Help me identify this lathe and make it better!

[WCraig]

The lathe was donated to them and they don't know much about it.

In this age of liability concerns, I'm surprised at this situation. A lathe is quite capable of inflicting permanent bodily harm or even killing someone. I'm not a safety nazi but it would really make sense to have a qualified person check out new users of such a machine. Failing that, there are many good videos on Youtube that explain the fundamentals.

Craig

 

[rtchal]

9C...you'll need a 1.5X 8 threaded chuck or backplate.measure the chuck on lathe.looks like 6"..5" might fit better..maybe the other jaws are with stuff you got with lathe.the numbers are the serial number.good luck..

Thanks a bunch, I'll start looking around!
They have a coffee can full of miscellaneous lathe tidbits. That is where I found the tool holder, but there was only 1/3 of the other set of jaws in there... They told me they didn't have them.

In this age of liability concerns, I'm surprised at this situation. A lathe is quite capable of inflicting permanent bodily harm or even killing someone. I'm not a safety nazi but it would really make sense to have a qualified person check out new users of such a machine. Failing that, there are many good videos on Youtube that explain the fundamentals.

Craig

They have one guy there that seems to know how to operate the manual lathe, but I assume he, like me, has never used a lantern tool post before. They have several guys there that run CNC mills and lathes. So as far as I am aware, they know the safety protocol, but yeah, I do recall reading info on other makerspaces that they usually make sure people know what they are doing before they leave them alone with the machine.

Basic lathe training was included in my schooling for my career, but all the lathes I had at school had quick change tool posts and reversible chuck jaws. When I got here, I used the setup that the previous user of the lathe here had which had the tool bit directly in the lantern...

 

[markba633csi]

OK so if you are willing to buy and fit a new chuck then the most economical would be something from China, like Shars or CDCO for example. They sell you the chuck and backplate threaded to fit your lathe spindle then you do the final machining to fit the chuck accurately to the backplate. It's not rocket science but it does require careful work to get a good result. A 5" chuck would probably be the best size as has been mentioned by Phil in post #10
We can help you do the chuck mounting if you buy the beer
Mark
ps you might be better off buying from a reputable dealer like Little Machine Shop rather than Ebay in case you need to return something- I speak from experience here

 

[ericc]

Is it possible that you could hack a little bit? I would be very tempted to get a beefy aluminum disk, drill 3 holes in it for the ends of the chuck jaws, bore out to the size of your brass stock, cut the aluminum apart, and thread and setscrew to make some field-expedient soft jaws. I hate 3 jaw chucks with sets of jaws missing. They seem to be all over the place.

 

[markba633csi]

The other option would be to replace the chuck you have now with a collet arrangement to match the brass stock you have. That would be cheaper, accurate and probably a bit easier. Let someone else deal with fitting a new chuck.
Mark

 

[bobl]

Ahhhhh. I was not aware of those holders. I have been putting my HSS tool bit directly into the lantern. The tool has been sharpened on a grinder. I'll look around to see if they have the holders somewhere. The lathe was donated to them and they don't know much about it.

I have a bunch of holders I never use and have more tooling for a south end if interested pm me


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[Ben Nevis]

As Mark mentioned, using a collet would be the way to go. 3MT collets are available on Amazon, CDCO, Little machine shop, etc. About $13 each or you can get a whole set for less than $100.
You will need to make a drawbar from a length of 3/8-16 allthread to tighten it.

 

[rtchal]

The other option would be to replace the chuck you have now with a collet arrangement to match the brass stock you have. That would be cheaper, accurate and probably a bit easier. Let someone else deal with fitting a new chuck.
Mark

As Mark mentioned, using a collet would be the way to go. 3MT collets are available on Amazon, CDCO, Little machine shop, etc. About $13 each or you can get a whole set for less than $100.
You will need to make a drawbar from a length of 3/8-16 allthread to tighten it.

I'll definitely look into that, thanks!

I have a bunch of holders I never use and have more tooling for a south end if interested pm me


Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

I'll send you a PM soon!

 

[markba633csi]

There are also "backplate" style collet chucks which would screw on to your spindle and accept ER style collets, this would allow long stock to pass thru. It would require some finish machining however, similar to mounting a 3 or 4 jaw chuck
mark
ps I don't recall the type of taper in a South Bend 9 spindle- You'll want to know that before deciding to buy anything
also, the big advantage of collets over jaw chucks is repeatability and speed

 

[rtchal]

Yeah, I just began looking into them. I cut my brass into 18" lengths before I do my machining, and my largest diameter is 1" stock. I'm pretty sure the lathe spindle diameter is just over an inch. I think because of that, I won't be able to use the drawbar collets. I'll look into the ER style next.