# First Metal Lathe, Cleaning And Other Tips Needed!



## PAturner (Aug 24, 2016)

Hi, this is my first post on the forum. I've done a lot of woodturning but I have no experience with metal. I joined here because I'm excited to learn and I'm sure having this resource will be infinitely useful. 
Anyway I'll try and get down to the point of this thread. I've just acquired a D. Nast machinery Co. 11" by 36" lathe. (Anybody know anything about this company? I did a quick Google search and it seems they may still be around.) My dad and I moved it and it. is. heavy. I'm sure all of the more experienced machinists know this, but for me coming over from woodworking tools I was in awe of the weight. Everything about it just screams heavy duty. 

All the metal parts (ways, flats on compound, lead screw) are in great shape for a 50+ year old tool. Zero rust to speak of. But there is the usual layer of grease, grit, gunk and unpleasantness that needs to be removed. This isn't stuff that's coming off with a paper towel. So how do I go about cleaning this old beast? I was thinking some rags and mineral spirits? Or would simple green work? (I'm a rower and that's what we use to clean our seat tracks) And does anyone have a de-greaser they'd reccomend that I could grab at Home Depot? My plan now is to go over everything with something (mineral spirits/simple green/ your recommendation), then give everything a wipe with some de-greaser, then maybe some scotch brite to shine up the ways and handles and such. 
I've always been bad at keeping forum posts short and to the point so I apologize for the rambling, and thank you in advance for any help.


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## schor (Aug 24, 2016)

got any pictures of it?


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## dlane (Aug 24, 2016)

I would think mineral spirits, real rags , brass brushes, fine scotch bright, tooth brushes,would do it
On a assembled machine. Simple green would require rinsing with water that works good on parts .
I haven't heard of that lathe till now, got a pic ?. Sounds like a good rebadged lathe.
O by the way Welcome to the forum,


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## intjonmiller (Aug 24, 2016)

Mineral spirits are great for so many things (including thinning many wood finishes). The softer scotchbrite varieties and even #0000 steel wool* work very well without hurting anything, as do Scott brand blue shop paper towels (maybe other brands as well, but I buy Scott specifically because they're tough and don't leave lint when I use them on workpieces to be painted). It really depends a lot on how much work it needs. Purple Power, Simple Green, and other water-based degreasers work very well, but they strip ALL the oil off of the surface. If you aren't planning on doing a full restoration, then you don't need to go that far. A light oil film is a good idea. I don't recommend the "green" or "earth-friendly" or "alternate" mineral spirits. You want regular odorless mineral spirits. The other stuff works, but not as fast or as well. The real stuff is clear, the fake stuff is milky. 

* There's a tendency for people to get uptight at the suggestion of using steel wool on a machined surface. These people don't seem to be familiar with #0000 steel wool. It's pillow soft. I use it, among other applications, to remove dust nibs from sprayed or wiped wood finishes including lacquer and polyurethane. It's barely abrasive enough to remove those surface imperfections, and other than slightly reducing the sheen (which can generally be brought back by buffing with wax) it doesn't harm the wood finish, and it won't harm your machine. Just make sure you aren't using some coarser variety, including the Harbor Freight stuff that isn't graded.


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## PAturner (Aug 24, 2016)

Thanks for the tips everyone. Gonna be a bit of a job to get clean but it should be ready to cut. I have to check some things out though: the chuck won't thread on all the way so I have to clean the threads in it (tips on that?) and then I have to decide what to do about the actual powering of the spindle. The person I bought it from had it set up so that a flywheel attachment at the end of the spindle hooks up with a pulley to drive the lathe. In other terms, the flat pulley in the headstock is not used. He also never used the back gears... Needless to say I will need lots and lots of help and advice to get this back to how it should have been set up. Pics to come once I reach three posts and can figure out how to post one.


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## dlane (Aug 24, 2016)

Try for a pic of drive sys,  carriage, headstock, ways
Pics, if you use tapatalk use the paper clip not the camera icon ,


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## PAturner (Aug 24, 2016)

Ok, I think I can upload pictures from taps talk now. It might become very clear to all of you how UNfamiliar I am with these types of tools. I realized the former owner did use the back gears. 
	

		
			
		

		
	



As you can see in the first picture there is a gearbox that (without the back gears) runs the lathe at 250, 500, 700, and 1000 RPM. Looking at how people normally have south bend motors set up I think that if I mounted the motor on the raised floor you can see in the back of the pictures and then set up the flywheel to go to another pulley arbor I could switch to the traditional flat belt drive system. I now realize that the back gears once engaged will add 4 more speeds. A quick google and I taught myself how to engage the back gears.




That is the top view of the carriage assembly


And that is the view of the carriage controls. 


Tailstock


Full machine picture
And lastly here is the branding- maybe someone could shed some light on who made this lathe? 
	

