Craftsman 109 Lathe Question

[Nubble]

Hard to tell from the photos, but it looks like it has bolts on the head for the spindle bearings which would make it the older 101.07301, so 1940s or 50s would be right. It looks like it has been used, not just sitting around which is a good sign, maybe just somebody moving on to a different lathe. I don't see any obvious broken or missing parts, and it has the change gears. Assume those are MT1 drill bits for the tail stock which is nice. Hopefully he can turn up some more tooling that goes with it, but this is a much better choice than that 109 was.

The cabinet it is sitting on has some potential too. A bit rusty but hopefully just surface rust and can be cleaned up.

Luckily i have plenty of scotch brite pads of various types and purple power cleaner and degreaser, i don't plan on restoring it to showroom condition, i just wanna make sure it runs well and is free of any debris and grit that may harm the performance and accuracy.

 

[Nubble]

All right it's official this Sunday I'm going to pick up the craftsman 101 lathe! Needless to say I am beyond excited

 

[Cadillac STS]

Tubalcain sells an entire course on that lathe as a set of videos. May be worth it to get the set of videos and review it all to get started.

There are plenty of free YouTube videos which are great but not an entire course set in order

 

[Chip Hacket]

Tubalcain sells an entire course on that lathe as a set of videos. May be worth it to get the set of videos and review it all to get started.

There are plenty of free YouTube videos which are great but not an entire course set in order

Agree, I think the Tubalcain videos would be an excellent way to go.

 

[Aaron_W]

Tubalcain sells an entire course on that lathe as a set of videos. May be worth it to get the set of videos and review it all to get started.

There are plenty of free YouTube videos which are great but not an entire course set in order

Those videos are for a larger Atlas / Craftsman (12" I believe), but there is still a family resemblance so should translate fairly well to a 6".

 

[Smithdoor]

Yep that's the one- not a bad price either if the bed isn't too worn
I don't see the complete set of change gears though
I'm not a fan of those link belts but that can be rectified
I see some wear on the leadscrew- and the little tumbler reverse gears

You send to a srafce grinder and fit it . It has flat bed and simple to clean up.

Dave

 

[Aaron David]

From the gear cover badge, that lathe is from the '30s. Not a bad lathe at all, I had the smaller brother of it, and don't worry about the headstock bearings being Oilite. That is what the justly famous South Bend 9 uses, and they can leave a very smooth finish on work.

 

[Cadillac STS]

You can get a new 4 inch 3 jaw chuck from shars.com for $82

 

[Nubble]

From the gear cover badge, that lathe is from the '30s. Not a bad lathe at all, I had the smaller brother of it, and don't worry about the headstock bearings being Oilite. That is what the justly famous South Bend 9 uses, and they can leave a very smooth finish on work.

Yeah I've had some people tell me to stay away from those, I figured they can't really be any worse than the bearings used in those Chinese mini lathes

 

[Aaron David]

Out of curiosity, what do you plan on doing with the lathe? Or is it just "because"? And there is nothing wrong with that answer!