# Finally finished refurbishing lathe !



## sasanifab (Feb 15, 2021)

I purchased a supermax 1338 about a year ago, I paid more than i should but I was excited and was being stupid. This particular lathe was built in 1988, when I got it home the lathe wouldn’t go into forward and it had a bent pinion gear in the apron. Luckily the guy who sold me the lathe had another supermax and I swapped the apron. Prior to this I had a 10 inch Southbend so I had little to no machining experience. A part of me is glad this all happened as it forced me to learn and get out of my comfort zone. The first thing I did was realize the person who sold me the lathe installed a non reversing contacter which is why it wouldn’t go into reverse, so I installed one and upgraded the transformer. That’s when I realized the hinged roller switches were bad , so those were replaced. That’s when I tackled the apron, I found a similar 13 tooth pinion gear and machined it to fit, machined a grizzly crossslide to fit , lead 1/2 nut , cross feed nut and screw and worm gear  Lastly, replacing the tailstock   Acme flange nut. For those of you who have a supermax or similar ....
7/8-8 acme 1/2 nut 
5/8-8 acme cross feed 
5/8-10- tailstock nut
Cross slide from 14 inch grizzly will fit with some machining, The worm gear setup  also fits. This is all from the G0824 lathe


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## matthewsx (Feb 15, 2021)

One of the best parts of working on a lathe is using the lathe to make the parts you need to fix it

John


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## markba633csi (Feb 15, 2021)

Nice work!  That lathe should run like a clock
-Mark


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## sasanifab (Feb 15, 2021)

markba633csi said:


> Nice work!  That lathe should run like a clock
> -Mark


It runs flawlessly with little to no backlash, I know people say using a lathe with a dro makes backlash irrelevant, I would disagree . I had so much crossfeed back lash that the force applied to the workpiece would push back the cross slide, the lead screw nut was so worn I couldn’t trust that the position would be the same.  Now I want a beefier lathe, something more rigid. This lathe weighs around 1700lbs. I want something that can do metric and standard threading , over 14 inch swing and heavy


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## sasanifab (Feb 15, 2021)

Not the best .... but it works


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## Mitch Alsup (Feb 15, 2021)

matthewsx said:


> One of the best parts of working on a lathe is using the lathe to make the parts you need to fix it:grin



A lathe, with a milling attachment, is the simplest machine that can reproduce itself.


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