# My New To Me Craftsman Lathe 101.28980 (pic Heavy)



## Wisrianni (Jan 23, 2016)

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 Hey all,i recently purchased this lathe  off craigslist i paid 500,it came with two 3 jaw chucks and the original stand and it needed a few things. for example 2 gears in the quick change gear box were broken and one was seized and broke its built in key. here are a few pics and ill update it as i make progress. I wont be painting anything just repairing and cleaning to get it running, maybe in the future i will tear it down.
DAY ONE

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## Wisrianni (Jan 23, 2016)

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 cleaning the bed pan. it was covered in old oils and other debri

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## Wisrianni (Jan 23, 2016)

Three gears in the qcgb were damaged. i managed to find replacements from clausing, here is the gear box off the lathe and it shows how the previous owner kept it.


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## Wisrianni (Jan 23, 2016)

tearing down the gear box. wasnt easy taking care not to break anything lol. and getting ready for cleaning.


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## Wisrianni (Jan 23, 2016)

breaking down the grit and old oil on the gears with purple power then soaked in wd40 until i reassemble it . you can see one of the small gears with a broken tooth i even found the tooth stuck to the gear box lol. look how nasty the purple power got. the shafts show some wear and i dont want to get into making new ones and replacing the babbit yet as it seemed good when i was taking it apart.


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## dlane (Jan 23, 2016)

Hard to tell from the small pics , but the avatar looks good


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## Wisrianni (Jan 23, 2016)

dlane said:


> Hard to tell from the small pics , but the avatar looks good



Hahaha thats what i want mine to look like one day. Just gotta get mine runing .


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## dlane (Jan 23, 2016)

Thumbnail pics take to long to open on this site, I gave one of your pics 4 min to open then gave up
Are you resizing them to 600x 800 would help. Quit a few folks here don't try to open small pics .
Don't know why just this site thumbnail pics no good
Should be a good lathe once you get the probs worked out.


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## roadie33 (Jan 23, 2016)

Nice lathe.
I have the 101.28990 and had the same situation with one of the QCGB gears. Clausing wanted to much for it so I just milled out the key in the gear and put in my own using epoxy. Worked great and hasn't given me any problems in over a year.
Also check the shaft key way for burrs and such. I had to clean mine up with an endmill, I also extended it the full length of shaft since that was some of the problem with it not going all the way to the left and causing it to shear off the key in the gear. 
Changing gears is a whole lot easier now.


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## Wisrianni (Jan 23, 2016)

roadie33 said:


> Nice lathe.
> I have the 101.28990 and had the same situation with one of the QCGB gears. Clausing wanted to much for it so I just milled out the key in the gear and put in my own using epoxy. Worked great and hasn't given me any problems in over a year.
> Also check the shaft key way for burrs and such. I had to clean mine up with an endmill, I also extended it the full length of shaft since that was some of the problem with it not going all the way to the left and causing it to shear off the key in the gear.
> Changing gears is a whole lot easier now.



Yeah when i had to remove the shaft that holds the selector handles that blew my mind that it was half way keyed. When i got it. Letter gear changer was stuck in E and thats what happened it sheared its own key and seized itself  onto the shaft. It was a pain getting that out i swore i was gonna break that handle. But i cleaned it up with a small file and the new gear slides perfectly.


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## Wisrianni (Jan 23, 2016)

dlane said:


> Thumbnail pics take to long to open on this site, I gave one of your pics 4 min to open then gave up
> Are you resizing them to 600x 800 would help. Quit a few folks here don't try to open small pics .
> Don't know why just this site thumbnail pics no good
> Should be a good lathe once you get the probs worked out.




Oh dam ill look into that now


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## Wisrianni (Jan 23, 2016)

dlane said:


> Thumbnail pics take to long to open on this site, I gave one of your pics 4 min to open then gave up
> Are you resizing them to 600x 800 would help. Quit a few folks here don't try to open small pics .
> Don't know why just this site thumbnail pics no good
> Should be a good lathe once you get the probs worked out.



should i resize them or do full picture option? the full picture option might take a second to load on slower internet speeds


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## yendor (Jan 23, 2016)

OK I'm seriously jealous. I'm just across the river from you in NJ and I picked up a QCGB 42 about 8 months ago. Repaired the gear box which was frozen with dried up grease no internal damage on mine. The lathe was missing the Tailstock (no problem as I found a replacement quickly).

