, so I don't want to damage them or give corrosion enough of a foothold to break down the Zamak....


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## pdentrem (Aug 9, 2022)

The Zamak degrades internally so not much one can do based on the literature. Polish and a clear coat is about it. 
Pierre


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## great white (Aug 10, 2022)

well, that sucked!

I finished wiring the lathe back up and gave it a bit of a go.

Unbeknownst to me, the potentiometer on the speed control had somehow failed and gone to a dead short.

So when I flicked the power on, the lathe immediately went to full speed and started smoking! The potentiometer was set to "0" speed, so it took me completely off guard when everything went nuts.

Slammed the power off lickity split and there must have been enough power in a capacitor somewhere to engage the dynamic braking.

This caused the chuck to spin on the spindle thread and it threaded itself right off!

Dropped down and whacked the ways (fortunately, on the inside where it doesn't effect anything) and then it literally *LAUNCHED* itself into the air, directly at my head!

Luckily, even though I'm older and bodily broken, my reflexes are still quick enough that I was able to deke my head sideways as I simultaneously brought my hands up and caught the spinning chuck in mid air!

Was probably 1 sec or less from power on to standing there with the chuck in my hands. It happened that quick, so quick I actually don’t even remember any of the details of what happened. I just recall the broad strokes of the event. I know it happened, I know the chuck came at me and I know I was standing there with a chuck in my hands. The rest was/is pretty blurry…

Well, I needed a change of shorts and a good long sit on the couch with a coffee after that. Not to mention, I had to wait for the stinging in my hand to die down after getting smacked with a lathe chuck doing somewhere around 1500 rpm and hell bent on busting a hole through the opposite wall of the garage.....

Once I was back to a "not shaking" state, I took the speed control apart again. Nothing wrong, no wires chaffed, everything was numbered and connected correctly. But the pot smelled just like burn electronics.

So I pulled it out and took it apart. yep, somehow it had developed a short and killed itself. the control board must have seen that as a full speed command and off it went.

So yeah, the lathe is now laid up until I can get some 5k single turn carbon film 1w potentiometers.




Ugh. One step forward, two steps back....


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## wachuko (Aug 11, 2022)

When I read this yesterday I was lost for words…

I hope you have stopped shaking by now…and no other pains/injuries, that could be hidden by the adrenaline rush, have surfaced.

You might want to leave the chuck off for the next test…. Just saying….

Oh, and be sure to buy a lottery ticket… share the numbers so we can all cash in your luck as well.


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## great white (Aug 11, 2022)

pdentrem said:


> The Zamak degrades internally so not much one can do based on the literature. Polish and a clear coat is about it.
> Pierre


Ah, zinc “pest”. Caused by lead contamination in the zinc pour.

Read up on it and seems Atlas used zamak 3, which is spec’d at 99.99% pure zinc. This supposedly does away with the zinc pest problem. Seems contamination in the zinc alloy leads to crystallization internal to the zamak (I assume similar to galvanic corrosion), which makes it crumble from inside.

Strength and durability of zamak for it’s application is an entirely different question….


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## great white (Aug 11, 2022)

wachuko said:


> When I read this yesterday I was lost for words…
> 
> I hope you have stopped shaking by now…and no other pains/injuries, that could be hidden by the adrenaline rush, have surfaced.
> 
> ...


Pretty sure I used up all my luck for that day….


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## great white (Aug 11, 2022)

Alrighty. Picked up a fistful of 5k pots that I think will work.

Then I ran across a speed pot kit by danfoss with the right pot in it. Being sold as “surplus and was 30 bucks shipped. So I grabbed it.

At least now I’ll have an orginal pot to meter and confirm the new pots will do the job…


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## pdentrem (Aug 11, 2022)

Lucky!
I have the braking turned off to avoid that issue. I know it could lead to other issues with a 5 second stop but that is the compromise.
Pierre


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## great white (Aug 11, 2022)

pdentrem said:


> Lucky!
> I have the braking turned off to avoid that issue. I know it could lead to other issues with a 5 second stop but that is the compromise.
> Pierre


I have/had mine setup for soft stop instead of dynamic braking. I figure the dead short in the pot must have tossed all the settings into the crapper….at least while the shorted pot was in the loop.


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## pdentrem (Aug 11, 2022)

With the high rpm any kind of stop/slow down would give issues! Pierre


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## great white (Aug 13, 2022)

Tried a color on the medallions:




Not bad. It’s “cranberry pearl”. An automotive paint color. I think it was for a chrysler. Found a couple cans in the paint drawer and thought I’d try it.

I made a few small scratches while removing the paint, but those are easily touched up.

Still thinking about it. I like that its different than the oem primary red color and the cranberry goes nice with the turquoise. 

Might just be a keeper….


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## wachuko (Aug 13, 2022)

That looks amazing


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## great white (Aug 13, 2022)

Tried a little tape to see how it goes with the turquiose:




I like it so far!


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## great white (Aug 15, 2022)

A little back story:

When I was instructor at the SAR school, I used to ask my students if it was better to be good or lucky. I’d get all sorts of answers, but my point was always to be aspire to be “good”, because lucky is something that may or may not be there. I always used to close that out with “I have to be good because I have no luck at all”.

Well, the lathe burning out pots on me just proved that once again.

I pulled the entire schmozzle out of the kathe today and started tracing wires, testing electronics and verifying it all against the wiring/engineering drawings.

Turns out, even though I was meticulous (or so I thought) at labeling every single wire before I took it apart for painting, I somehow missed that I had three 6’s on the wire ends.

chasing it down, I had managed to hook one of the pots legs to the mains. Yep, that will smoke a few pots for sure.

