# Noob Gets 5913 - Has Drive Issues! Many Q's!!



## bearzbear (Mar 18, 2016)

I just acquired a single owner 5913. It's pretty clean. With ground rod in the Cushman chuck's primary jaws, 2" from the jaws the dial indicator shows nil runout. Can't even see the thing bobble. Yay! (had to double check that it was actually ON the rod and working! hey!!)

Not so good news is that the lower pulley, the Reeves thingie, is a bit not smooth. You can hear it.  Yep, I bought it anyhow - should have looked more and wangled the price down, but he threw in some good things... Now I need to do that repair. 

A cut on aluminum using the feed shows some unevenness/lack of smoothness that I take to be due to the vibration from the drive. It vibrates the machine. The machine is level. The cut shows pretty much <0.001" runout from near the chuck to the end at a live-end in the tailstock. Yay!

Looking, actually _listening_ to Yoohootoobe vids of the 5913 & 14 I heard only ONE that ran with only a high frequency whine of the spindle rotating - the rest had a growl that was from moderate to excessive. 

wondering, how quiet and smooth is YOURS?
especially _if_ you've rebuilt the drive??

Now the big question part.

The epoxy fix - what's the epoxy of choice? (think I have this figured out...)
Which ones have been tried? Any metal filled ones?
(I DO have the Delrin bushing - got a phone call in to the original owner (he was retiring) to see what his line on it is - did he put one in, and it's goobered??)
I've read of one fix where someone retrofitted a bronze bushing. Seems plausible, and I know they went with this the first time. He wrote that he had used it for 12yrs @ 2,000hrs already. Now, what are we talking "oiless" bronze bushie? I'd think that bronze would need a very smooth polished shaft to ride on, and also lube from time to time?? Any one got solid info on this? 

Thinking about going with the bronze. (I'm not doing daily work, or production work...)

Thinking if I were the _factory_, I'd want that shaft to be not just smooth but maybe hard *chromed*??

And a better way to go for the motor arrangement might have been a shaft with two pillow block bearings driven by the motor via a shaft coupler (less vibration, relaxed bearing requirements for the motor, etc...)  and you could pull the shaft and work on it with less hassle - that shaft is on the motor, right? Best look at the drawings again, but I seem to think it is. 

Back to the epoxy fix... 

What sort of life have people gotten out of the epoxy of choice?? (Moglice??)
And are there perhaps some specialty coatings today for this sort of application that might be worth considering??

Anyone put a bleeder - like those on auto brake cylinders - on the side that runs the Reeves sheeves for easy bleeding?? Seems like that might avoid a whole lot of issues??

only a few questions - and YES I did try to find all the posts here first. So I have read them.

Next time: DC or AC motors and VFD??


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## Buzsaw (Mar 18, 2016)

I have a 5913 built in 1966, mine had been sitting for years and needed to be gone through and cleaned up. It know runs very smooth with very little noise or vibration. Your machine looks to be clean at least on the outside. would recommend going through entire lathe since yours is at 40 years old. As far as the drive if the epoxy coating is in good shape replace the delron bushing.. If the coating is destroyed and the key and keyway are damaged. I would recommend you find a used one in good condition and rebuild it along with the hydraulic system. I rebuilt mine was some learning curve but not to difficult. Bleeding the system is not hard no need to modify.


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