Enco 12x36 Lathe Rebuild (Picture Heavy!)

[macardoso]

The "temporary" bracket under the stand. I will eventually replace with a more robust version and have a bar on either side of the stand.

I do like that setup a lot. I'll have to see what I can set up tonight! My G0704 was top heavy too until I bolted it to that black 2x3' steel plate you see in the picture. Weighs about 180lbs. She doesn't move anymore. It was free to me so long as I picked it up and moved it. Oh the good old college days.

 

[Jeff Michel]

Pretty nice lathe, most of the stuff I see at HGR is pretty well whipped. I have the exact lathe, though discontinued, Grizzly offered the identical lathe up till about five years ago. I believe they still offer parts.

 

[macardoso]

Pretty nice lathe, most of the stuff I see at HGR is pretty well whipped. I have the exact lathe, though discontinued, Grizzly offered the identical lathe up till about five years ago. I believe they still offer parts.

Jeff, I had been looking for a while and almost everything they have is either 10,000 pounds or beat to all h*ll. This was a lucky find. I didn’t mind the amount I paid because it was available right when I wanted it, and I can return it if anything was wrong. Plus it was 5 miles away. But HGR is expensive generally.

I already bought some parts from Grizzly and will probably need others in the future. It seems like it is going to turn out to be a nice machine.

 

[Jeff Michel]

I see you picked up a chuck from Small Tools. Their in the process of clearing out a everything so the owner "Bill" is really dealing right now. They were supposed to have moved around the first of the year, well they still have a bunch of stuff. If you need anything oddball, ask the mechanic in back, Ed knows where everything is hidden, he's very helpful. If you haven't and get a chance, check out McKean Machinery in Brookpark, John Brand is the owner and is a great guy on stilts. He's pretty good with his prices, especially the small change stuff that hobbyists are wanting.

 

[macardoso]

Lathe Update time!

I am getting pretty close to finishing her up, but there are still a few details to be hammered out.

To begin, I purchased some 36" steel U channel and added another 4 outside feet. This seriously increased the stability and I'm pretty sure I can't tip it over anymore, but there is still a slight bit of wobble as the bar flexes. I should have gotten 1/4" wall or better yet just a solid 3/8" bar. I might change that out in the future. It is a bit of a toe stubbing hazard, but I'm ok with that to have a stable machine.




I picked up the hardware to bolt the lathe to the wall, but I'm just waiting on getting the electrical panel done before I do that.

I removed all the switches from the front of the lathe and found them to be unusuable (plus who wants dirty old switches?). I replaced them with what I had on hand (an Allen Bradley toggle switch, CNC4PC Estop button, and an Allen Bradley push button) and I am very pleased. I replaced the oil soaked cable with some new high quality shielded robotics cables and put in some new cordgrips.





Notice I swapped out the light for a selector switch? This will be a "Reverse Enable" switch. Basically the lathe will ignore the reverse position on the power lever unless this switch is turned on. I can put a light for power indication on top of the electric panel.

I won't post the pictures for the electrical enclosure just yet, but expect a short write up on that in the next few days. I'm holding off on the alignment until I am ready to bolt the lathe to the wall.

 

[macardoso]

I see you picked up a chuck from Small Tools. Their in the process of clearing out a everything so the owner "Bill" is really dealing right now. They were supposed to have moved around the first of the year, well they still have a bunch of stuff. If you need anything oddball, ask the mechanic in back, Ed knows where everything is hidden, he's very helpful. If you haven't and get a chance, check out McKean Machinery in Brookpark, John Brand is the owner and is a great guy on stilts. He's pretty good with his prices, especially the small change stuff that hobbyists are wanting.

Jeff, I haven't seen McKean Machinery yet, but it looks like they mostly have big equipment. Do they also have smaller tooling and such? I'll have to check them out.

 

[Jeff Michel]

Sorry for the slow reply, got sent out of town for a couple weeks. Short answer is yes. McKean handles equipment of all sizes and they have a modest assortment of small stuff, tooling/chucks/cutters/dividing heads stuff like that. They don't bother putting small stuff on their websight and the inventory changes all the time, they price it to sell.

 

[macardoso]

Hi again all, sorry for not updating this for the past few weeks. Work got very busy and haven't had a chance to post pictures. I am hoping to get some stuff out in the next week!

Quick question for you all. The 6 inch chuck that came on the lathe threads all the way on until the mount hits the back of the spindle nose. My new 8" chuck (with a 2.25x8" backplate) threads on 3-4 turns and stops but there is still an inch or so before it bottoms out. It seems plenty rigid, but the mounting concerns me. Could the back plate be wrong? Would my spindle be something other than 2.25"x8? My 8TPI thread gage matches perfectly.

Perhaps related... I cut the back plate mounted to the spindle. I measured .0002" axial runout on the face (all the way to the outside edge) and .0003" radial runout on the pilot diameter. Once I mount the chuck I am seeing .004" of axial runout (which seems very excessive). The threads on the spindle and backplate are clean and have no burrs. I noticed yesterday that the chuck has a almost invisible gap between it and the backplate. Maybe there are burrs on the back of the chuck?

 

[Dave Paine]

Your chucks and faceplate(s) should screw all the way to the register at the headstock end of the spindle threads. If your spindle has the same thread as mine, it is 2 1/4in x 8 tpi, same as my SB Heavy 10.

The new backplate sounds like the threaded hole is not deep enough. The chuck should fit against the backplate with zero gap.

 

[macardoso]

Your chucks and faceplate(s) should screw all the way to the register at the headstock end of the spindle threads. If your spindle has the same thread as mine, it is 2 1/4in x 8 tpi, same as my SB Heavy 10.

The new backplate sounds like the threaded hole is not deep enough. The chuck should fit against the backplate with zero gap.

I'll have to use my new thread wires to check the spindle dimensions. I really really hope the threads are 2.25x8!

The backplate is threaded through, so it is just binding on the threads.