I vaguely recall saying something like... "I don't want to take the lathe apart any further, I just want to get it running and see how it runs".... Well, this morning the South bend manual and consumables arrived a day early, but I found out the Gallon of Mobil DTE26 got lost in the mail and now I have to re-order it again... Annoyed, I went into the shop and started taking off the electrical boxes so I can start mapping out how I'm going to layout/wire up the VFD and get some parts ordered.. But after seeing how many chips were behind the box, and knowing that I have another week to wait, I decided to tear into the lathe a little further.. Hopefully I'll get most of it cleaned up by the end of the weekend... maybe get the doors and big pieces cleaned off and re-painted by mid week next week.
Everything came apart pretty easy, 1 of the screws holding the saddle down to the apron was seized, but eventually after twisting the tips on 3 of my big ass screwdrivers I broke out the impact driver, ground an old chisel to fit the slotted screw perfectly and it came loose...... I would like to replace those slotted screws with hex cap screws eventually, that might be a good project to tackle once I get it back together.
the back gears and tumbler are all caked in old grease, in fact the gearbox levers would hardly slide until after I pulled the gearbox off.. but all of the gears move, I haven’t seen any missing, damaged or chipped teeth upon initial inspection.. but it seems that old grease is making it tough to move.. per the chart, it recommends oil for both.. so I’m going to guess they just made a call to grease the gears heavily since they were student machines.. I’m going to try to clean all of it out without disassembling the gearbox.. I’m debating whether to put fresh grease in or just use oil as recommended... I won’t be using it every day, so maybe a little grease would be good if there will be long periods of inactivity? (I travel a lot for work, next year we start back on the road)
I'm working on putting together a list of electrical items to order, I also I need to order a dial indicator and a dial test indicator. I have a NOGA arm with a magnetic base, but the only indicator I have is a COMPAQ test indicator in .002mm graduations (got it for free)... I was thinking about going with something like this for a dial indicator
Mitutoyo digital dial, and I'm not quite sure on the test indicator yet, let me know what you all would recommend for either of them.. I don't mind spending SOME money on them but I don't want to break the bank just yet.. I need to get my feet wet again.