Dalton B4 Restoration

Hammer said:
I pulled the spindle off last night. The babbit looked OK, but there were no more shims to remove play, the fiber washers were pretty beat up as well. The fiber washer will be replaced with needle bearings. But I don't know what I'm going to do with the babbit. I don't like the idea of loose rollers riding on the cast iron as a replacement, I may attempt to peen the babbit or file down the cap to get more room for adjustment. Picture of this may not be up until tomorrow.
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Arrmo,

In your photos, that counter shaft part you have was part of an over head clutch and counter shaft. You are missing a lot of it and probably would not want to use it anyway. It is large and primitive.( although it was state of the art in 1920 or so).

You could use the 3 step flat belt pulley off that assembly to make a counter shaft, but it would be easier and probably just as inexpensive to pick up a SB counter shaft off ebay.

If there is no play in your spindle bearings, just put the caps back . If needed you could file a few thousandths of the caps to tighten them, but if any looser , you need to look at replacing them. ( There aren't many folks around anymore that can or will do babbit work.

Your lathe should clean up nicely and make a nice lathe for hobby work.
 
That shaft you are holding in the photo that says "Don't know what this is". That is part of that counter shaft/clutch assembly. There is a lot missing.


Edit: Join the Dalton lathe yahoo group and look through the photos there. You will learn a lot about these rare but nice machines.
 
Some home improvements got in the way of taking pictures, but I did tear down the spindle a bit more, pulled the pulleys off of the spindle, and soaked the rest in penetrating oil. I'm trying to get the moderatly rusted back gear off so I can derust the entire part. It's being a bit of a pain, but I do think it comes off, as it has a keyway.

-Arrmon
 
Hammer said:
Some home improvements got in the way of taking pictures, but I did tear down the spindle a bit more, pulled the pulleys off of the spindle, and soaked the rest in penetrating oil. I'm trying to get the moderatly rusted back gear off so I can derust the entire part. It's being a bit of a pain, but I do think it comes off, as it has a keyway.

-Arrmon
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If you are talking about the backgear shaft assembly, DO NOT pull the gear off. The small gear is part of the shaft and the large gear is pressed on and should be left on unless it is broken and needs replacement. Just de-rust it as an assembly. The eccentric shaft should slide out of the backgear shaft. Also be careful not to damage the split bearings on the ends of the backgear assembly. ( they have a slit on one side and I think they are cast iron.
 
To remove the back gear assembly, remove the set screw from the handle and remove it. Remove the set scew on the bottom of each end of the back gear bearing housing. Use a soft rod to drive the bearings and shaft assembly out, remove the bearings and slide the eccentric shaft out.
 
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Hey, its been a while. a long while. I got the spindle out and took a good hard look at it. It was grooved with pits. .002-.005 out of spec on both bearing locations and tapered on the chuck bearing. Mark, I was talking about the large gear pressed on the spindle. I'm having it chromed and ground back to size so it needed to come off. Wasn't that hard. I heated the gear and cooled the shaft, it came off with a few firm taps from my brass hammer. The babbit bearings are shot as they were cast to fit the tapered shaft.... I will be making bronze ones on a friends lathe. Right now I'm just stripping parts and painting them. I have some nice pictures that need Mod approval and I will load them here. I've been using Evaporust for parts with brass or non-ferrous bits on them. It does a great job. On the cast pieces I've been using electolysis as my go to for larger parts.

I do want to remove all the brass plates that are riveted on so I can clean the steel and castings. Any tips for removing those tiny rivets, and putting new ones on?
 
Regarding your riveted info plates: just chisel the rivets off with a small, sharp chisel. Sharpen and hone the chisel to get it like a knife blade, then gentle slice/cut the back off the rivet and drive the rivet shank out with a small punch.

You can still buy brass rivets of various sizes from most fastener suppliers. Just buy the right size rivet and peen them back into the existing holes to reinstall the inspection plates, after refinishing. Here is a pic of a plate I riveted back on when I rebuilt my Dalton last year.

Also you can buy split rivets- which have a solid head and split tail similar to a cotter pin. Just insert and bend the tail over. Personally I don't like the tails as much as the solid shaft type, but they work fine.

also, on this site, the moderators recently added a manufacturers specific Dalton Lathe forum. You could move your thread over to there and it would be a nice addition to the Dalton knowledge base...

Glenn

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Glen,

I would but I don't know how. Moderator, could you move this thread to the Dalton Lathe section?

-Arrmon
 
Glen,

Thank you for the tip on the rivets, I got them all off last night. Most were split rivets, with some drive rivets. I also moved quite a few parts from the cleaning solution into the electrolysis tank, Hopefully I'll have pictures up tomorrow of some primed parts.
 
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