Giving my 6" some love

teledan

teledan

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My Lathe, my 6" LATHE! Come on guys, get your minds out of the gutter... (this is one of those times I really wish I had a 12")

Anyway, I've got an old Craftsman 101.21400 that I picked up a few years ago. I have made a few things with it but I don't have much tooling and there are some issues with it that I have been wanting to rectify but haven't gotten around to it, until now. One of the biggest things that has bothered me is some horrible backlash in the cross slide. There was a cross slide screw and nut on ebay that looked like it was in good shape so I bought it. I am pretty sure it was brand new, at least it looked like it had VERY little wear. Here it is compared to my old screw.

287167

No wonder it was bothering me so much! The new screw feels so much better!

One question though, does the dial need to be in a certain position on the screw? I didn't make note of where the old dial was before I removed it but I put the new one on so that the 0 mark was in line with the woodruff key for the hand wheel. I also need to make a new nut that goes on the end to hold the hand wheel on. I could buy a new one but they are about $20 and I figure I could just buy a tap and turn my own nut.

One other thing that has bothered me (and may be part of the reason for the wear on the cross slide screw) is that the lathe was missing the chip guard that mounts on the cross slide, so I bought one and mounted it. Having that on gives me some nice warm fuzzies, especially with that new screw in there.

I also bought a thread dial since I plan to do some thread cutting and my lathe didn't have one.

The lathe is currently set up without the countershaft, it just has a motor mounted behind the headstock with a belt straight to the spindle pulleys. The motor has a pulley with 4 positions so I still have a few different speeds but I would still like to get the countershaft set up how it should be.

I also noticed I was missing a 24 tooth change gear so I modeled one up in 3d and had it printed through Shapeways. It turned out pretty good, we will see how long it holds up. Here it is on Shapeways:

www.shapeways.com

24T Atlas 618/Craftsman 101 Change Gear by dlduncan on Shapeways

Check out 24T Atlas 618/Craftsman 101 Change Gear by dlduncan on Shapeways and discover more 3D printed products in Mechanical Parts.
www.shapeways.com www.shapeways.com

Thats pretty much it for now. I'll take a picture of my 6" the lathe as soon as I get it cleaned up a bit more, it is pretty messy right now.
 
I wasn't sure what to expect when I read the thread title , :oops: , but the progress sounds great .
 
teledan said:
My Lathe, my 6" LATHE! Come on guys, get your minds out of the gutter... (this is one of those times I really wish I had a 12")

Anyway, I've got an old Craftsman 101.21400 that I picked up a few years ago. I have made a few things with it but I don't have much tooling and there are some issues with it that I have been wanting to rectify but haven't gotten around to it, until now. One of the biggest things that has bothered me is some horrible backlash in the cross slide. There was a cross slide screw and nut on ebay that looked like it was in good shape so I bought it. I am pretty sure it was brand new, at least it looked like it had VERY little wear. Here it is compared to my old screw.

View attachment 287167

No wonder it was bothering me so much! The new screw feels so much better!

One question though, does the dial need to be in a certain position on the screw? I didn't make note of where the old dial was before I removed it but I put the new one on so that the 0 mark was in line with the woodruff key for the hand wheel. I also need to make a new nut that goes on the end to hold the hand wheel on. I could buy a new one but they are about $20 and I figure I could just buy a tap and turn my own nut.

One other thing that has bothered me (and may be part of the reason for the wear on the cross slide screw) is that the lathe was missing the chip guard that mounts on the cross slide, so I bought one and mounted it. Having that on gives me some nice warm fuzzies, especially with that new screw in there.

I also bought a thread dial since I plan to do some thread cutting and my lathe didn't have one.

The lathe is currently set up without the countershaft, it just has a motor mounted behind the headstock with a belt straight to the spindle pulleys. The motor has a pulley with 4 positions so I still have a few different speeds but I would still like to get the countershaft set up how it should be.

