ARC-170's Craftsman 101.07403 lathe restoration thread

[pontiac428]

I didn't even think about the spindles! DOH! I have several tang-style MT#3 tapers that fit. They are pretty rough on the surface; any way to clean them up?

I am sure somebody will read this and spit their breakfast cereal all over their screen. This is what I did, and I got good results. Tapers go in tight and come out easy now, and that was my objective. I bought a #2 and #3 Morse reamer, put it in the bore of the head/tailstock, supported the free end in center, and did my thing. It worked out well.

(from mobile)

 

[ARC-170]

I have the two lathes I bought set up next to each other. I'm going to start removing parts from the "donor/old" machine and putting them on the "recipient/new" machine. The plan right now is to clean them just good enough for disassembly and re-assembly, then see if everything works, what is missing/needs fixing/etc, then take the machine apart (again) and do a thorough cleaning job and possibly a re-paint (the two machines are different colors). This may change as I go, however.

TAILSTOCK
14. I removed the tail stock ram lock assembly (#M6-44, M6-45, 1/4-20 bolt) from the donor, but am having a hard time getting it to go on the recipient. It came off the donor easily enough, but It fits very tight on the recipient so it's really hard to rotate the lock sleeve and lock pieces to get them to line up so the ram can slide in. I'm guessing the new machine needs cleaning then lubing in that area. Is there anything I need to know or am missing?
15. What grease/oil is used on the lock sleeves and/or the bolt?
16. I was going to use machine oil on the ram. Is this correct?

CARRIAGE
17. Any trick to removing the carriage? I assume I remove the two large Phillips head screws on top and slide it off, but are there any tricks or anything I should know before I take it apart? I want to inspect the backside because I think the mitre gear (#10F-82A) is missing/broken on my machine. I found the part in a box so I made this assumption and want to confirm. The 10F-84 knob (engages screw feed, correct?) is also missing, so there may be more broken/missing parts when I take it apart.

And so it begins.

 

[wa5cab]

15. Do not use grease on the tailstock ram lock parts. Over time, it will harden and cause trouble (just as it will in the spindle bearings in the headstock). Use the same SAE 20 ND or ISO 68 oil as used almost everywhere else on the lathe.

14. If the ram lock cylinders will not fit into the other tailstock, probably the surface of the hole has a coating of varnish due to years of drying out time of the oil that should be used there. One solution would be to slit a length of 3/8" diameter drill rod, mount it in your drill press along with the tailstock (on the table) and slip about 1" of 400 or 600 grit wet-or-dry sand paper into the slit and spin that in the hole briefly.

16. Yes, SAE 20 as most everywhere else on the lathe.

17. The two large Phillips head screws attach the apron to the front of the saddle. If you only want to remove the carriage from the bed, it is not necessary to remove the apron. But it will reduce the weight somewhat. Remove the carriage dovetail chip guard. Crank the cross slide off the end of the cross feed screw and slide the cross slide off of the dovetail. Slide the tailstock off the end of the bed. Remove the lead screw and its right bearing. Crank the carriage off the end of the bed, catching the carriage gib if it falls out. You may have to loosen the carriage gib somewhat if there is much wear on the rear of the rear way. It may be just as well to go ahead and remove the carriage gib before sliding the carriage off of the bed. If the carriage still goes tight near the end of the bed, loosen but do not remove the four screws attaching the front and rear bearing plates to the bottom of the carriage. And yes on the 10F-84 Knob engaging the power cross feed. Except that it seems to have been re-numbered as 441-060.

 

[ARC-170]

14. I cleaned the tailstock hole and all the pieces with Simple Green, a red Scotchbrite pad and a round brush and filed the burrs off and got the sleeves to fit without getting stuck. However, there are 2 different tail stocks. I pulled the locking assembly off the one on the bottom, but my lathe tailstock is shown on top. The hole is smaller on mine than the old one so I cannot stack the sleeves in the hole (it's a bigger diameter from the underside). They have the same part number on the castings. The parts diagram I have for my lathe shows a tailstock like the bottom one:


I can either have just one sleeve, switch tailstocks, or shorten the sleeves. Thoughts? I found some extra sleeves with my lathe that are the same length as the ones shown. My tailstock is in better condition cosmetically, but they both appear to be functional.

Here is the locking assembly showing the sleeves:


15-16. Noted. I used machine oil after cleaning these with Simple Green and a rag.

17. The Phillips heads would not budge. I sprayed penetrating oil on them a few days ago, too. I was able to get the carriage off as follows:
-Unscrew the leadscrew bearing bolts (the ones holding it to the bed on the right side) and remove the nut and washer on the end.
-I removed the bolt holding the leadscrew drive gear on the left.
-I gently tapped the bearing and the whole leadscrew came off. I discovered this by accident when I was trying to get just the bearing off. I wasn't able to get just the bearing off the leadscrew. It was probably better this way anyway since I would have had to support the leadscrew at one end.
This allowed me to slide off the carriage.

 

[ARC-170]

HEADSTOCK
18. I switched out the belt guards. While doing this, I oiled the bearings on both lathes. Mine still is "crunchy" and doesn't rotate smoothly. In fact, I can't get it to rotate at all. The oil all dripped out on the table. The other lathe runs really smooth and little or no oil dripped out. Am I looking at switching out the bearings of these two machines? Or should I buy new bearings? Thoughts?

