10d Babbit Bearings

[lakebom184]

Recently obtained an early Atlas 10 D, babbit bearings, removable bearing caps, 5/8 lead screw. Lathe had grease fittings rather than oilers which I.m told is a severe no-no. Finally had time to look Removed bearing caps, Left had lube & bras shim, right dry, no shim, spindle somewhat ugly and the bearing had a small hole in the center. Assuming the bearings can't be replaced like shell bearings Any help would be greatly appreciated as I am new at this

 

[Ulma Doctor]

Hi lakebom,
i'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news,
i'm no expert on the subject, but....
babbitt bearings are poured in place, then finished to size by line boring and/or scraping
conceivably, you could do it- but it would take extensive measurement and some accurate setup to hope to attain any breath of accuracy in the finished work.
i don't wish to discourage you from doing it,
but being your first time at it, just know you'll need to bring your lunch if you do decide to do it

 

[chips&more]

Welcome! If the bearings are not cracked and or loose. I would just put it back together. Adjusting the clearance as best you can with shims and or shortening the bearing caps. AND PAY EXTRA SPECIAL ATTENTION TO THE END SHAKE ADJUSTMENT! You do not want 0 end shake because then the spindle would not turn around. But you want it as close to 0 as possible with the spindle turning freely. Any more play than that and you will have chatter problems. Yes, all of this bearing adjustment can affect the alignment of the spindle to the tailstock. But you are probably going to have to live with it…Good Luck, Dave.

 

[lakebom184]

Welcome! If the bearings are not cracked and or loose. I would just put it back together. Adjusting the clearance as best you can with shims and or shortening the bearing caps. AND PAY EXTRA SPECIAL ATTENTION TO THE END SHAKE ADJUSTMENT! You do not want 0 end shake because then the spindle would not turn around. But you want it as close to 0 as possible with the spindle turning freely. Any more play than that and you will have chatter problems. Yes, all of this bearing adjustment can affect the alignment of the spindle to the tailstock. But you are probably going to have to live with it…Good Luck, Dave.

Welcome! If the bearings are not cracked and or loose. I would just put it back together. Adjusting the clearance as best you can with shims and or shortening the bearing caps. AND PAY EXTRA SPECIAL ATTENTION TO THE END SHAKE ADJUSTMENT! You do not want 0 end shake because then the spindle would not turn around. But you want it as close to 0 as possible with the spindle turning freely. Any more play than that and you will have chatter problems. Yes, all of this bearing adjustment can affect the alignment of the spindle to the tailstock. But you are probably going to have to live with it…Good Luck, Dave.

Thanks for the input. Found bearing caps with shims and oilers on Ebay. Could barely turn spindle prior to removing bearing caps right side was so dry.
Lathe came from a body shop so is really crudded up.Seems to have virtually no end play at this point but will definitely pay attention. Thanks again!
Lake

 

[lakebom184]

Hi lakebom,
i'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news,
i'm no expert on the subject, but....
babbitt bearings are poured in place, then finished to size by line boring and/or scraping
conceivably, you could do it- but it would take extensive measurement and some accurate setup to hope to attain any breath of accuracy in the finished work.
i don't wish to discourage you from doing it,
but being your first time at it, just know you'll need to bring your lunch if you do decide to do it

Thanks for the input!

 

[wa5cab]

Whatever you do, don't try to put bearing caps from another babbit 10" or 12" onto it. I would suggest, if the spindle is chewed up, to find a better looking used spindle and see whether or not you need to add shims back in order to turn the spindle.

If it is still loose, have someone who can to it accurately shave 0.0100" off of both faces on both caps and see where you are.

In any case, the tailstock is probably going to be high. If you can tighten up the spindle, buy a used 1" spacer block on eBay (they turn up frequently, and you don't want to touch your original in case you later decide to replace the headstock) and have it surface ground to match the spindle.

And DO NOT use grease on the spindle bearings.

 

[lakebom184]

Thank you for your input. Upon another look at the spindle perhaps it is not too bad. Thinking the crud can be cleaned with emery cloth. I did in fact buy a pair of bearing caps on ebay but primarily for the oilers and shims which I didnt have The spindle is actually tight rather than loose I assume due to crud and lack of shims. If my understanding of the babbit process is correct the bearings are poured with the spindle in place somehow. Again I'm new but I could replace the spindle using my existing bearing caps but shouldn't use the purchased bearing caps with the existing spindle. Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[wa5cab]

Actually the babbit was originally poured with an undersized plug in place of the spindle. Then the standard shim packs were installed and the bearings were line bored. There is actually a photo of the equipment installed and doing the boring operation in the older (1955 and back) MOLO's.

 

[lakebom184]

Actually the babbit was originally poured with an undersized plug in place of the spindle. Then the standard shim packs were installed and the bearings were line bored. There is actually a photo of the equipment installed and doing the boring operation in the older (1955 and back) MOLO's.

Thanks for the info. Now I have a better understanding of the procedure. Began spindle dissassenbly and find a small pin after the woodruff key preventing removal of the step pulley & bullgear. Watched a YT video on a spindle with timken bearings no pin. Pin seems to be really stuck and am wondering if I should leave it and just clean pulley & bull gear while still on spindle. Thank you for your help.

 

[wa5cab]

Lakebom,

Unfortunately, we don't have a parts manuals on the 101.07380 or most Atlas machines older that about 1938. But go to Downloads and get the parts manuals on the 101.07381, 101.07383, and Atlas Lathe 10F Parts Partial 10L-36-2 5-47.PDF. The differences that I recall between the 07380 and 07381 are the change gear guard, carriage casting, compound slide assembly, legs, tailstock casting, headstock casting, and ON-OFF switch arrangement. Differences between the 101.07381 and 101.07383 are change gears and associated parts. I included the fairly late 101.07383 because it is illustrated. Some of the part numbers won't be the same. But most of them look the same. Atlas never actually did an illustrated parts manual on the 101.07383 so I created this one from the 101.07403 manual plus other sources and drawing modifications.

The 101.07380 is equivalent to a babbit bearing 10. The 101.07381 through 101.07383 are roughly equivalent to a babbit bearing 10D, except that the 101.07381 still used the 9" gears.

As you can see in the three manuals or lists, there is no pin shown to be in the spindle. My recommendation would be to cut it off with a Dremel and cutoff disc as close to the spindle as you can get without touching the spindle. Then work it down smooth with a file. Do this with the spindle out of the headstock, of course. You wouldn't like what the grinding dust would do inside your headstock.