I also noticed I was missing a 24 tooth change gear so I modeled one up in 3d and had it printed through Shapeways. It turned out pretty good, we will see how long it holds up. Here it is on Shapeways:

www.shapeways.com

24T Atlas 618/Craftsman 101 Change Gear by dlduncan on Shapeways

Check out 24T Atlas 618/Craftsman 101 Change Gear by dlduncan on Shapeways and discover more 3D printed products in Mechanical Parts.
www.shapeways.com www.shapeways.com

Thats pretty much it for now. I'll take a picture of my 6" the lathe as soon as I get it cleaned up a bit more, it is pretty messy right now.
Click to expand...
Make sure to keep it oiled as your rpms are likely way too fast like you have it.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
 
teledan said:
.... One question though, does the dial need to be in a certain position on the screw? I didn't make note of where the old dial was before I removed it but I put the new one on so that the 0 mark was in line with the woodruff key for the hand wheel. I also need to make a new nut that goes on the end to hold the hand wheel on. I could buy a new one but they are about $20 and I figure I could just buy a tap and turn my own nut. ...
Click to expand...

287231

You're talking about the dial indicated in the picture, right? My understanding is that you use a screwdriver to lock it to the shaft whenever you want to use it. For example, touch off the work and then rotate the dial to zero and lock it. Now, if you have really tremendous eyesight (I don't), you can read how far the cross slide advances.

Also, you want to take care assembling the dial and knob on the shaft to minimize the backlash. Everything needs to be snug-enough to minimize the backlash while still allowing the dial the rotate as necessary. I made a custom 'split' screwdriver for the nut that retains the knob. I took an old woodworking spade bit and ground and filed it to fit the nut while clearing the shaft. That helped a lot.

Regarding the nut that retains the knob, you can see that I made a replacement for the compound. Eventually, I'll probably do one in brass for the cross-slide...just 'cause I like the bling! ;) They are both standard threads so they're easy enough to make.

Craig
 
Craig,
Yes, that dial. I had thought about that and wondered if that were the case. Thanks so much for the info guys! Tq60, I have been trying to make sure I keep it well oiled as I use it. It’s a pretty fun lathe, sometimes I wish it had a bigger swing but it’s my first lathe so probably good to learn on.
 
Here is a pic. Sorry for the mess, I am in the middle of making the newbie machinist's obligatory "captive nut" puzzle. It's "for my kids", I promise.

287670

I would like to mount it more solidly at some point. The cabinet it is on isn't too bad though.

Speaking of nuts, here is a picture of mine:

287671

I wanted to do the captive nut in brass and couldn't find one in the thread pitch I wanted (1/2"-28) so I just bought a tap and a chunk of 3/4" hex stock and went to town. The problem I had was that I don't have a 3 jaw scroll chuck, just a 4 jaw independent chuck. I was able to get it close enough though. I made two nuts because I want to do a "test" puzzle out of aluminum first, then another one in 303 stainless if everything goes well with the first one. This will be my first time cutting threads on this lathe. I have made a few other things but haven't delved into the world of threading so we'll see how it goes.
 
WCraig said:
View attachment 287231

You're talking about the dial indicated in the picture, right? My understanding is that you use a screwdriver to lock it to the shaft whenever you want to use it. For example, touch off the work and then rotate the dial to zero and lock it. Now, if you have really tremendous eyesight (I don't), you can read how far the cross slide advances.

Also, you want to take care assembling the dial and knob on the shaft to minimize the backlash. Everything needs to be snug-enough to minimize the backlash while still allowing the dial the rotate as necessary. I made a custom 'split' screwdriver for the nut that retains the knob. I took an old woodworking spade bit and ground and filed it to fit the nut while clearing the shaft. That helped a lot.

Regarding the nut that retains the knob, you can see that I made a replacement for the compound. Eventually, I'll probably do one in brass for the cross-slide...just 'cause I like the bling! ;) They are both standard threads so they're easy enough to make.

Craig
Click to expand...

I thought I was the only one using aluminum trays from the grocery store for chip trays... :grin big:

They work great, and cheap too! :encourage:
 
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