So, I was not “good” when I labeled them, I was “unlucky” when I reconnected them and I was even more “unlucky” when I let the smoke out.

Lets hope my “unluckiness” doesn’t hold and the board is still good…

Can’t win for loosing….


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## Boswell (Aug 15, 2022)

It sucks to make errors like that (plenty of experience in that respect) but the good news is that you found the issue and can move forward. Hopefully with a little bit of improvement in the "Attention to Detail" skill


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## great white (Aug 16, 2022)

Ah, figured out what went wrong.

When is a 6 not a 6? When its a 9….

Everything was actually labeled correctly.

the problem I actually had was my poor hand writing.

Apparently, my “6” and my “9” are hard to distinguish from each other, even if it is my own handwriting.

Soooooo…you can probably figure out  what followed after I “reconnected” everything…..”poof”!

If only I had thought to put a line under the 6 or the 9…ugh.

Ah well, C’est la vie! 

I guess a silver lining is the speed control will have a brand new potentiometer instead of the 20-year old one that went…..poof!


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## wachuko (Aug 17, 2022)

So…. Working now??  Or waiting on parts?


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## great white (Aug 17, 2022)

wachuko said:


> So…. Working now??  Or waiting on parts?


It's all still on the bench and also waiting for new 5k pots to arrive.


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## great white (Aug 18, 2022)

Success!

Finished tracing out all the wiring for the controller and slaved in a temporary 20K pot. It hurts nothing to use a larger value pot , although it will come out when the right ones show up this Friday.

It wasn't all bad though. Having to pull it all out and redo it gave me the opportunity to clean up my wiring and fix a few things that I initially did that have bugged me for a while (ie; wire colors, routing, labeling, etc).

Now the controller looks nice and neat in it's little cubby:




At this point, the lathe is essentially back together. I just need to to some final adjustments/alignments and lube all the things that need lube.

I'll be throwing chips again soon!



On a side note: I had to drop into a stereo store that has an older serv dept in order to get a couple 240v 1a slow blow fuses. While I was there I had a conversation with the tech. I told him I've got a Sansui 8080DB that I'm recapping and have to balance the outputs. I can do electronics, but it's not my favorite thing and I'm pretty rudimentary with it. Honestly, I tend to avoid it if I can. He told me to bring it in and he can probably finish it up for my for around 4-50 bucks.

Seems pretty affordable and it woudl be done a lot sooner than if I wait for me to get back to it. So I'll probably drop it off tomorrow and let them go at it....


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## great white (Aug 19, 2022)

New danfoss pot showed up today and I installed it right away. Works perfectly.

Control panel is now buttoned up and ready to go. Only thing I have left to sort is the min speed (new pot, slightly different values) as it doesn't move until the knob is at 10%. It's just a simple turn on a pot on the pcb itself.

I'm also considering 3d printing the transposing gear and the reversing gearbox gear. My current zamak ones are fine, they just make a lot of noise. Not horrible, but not quiet either. Adding a few gears in abs should quiet the gear trains down a lot and I can always print more if I break them. We'll see how well they work (or not)


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## great white (Aug 22, 2022)

Still picking at it:




coming along nicely.


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## wachuko (Aug 22, 2022)

I like how everything looks. 

I might copy the backsplash idea… that also came out great.


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## great white (Aug 24, 2022)

Well, proof of concept successful!








Cleaned it up, reamed the bore to size and popped it into the gear train. 

Pretty much all the gear “ring” is gone!

I won’t call it quiet, but the noise level is so low I almost feel guilty calling it noise.

It’s such a good fit, I’m going to run it to failure to see where the failure happens. I suspect it will be in the pin bore where it sees the most friction. I did run it up to 1200 rpm and no abs melting or other issues were apparent. There were a few abs “shavings”, but thats likely just the abs gear bedding in/mating with the zamak gears.

quick vid for the sound it now makes:






That's pretty quiet for an Atlas 10!


Next up: reversing gearbox.


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## wachuko (Sep 6, 2022)

That is very quiet... all that by simply going with that 3D printed gear... nice.

I see that you have an rpm sensor in there as well... I need to see if I can fit one to the Logan.  I was afraid to do so thinking about the wiring getting caught on a gear.  Will take a look again at the routing and potential location of the sensor and magnet.  I need to validate what the TouchDRO supports... best not to have another display if I can avoid it...


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## great white (Sep 6, 2022)

wachuko said:


> That is very quiet... all that by simply going with that 3D printed gear... nice.
> 
> I see that you have an rpm sensor in there as well... I need to see if I can fit one to the Logan.  I was afraid to do so thinking about the wiring getting caught on a gear.  Will take a look again at the routing and potential location of the sensor and magnet.  I need to validate what the TouchDRO supports... best not to have another display if I can avoid it...


Magnet is easy. It’s just placed on my spindle shaft and it holds itself there.

Bracket for the sensor you make and as long as the airgap is good, it doesn’t matter how you make the bracket.

For cable routing I just made sure the wires run behind the banjo bracket and I use a coupke rubber lined wiring clamps to keep the wire where I placed it.

The gear train noise reduction has me wanting to try and chase down the last few “rings and rattles” it makes. I think the current biggest offender is the pin where the bull gear couples to the pulleys. Theres a bit of slop when its engaged and I can see that making some of the remaining “ring” noises. I’m thinking of either making a snug fitting brass bush in the spindle pulley to receive the pin or maybe something 3d printed to fill the excess clearance….


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