What makes me jealous is yours is up and running mine went into storage 2 months after I got it working when I sold the house and am waiting for my new construction house to be finished. Currently working towards a 2/26 settlement date. Then I have to fit out the basement shop.


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## Wierd Harold (Jan 23, 2016)

Wisrianni said:


> should i resize them or do full picture option? the full picture option might take a second to load on slower internet speeds


I don't have a bit of problem with your pics. The thumbnails open in about a second and the larger pics zoom in and out instantly with a click.
HWF


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## Wisrianni (Jan 23, 2016)

yendor said:


> OK I'm seriously jealous. I'm just across the river from you in NJ and I picked up a QCGB 42 about 8 months ago. Repaired the gear box which was frozen with dried up grease no internal damage on mine. The lathe was missing the Tailstock (no problem as I found a replacement quickly).
> 
> What makes me jealous is yours is up and running mine went into storage 2 months after I got it working when I sold the house and am waiting for my new construction house to be finished. Currently working towards a 2/26 settlement date. Then I have to fit out the basement shop.




hahaha mine needed some love ive had it for about 2 weeks. just waiting for parts. im literally waiting for one more gear. dam this snow.


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## rcwarship (Jan 31, 2016)

Nice find!  No issues with pictures once I logged in.  They went from the small thumbnails to a full column width size & are clickable to HUGE SIZE!!!  LOL.  It looks like you have 2 flat belts?  Wild.  I was also looking at the spindle speed chart & it looks like there are 4 diameters shown & only 3 fitted.  It'll be interesting to see what you figure out.
Thanks for sharing,
Jon


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## Wisrianni (Jan 31, 2016)

rcwarship said:


> Nice find!  No issues with pictures once I logged in.  They went from the small thumbnails to a full column width size & are clickable to HUGE SIZE!!!  LOL.  It looks like you have 2 flat belts?  Wild.  I was also looking at the spindle speed chart & it looks like there are 4 diameters shown & only 3 fitted.  It'll be interesting to see what you figure out.
> Thanks for sharing,
> Jon



Good catch! the belts are 2 v-belts and the pulley changes are done in the cabinet the two belts run down into the cabinet. a nice feature of having the cabinet model.


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## wa5cab (Jan 31, 2016)

The thumbnails open quickly for me, too.

On the spindle belts, no.  They are (or were originally) two A42 multiple V-belts.  About the same cross section as a 4L but intended for applications having more than one belt.


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## Wisrianni (Jan 31, 2016)

Strangely, although the bench model had a single V-belt drive to the headstock, the underdrive model used two - a design that can often lead to trouble when worn or unmatched belts are used. If your 12-inch underdrive suffers from a noisy headstock, vibration or a poor finish on turned work, look first at the final drive to the headstock spindle and check (by putting a chalk line across them and running the lathe) that the two belts are exactly the same length. A solution - and one that saves having to dismantle the headstock and countershaft to replace the belts - is to use a modern T-link type.

found some info awhile back on the bench model  heres the site and above is straight from that site.
http://www.lathes.co.uk/craftsman/page4.html


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## wa5cab (Jan 31, 2016)

The "Multiple V-Belt and Sheave" belts cost a bit more than the common Light Duty or Fractional Horsepower belts.  But are more closely matched.  I later came to assume that the reason for having two belts on the final spindle drive was because of the increased difficulty of changing the belts.  I've owned a 3996 for about 35 years.  Sometime during the first year that I had it, I notice that the right hand belt was fraying badly on the right side.  So badly that I had to cut it out.  A little later (I was in the middle of a project when I did the cutting), I figured out that the factory had installed the bed too far to the right so that the right hand belt was running against the right edge of the rectangular hole through the oil pan.  And that the dual second counter shaft pulley couldn't be aligned with the spindle pulley both because the pulley set screw would have been off the end of the shaft and the right belt would be rubbing the edge of the hole.  So I moved the dual pulley to the left almost as far as it would go and put the one remaining belt in the left groove of the spindle pulley and right groove of the counter shaft pulley.  It has been running that way for about 34 years, now.  

Some of you here already know my opinion of link belts so I won't repeat it.


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## TLW (Feb 14, 2016)

Whooo,Hooo!.....I just picked up my "new to me" 3996. Bought it on Craigs List and can't say I got a super-duper deal but I think it was a fair price. $1500.00 included 3 jawand 4 jaw chucks, steady rest, follow rest, qc tool post and 5 holders (Emco), Milling attachment, collets w/draw bar, three drill chucks for the tail stock and some tools. There is also a bunch of stuff I may be able to use a trade items or what ever that do not fit the machine.
   Right now I'm replacing a few sq. head screws, the tail stock lock, carriage lock and the missing name tag. Just small bits to be sure but I'd like to restore it as best I can.
   Wish me luck!


