Harrison L5 Lathe Restoration

TBH I would clean up the splined shaft and make a new bush if there was a lot of play, looks like it hasn't been regularly oild and swarf has been allowed to enter through the oilway. I am not seeing anything wrong with this machine that a bit of hand refitting wouldn't cure. Cross slides are always worn, especially the nut, ang gib strips can be checked for flatness, cleaned up and re adjusted, and V ways blued up and high spots removed quite easily. Takes a bit of time and patience. As you said, you are not making parts for NASA and all older lathes have wear, but can still make accurate parts. The accuracy comes from a good operator who knows his machine. Look on the score marks as oil reservoirs! Remember also that cutting puts downward pressure on the carriage unless you are using an inverted tool and running in reverse, so upward play on the carriage is not that important, and fairly easy to cure. I have just had a bit of a "go" at my Colchester Student, and it is definitely better for it, as I found loose parts in both gearboxes loose in the oil, and took quite a lot of play out of the slides, but it was more accurate than I am before I started on it! Getter done and make parts!
 
hermetic said:
TBH I would clean up the splined shaft and make a new bush if there was a lot of play, looks like it hasn't been regularly oild and swarf has been allowed to enter through the oilway. I am not seeing anything wrong with this machine that a bit of hand refitting wouldn't cure. Cross slides are always worn, especially the nut, ang gib strips can be checked for flatness, cleaned up and re adjusted, and V ways blued up and high spots removed quite easily. Takes a bit of time and patience. As you said, you are not making parts for NASA and all older lathes have wear, but can still make accurate parts. The accuracy comes from a good operator who knows his machine. Look on the score marks as oil reservoirs! Remember also that cutting puts downward pressure on the carriage unless you are using an inverted tool and running in reverse, so upward play on the carriage is not that important, and fairly easy to cure. I have just had a bit of a "go" at my Colchester Student, and it is definitely better for it, as I found loose parts in both gearboxes loose in the oil, and took quite a lot of play out of the slides, but it was more accurate than I am before I started on it! Getter done and make parts!
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The issue is somebody has greased the oil ports and it's turned into a Grinding paste

I was going to machine the shaft down and make a new bush but I realized today while measuring it I can't because the splined piece of the shaft won't fit over the new bush... I priced some selves to press on but I'm looking at around $100 for the selves !!

Can i just turn down a piece of mild steel to sleve the shaft or does it need to be hardend steel?
 
roverguy said:
The lathes uk website . Tony writes that the hardened bed was introduced on all the L5's in the mid 1950's . Can you run a file over a edge to check it ?
You might have to learn scraping ! I'm really not a expert in any way . I think the gib is tapered - Hmm might be tricky to repair that .
The L5 I have came off a ship , it had a weird DC motor on it.

BTW a guy on ebay uk had a L5 top slide
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The bed definitely isn't hardend a file bites in fairly nicely

I would like to learn how to scrape!
 
Mild steel would be fine, it isn't doing 10000 rpm! What about getting it metalsprayed, that would take it back to the original size. I think that is what I would do.
Phil
 
hermetic said:
Mild steel would be fine, it isn't doing 10000 rpm! What about getting it metalsprayed, that would take it back to the original size. I think that is what I would do.
Phil
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Metal spray or hard chrome would be the ticket, but with one wage feeding four mouths and a mortgage its just not going to happen!

Mild steel it will be!

I've already turned off the damaged area, ill shink a sleve on and turn back down..
 
roverguy said:
That is rather unusual, you must have a early one with unhardened bed.

There is a chap in Melbourne who was running scraping classes , he ran about 6 classes .

This forum may be good for you http://metalworkforums.com/forum.php
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unfortunately, im in new zealand . . ill check the website out abit later on thanks.

While in buying a piece of bronze a local engineering firm offerd me a job! haha i wish i could take it but cant afford the wage drop at the moment.. ill just keep going back for more material and hope the opportunity will be there in the future!
 
IMG-20161105-WA0000_zpsxjpki8id.jpe
Cleaned up the damaged area
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New bronze bush, wooo first thing I've made. The 4 jaw took me about 15 minutes to indicate in haha... practice makes perfect?

This is going to be a slow, steep learning curve on how to use a lathe.
 
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Well its been awhile but im still chipping away at it when i have time ive so far finished replacing all bronze bushs in gearbox and apron and made a new tailstock bronze nut and locking "cotter"? for the quill, i need to ream the taper but i might wait untill its all back together









I also got the damn backplate off the spindle what a mission!!!

mixed 50/50 acetone and ATF applied over several days while hanging a bucket of cast iron off a bar about 3 meters long and using heat each day when it came down it came with one hell of a bang!

anyhow... slowly but surely i will get there. needed to do something else for awhile so i built a 2x72 belt grinder.
 
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