Replacing The Gap In The Bed

I suspect the real issue with gaps not going back in is the lack of proper seasoning of the castings. "Back in the good 'ol days," castings were left out in a field for a season to allow them to relieve internal stresses. Today this is done in an oven if done at all.
I would hazard to bet that even a 30 year old Taiwan lathe (from when Taiwan imports were like Chinese ones) would be safe to remove the gap on since it has had time to acclimate and find it's final shape.
In fact, I would go so far as to say this is probably what makes clunky old Atlas lathes so good, they were seasoned originally, and the iron is now well acclimated and stable. Wait 50 years and your Grizzly lathe will probably also be nice and stable.
 
My lathe was bought in 1986. Just a few years ago I removed the gap and it went back. About 25 years. The lathe at work had only been about 15 years old,I guess,before the gap was removed.

But,my lathe was not exposed to the hot and cold seasonal changes that "seasoned" castings are exposed to. It was kept in a heated and air conditioned shop. I doubt it got "seasoned"that way.

I won't entirely dismiss the age of my lathe's castings. I mostly think I was just plain lucky!!:)

I rebuilt and recut the bed of a Rockwell lathe years ago. I don't know its age,but it was found that the tailstock end of the bed had warped upwards .010" over the years. And,that was on an American made lathe with hardened bed.
 
george wilson said:
My lathe was bought in 1986. Just a few years ago I removed the gap and it went back. About 25 years. The lathe at work had only been about 15 years old,I guess,before the gap was removed.

But,my lathe was not exposed to the hot and cold seasonal changes that "seasoned" castings are exposed to. It was kept in a heated and air conditioned shop. I doubt it got "seasoned"that way.

I won't entirely dismiss the age of my lathe's castings. I mostly think I was just plain lucky!!:)

I rebuilt and recut the bed of a Rockwell lathe years ago. I don't know its age,but it was found that the tailstock end of the bed had warped upwards .010" over the years. And,that was on an American made lathe with hardened bed.
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I would think that the fact that the bed was hardened would make it more likely to warp since the hardened bed has a slightly different composition than the body.
 
I agree that a hardened bed would have more stress in it. Only a fraction of an inch is hardened,making it even more likely that the bed will have stresses in it.
 
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