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## Wisrianni (Feb 16, 2016)

TLW said:


> Whooo,Hooo!.....I just picked up my "new to me" 3996. Bought it on Craigs List and can't say I got a super-duper deal but I think it was a fair price. $1500.00 included 3 jawand 4 jaw chucks, steady rest, follow rest, qc tool post and 5 holders (Emco), Milling attachment, collets w/draw bar, three drill chucks for the tail stock and some tools. There is also a bunch of stuff I may be able to use a trade items or what ever that do not fit the machine.
> Right now I'm replacing a few sq. head screws, the tail stock lock, carriage lock and the missing name tag. Just small bits to be sure but I'd like to restore it as best I can.
> Wish me luck!




thats a good deal. start a thread upload some pics!


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## Wisrianni (Feb 16, 2016)

So time for an update. I have been busy with work but i finally got some time to get to the garage and get her up and running. heres a few pics of how it turned 3 inch stainless steel. figured id test it out  sorry if their sideways


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## Mondo (Feb 17, 2016)

Nice!  I think you got a decent bargain.  Let's say you were to have paid $700 for the lathe, all those accouterments (chucks, steady rest, milling attachment, etc) would have set you back another grand at FleaBay prices, at least.

Facing off that 3" SS:  Looks good.  Did you then check with a good machinist's square to verify square to side and flat all the way across?

I have learned to use a steady for anything that sticks out more than 3x the diameter, even for facing.  

If you find the faced end is not flat but has a slight concave or slight convex curve (low or high in the middle), check that the cross-slide gib screws are just snug enough to remove all wiggle, check that the carriage gib screws at the back are also snug, just enough to remove any carriage wiggle but not tight.  Face off again.  If there is still a curve re-adjust the carriage gib screws to change the attitude of the carriage in relation to the spindle axis.  To save on test cuts you can set a dial indicator on the cross slide or tool post and indicate on the face of the chuck or known flat plate mounted on the spindle or chuck and with the motor switched off manually run the cross slide checking the results on the indicator then adjusting the carriage gib screws accordingly.

Spiral_Chips


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## TLW (Feb 27, 2016)

Wisrianni said:


> So time for an update. I have been busy with work but i finally got some time to get to the garage and get her up and running. heres a few pics of how it turned 3 inch stainless steel. figured id test it out  sorry if their sideways
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Wisrianni,
   I noticed in your earlier photos that the motor pulley looked to be incorrect. It is supposed to be a 2 step pulley. Did you replace it? I found the same "repair" was done on mine and it cost me $90.00 from Clausing. I figured the correct pulley was needed or you only have an 8 speed lathe instead of 16. Just curious how you approached the issue.


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## wa5cab (Feb 27, 2016)

I have noticed the same rotation viewing problem elsewhere.  Apparently some incompatibility factor has crept into some of the myriad of editors.  I use Irfanview as a standard or reference.  If it says that a photo is sideways, I know some browsers and other viewers will, too.  I first ran into this problem with one of the later Nikon editors.


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## Wisrianni (Mar 10, 2016)

Spiral_Chips said:


> Nice!  I think you got a decent bargain.  Let's say you were to have paid $700 for the lathe, all those accouterments (chucks, steady rest, milling attachment, etc) would have set you back another grand at FleaBay prices, at least.
> 
> Facing off that 3" SS:  Looks good.  Did you then check with a good machinist's square to verify square to side and flat all the way across?
> 
> ...



wow didnt even see the notifications
yes it ended up being cupped. and i started using the carraige lock and adjusted the gibs on the ways. they were loose btw thanks for the tips!!


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## Wisrianni (Mar 10, 2016)

TLW said:


> Wisrianni,
> I noticed in your earlier photos that the motor pulley looked to be incorrect. It is supposed to be a 2 step pulley. Did you replace it? I found the same "repair" was done on mine and it cost me $90.00 from Clausing. I figured the correct pulley was needed or you only have an 8 speed lathe instead of 16. Just curious how you approached the issue.



thats correct i only have half the speeds :/ . the lathe came that way, i was going to attempt to make my own pulley in the near future.


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