Only took 3 years

[ltlvt]

Today i fitted the apron back onto the saddle of my 5913 Clausing Lathe. A few weeks ago I re fitted the saddle to the bed using Moglice and made a new bushing for the hand wheel shaft for the apron. Both these are high wear areas on lathes. I am still impressed on how rock hard the Moglice is. The Apron is bolted up temporarily just to make sure all was going to work well with the rack gear on the bed of the lathe and it does. I will need to take it back off and clean the old gray paint off and possibly repaint it.
The saddle is not going to get painted . With all the hot chips that will be coming off while using the lathe I think paint will look worse than just the raw casting. Un decided about the apron. White to match the bed. Charcoal Gray to match the pan or just leave it raw after stripping the paint off. So what are the suggestions?

My next order of machine work is to build a new lead screw and nut for the cross slide. There is next to Zero slop between the saddle and the bed of the lathe and same with the ways of the cross slide but the nut and lead screw have at least .020 slop in them. Too much for me. I've gone this far so might as well do the rest of the job right.

Its taken me a long time to get this far but worth the time and patience to do it right. Here are just a few pics of the apron and saddle together today.

 

[jwmay]

Three years seems just about right to me. Much past that, and I start to wonder if I’m actually interested in doing it.

 

[SLK001]

No hurry, take your time!

 

[C-Bag]

Three years seems just about right to me. Much past that, and I start to wonder if I’m actually interested in doing it.

I guess I just don’t have that long of attention span or just have too much of a backlog. When I actually reflect I have a short window for machine repair unlike timelines for basic projects. I have a phobia about basket cases and can’t buy them and hate to generate them. I’m in awe of you guys who can keep at a machine for that long.

 

[woodchucker]

its about the journey. Enjoy it. I like rebuilding as much as needed projects, sometimes more. Since retirement, any project is something to keep me busy. I was hoping to do work for those that really need it.. That hasn't happened, so this type of work is a good substitute.

Slow and steady is good.

 

[benmychree]

A machine in pieces is not worth having, it just takes up space with no benefit.

 

[woodchucker]

A machine in pieces is not worth having, it just takes up space with no benefit.

come on John, he's working on it. that's his project.

 

[ltlvt]

A machine in pieces is not worth having, it just takes up space with no benefit.

The benefit is the satisfaction that is gained by doing the recovery. I worked for money for the first 55 years of my life and got little satisfaction from money. I had a job that paid very well but at the end of the day was seldom able to self-reward myself with saying "Job well done." (my job was managing people and machines) People complain and machines break. Sometimes machines broke because people were too lazy to run them. Money means very little to me. Take a walk through a cemetery and look at all the magnificent head stones and then look at the humble ones. I see no benefit in headstones. They just take up space and provide little benefit.

 

[ltlvt]

come on John, he's working on it. that's his project.

thanks Woodchucker. John reminds me of an unsalted potato chip.

 

[woodchucker]

thanks Woodchucker. John reminds me of an unsalted potato chip.

nah, some days we all get like that. He's fine, your fine. We all have things going on outside of here that change our mood. Somedays we wake up crabby, and some days, we're floating on a cloud.