		
			
		

		
	



And beyond that, once I find out who made the lathe, how can I figure out the different gears to use to cut threads? 

Thanks for looking and thanks for any help! 


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## PAturner (Aug 24, 2016)

Oh, and I have pictures of the change gears as well. Many don't look like they've ever been used.
	

		
			
		

		
	





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## francist (Aug 24, 2016)

Hey PAturner, good job on posting the pictures! 

Interesting looking lathe -- no hand wheel for carriage travel, just a ballcrank -- maybe somebody can help you ID it from that. Looks kinda oldish to me, maybe early 1900's, but that's just a feeling. 
One tip for you though before you get cut to shreds by other folks, get that chuck key out of the chuck!! Bad habit to get into.

Good luck with it and I'm looking forward to seeing more of it.

-frank


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## PAturner (Aug 24, 2016)

Yea, I know I should remove it- but before the lathe is even wired I'm keeping all the parts together. Wouldn't want to lose anything before the machine is turned on!
Also, would it be possible and worth it to replace the ball crank with a real hand wheel? 


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## francist (Aug 24, 2016)

I don't suppose it really matters, hand wheel or ballcrank. You would get used to either, I expect. I just found it unusual, not necessarily undesirable.

-frank


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## Ulma Doctor (Aug 25, 2016)

it looks a lot like my Antique Flather Lathe.
nice find!


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## AR. Hillbilly (Aug 27, 2016)

First off welcome from another new guy who also recently got a new to me old lathe. I used mineral spirits and used  dryer sheets to clean all the greasy parts. I finally got a book and tore it completely apart and used the oven cleaner and pressurewasher trick. It took me 3 months to get it all clean and prepped for paint. I think you'll find these guys and this site to be very helpful and full of shared knowledge. I've found it to be addictive. Good looking piece of machinery you got there.


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## brino (Aug 28, 2016)

Nice looking old machine. It's great that you got the legs too.
It looks to be in good shape, gears too, wow.

Congratulations on the great find!

-brino

EDIT: As @Ulma Doctor says there are many similarities to a Flather, see:
http://vintagemachinery.org/mfgIndex/detail.aspx?id=2187&tab=4
and
http://www.lathes.co.uk/flather/
but nothing identical.

One dead give-away for finding your manufacturer should be the half-nut lever in the end of the apron....I've never seen that before.


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## francist (Aug 28, 2016)

The half-nut lever intrigued me as well, but I've since found it on a couple of older machines -- see the pic of a Seneca Falls below. Can't remember the other ones it appeared on, but they were the typical heavy-hitter names like Oliver, Seneca, etc. That ballcrank appears more often than I expected as well, so I'm drawing a blank so far on an exact match.

-frank


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## PAturner (Aug 29, 2016)

I really appreciate the interest in helping me identify the old girl- with no previous knowledge of old lathes to draw upon I certainly am at a loss for a manufacturer. 


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## TakeDeadAim (Aug 29, 2016)

Ive not seen this lathe before but, as someone mentioned it may be a re-branded machine.  The company is still in business in PA but does not appear to sell machines any longer.   For clean up I like the purple de-greaser from Auto Zone or Wal-mart. It has to be cleaned off with another cleaner but it does a great job of cutting that level of grease and dryed oil.  Wear gloves, its rather hard on the hands.


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## PAturner (Aug 29, 2016)

Figured it wouldn't hurt to bump this thread with another question- 
The gear train currently on the lathe has gears that are part of the change gear "set", right? And the gear ratios are all set by 4 gears if I'm not mistaken. So by that logic I'd have 4 gears on the lathe and 8 gears loose like in the picture giving me a full set. Is that correct or am I missing something? 

Also, any idea how I would begin to locate a gear chart for this lathe?


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## 12bolts (Aug 29, 2016)

Count the leadscrew pitch. If its 8 TPI then a SB or similar chart will work. See here http://www.hobby-machinist.com/resources/sb-how-to-run-a-lathe-1966-27th-edition-56-pdf.2909/
And no you wont always need 4 gears to get the required screw pitch

cheers Phil


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## Herk (Sep 6, 2016)

Could it be a Barnes?


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## brino (Sep 6, 2016)

Herk said:


> Could it be a Barnes?



Great question, there are certainly some similarities in the headstock shape .......
My old Barnes 4-1/2" had a double lead-screw, that was one thing that separated it from other similar ones. It used one leadscrew for left-to-right carriage travel and the other for right-to-left carriage travel.

Here's one Barnes machine: http://www.lathes.co.uk/barnes/index.html
..and the double -lead-screw one: http://www.lathes.co.uk/barnes/page2.html and here: http://www.lathes.co.uk/barnes/page3.html

Nothing identical, but that doesn't mean it's not a Barnes.......

-brino


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