 

[wa5cab]

18. It's possible that some misguided soul packed the bearings with grease which over the years has hardened and is caked around the outer part of the bearings and is keeping oil from getting to them.

14. This is the first case that I've heard of where the hole for the ram locks is too small. Or maybe you mean that the hole is too shallow. Please measure the diameters or the depths of the two holes and report it here.

 

[ARC-170]

12. I'll try the scale method and see what I get. I'm afraid I might drop the lathe on the scale and break it, though. I might need a hanging scale anyway to weigh the parts from the donor lathe I'm going to try to sell.

13. The local auto paint store has auto paint only that is about $50 a quart. I might be able to get a pint, but that might not be enough. Rattle can paint is about $4/can. I might spay polyester primer/surfacer on the cast iron to seal it up and smooth it out, then spray color over that. A smoother finish will be easier to clean. I want to wait and see how many parts of each lathe I use before I decide on a color. I got blue, dark gray and aqua parts. I'll probably want to dismantle the whole thing to paint it, but I hear that it is not a good idea to remove the headstock. Is this true?

14. This is the first case that I've heard of where the hole for the ram locks is too small. Or maybe you mean that the hole is too shallow. Please measure the diameters or the depths of the two holes and report it here.

My report (I got homework?! What the...?)

Here's a rough, approximately to scale, sketch of a section view through the oil cup and locking sleeve holes showing the differences. The measurements are close, but not to 0.001". Mine is like "B". The donor lathe is like "A".

Should I switch tailstocks? I have a (small) milling machine so maybe I could bore out the hole to fit the sleeves. This scares me; I don't have enough experience to get it perfect. I could also make the sleeves shorter in length. Thoughts? How would I determine which tailstock is better? Is the tailstock matched to the lathe?

18. So I have to take them out to clean the grease out or at least see what the issue is, correct?

 

[wa5cab]

14. Wow! When you wrote earlier that the hole for the tailstock ram lock in your Tailstock "B" was too small for the lock cylinders, I had no idea it was "REALLY" too small. 0.26" diameter!!! I've forgotten whether you had answered this before. Did the "B" tailstock have a pair of lock cylinders installed in it?

The earliest actual 10" parts list that we have found is on the 10E. The 10E is a stripped down 10D with headstock, carriage, compound and tailstock but with no back gears or threading capability. We do not have an actual 10D parts list. But the 10E list says that the tailstock is 10D-5. 10D-5 is also used on the 10F up through end of production in 1957. This would seem to imply that your tailstock "B" is a 10-5.

I know that the tailstock spacer or riser block has or will have 10D-6 cast into it. Does the actual "B" tailstock casting have a number cast into it?

As to whether or not you should switch tailstocks, I'm not yet sure. But unless you make "B" look like "A", probably.

18. Short answer is yes except that unless you are replacing it with a new one, it is not necessary to remove the right spindle bearing cone from the spindle. And unless you are replacing either or both, it is not necessary to remove either spindle bearing cup from the headstock. And it is not necessary to remove either of the inner spindle bearing dust covers.

 

[ARC-170]

14. It did not have a tailstock lock on it when I got it, but I found the sleeves in a box of parts that came with the lathe. The 1/4" bolt fits in the top hole, but there isn't enough space in the larger diameter area to fit the sleeves, unless they are shortened.

They are both 10D-6.

Is mine some rare/limited production/mistake? Can I sell it for $1,000,000,000! Ha! At this point the plan is to clean up both tailstocks and see which one is better. I'll wait and see if we get any more info about the small hole vs big hole.
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I thought I'd ask before I attempted anything:

19. How do I pull the tailstock handwheel bearing out? Is it threaded or press fit? It would make it easier to clean and paint the tailstock if it was out. I could leave it in, I suppose, and used tape to cover it for painting.

20. Is detaching the base from the tailstock a big deal? Does it cause re-alignment issues when I re-assemble it?

 

[wa5cab]

14. 10D-6 is the base with the two backset adjust screws front and back. The tailstock is only the casting that fits on the base. Somewhere on it should be 10D-5 on the newer one and something else, maybe 10-5, on the older one. If you decide to use the older one that the larger hole doesn't go through to the top, you should first either bore the hole through to the top or have someone else do it for you. Unfortunately, although it may be quite rare, it ain't worth a bazillion dollars. Sorry.

19. The tailstock feed screw bearing screws into the casting but after more than half a century it may be difficult to remove. Soaking it in penetrating oil won't hurt and might help.

20. Short answers are no and yes. But the backset is one of the things that you would check before starting to use the lathe, anyway. To separate the tailstock from the base, remove the two slotted screws. Invert the assembly and soak the part of the tailstock that slides across the 10D-6 base in penetrating oil. Periodically, tap on the side of the base with a wood or other nonmetallic mallet. Eventually, it will come loose. Once you get the lathe back together, one of the first things that you should do anyway is to check the back set of the tailstock compared to the spindle. The MOLO has a paragraph on re-setting the backset to zero. Basically, you mount a test bar between centers, cut a little on each end, and adjust the backset and repeat until the two diameters are the same. Before you start whittling, you mount a dead center in spindle and ram and adjust the backset until the two appear to touch. Then start with the test bar.