Quite some time ago, I bought a Craftsman 109 lathe at a storage unit sale. It was in kind of sad shape, but I have been slowly and steadily working on it to get it in running shape. One of the problems with it was a loose front spindle bearing. The Liberal Arts Garage gave me a suggestion to slightly tighten the nut behind the bearing. This worked just great! It is now within spec. I also bought a magnetic base and dial test indicator and some 1/4" aluminum rods to test it out.
The next sticking point was that there was no back gear lock. This must have gotten lost, along with all of the change gears that were not attached to the machine. Somewhere on the Internet, I read that a 5/16" cube with a 8-32 threaded hole would work for this. This is not correct! This will not fit. Also, there is a hand drawing on the Yahoo group that says 1/4" This will work. I did not make the integral cube-screw, since the late is not working yet, but the block is just fine. It was hard to install, but it is now in. I also got some bar and chain oil for the bearings. They are nice and smooth now.
There was no motor, so I made a motor base out of old particle board laminated together on a giant homemade hinge bent out of flat stock and 3/4" old water pipe and fittings. A large die grinder was used to open up one of the junk tee fittings in order to get the cut off pipe to slide in. The ends of the tees were welded to plates and screwed to the bench.
I was so excited to turn the thing on and watch the spindle turn. So excited, in fact, that even though I do not have a tool holder yet, I tried to carve a ball on the end of the aluminum rod with a broken wood chisel that I found on the road. Wow! It worked! Chips flying off and a nice smooth finish! This thing really has potential. I have made a lot of ball ends with hammer and anvil, but small aluminum ones for RC car axles are really challenging, and you have to repeatedly anneal the aluminum. It looks like this new tool will have a place in the shop as soon as I can clear out some room for a real bench.
The lead screw gear issue has not been fixed yet. That along with the tool holder are next on the list. I am making a tangential tool holder along the lines of FarFar's design, but I got the angles wrong, and need some more time at the forge to clean it up. Will be done soon! Thanks all here for the help.
The next sticking point was that there was no back gear lock. This must have gotten lost, along with all of the change gears that were not attached to the machine. Somewhere on the Internet, I read that a 5/16" cube with a 8-32 threaded hole would work for this. This is not correct! This will not fit. Also, there is a hand drawing on the Yahoo group that says 1/4" This will work. I did not make the integral cube-screw, since the late is not working yet, but the block is just fine. It was hard to install, but it is now in. I also got some bar and chain oil for the bearings. They are nice and smooth now.
There was no motor, so I made a motor base out of old particle board laminated together on a giant homemade hinge bent out of flat stock and 3/4" old water pipe and fittings. A large die grinder was used to open up one of the junk tee fittings in order to get the cut off pipe to slide in. The ends of the tees were welded to plates and screwed to the bench.
I was so excited to turn the thing on and watch the spindle turn. So excited, in fact, that even though I do not have a tool holder yet, I tried to carve a ball on the end of the aluminum rod with a broken wood chisel that I found on the road. Wow! It worked! Chips flying off and a nice smooth finish! This thing really has potential. I have made a lot of ball ends with hammer and anvil, but small aluminum ones for RC car axles are really challenging, and you have to repeatedly anneal the aluminum. It looks like this new tool will have a place in the shop as soon as I can clear out some room for a real bench.
The lead screw gear issue has not been fixed yet. That along with the tool holder are next on the list. I am making a tangential tool holder along the lines of FarFar's design, but I got the angles wrong, and need some more time at the forge to clean it up. Will be done soon! Thanks all here for the help.
