Restoration Of A Lathe Of Unknown Brand ( Completed)

[matas]

I got a lathe of unknown brand for some shelves I did in a shed of my friends' parents. His grandfather died 15 years ago, and who knows when was the last time he used it.
The lathe is most similar to Atlas 618, but its most probably of Yugoslavian, German or Russian make. Unlike Atlas, you have to engage the bull gear with the spindle to make it work, and disengage to use the backgears (I think).
To say the lathe was in bad condition would be charming understatement.
Rust all around, seized motor, banged up, old grease with embedded metal shavings, concrete splatters ?!, V belt was in tatters, etc. The parts that were lubricated properly, worked properly (spindle, crosslide, tailstock).



You are invited to travel with this newbie as I embark on a quest to make this lathe usable and learn new and exciting stuff.
I have to say I've never done anything like this, but I was willing and eager to give it a try.
That being said, I will have a few questions along the way, and I hope you experienced people will be able to help me.

P.S.
Don't mind the bucket-o'-socks, as I don't have a proper workshop (or any kind of workshop for that matter), I'm doing the most of the cleaning in my bedroom (yikes, I know). The parts that i have to clean with gasoline, I clean on my balcony.

Also, some of the steps are missing, as I found this forum after I already disassembled most of it.

------------------------
First I removed everything i could without tools and armed with an old bed sheet and a can of WD-40 i started removing the grease from the parts that I could reach.



You can see a difference right away
The motor was in really poor condition, with seized bearings. I gave it to a friend who's father managed to make it work.
This is a picture i took for the sake of wiring, but you can see the state the motor is in.



When trying to remove the head-stock I came to an unforeseen problem, not a single tube key I have, had thin enough walls to enter the mounting holes.
So another friend's father turned his socket wrench on his lathe to a proper diameter.


The polishing and removing rust usually takes place when i get back from work, around midnight. Much elbow grease goes into this and this are the first result


Hammerite had these colors available, so I decided I will paint the machine green with hammered effect. Hopefully it will turn out right


This is it for now, I'll keep you posted as I progress further.

 

[12bolts]

Re: Restauration of a lathe of unknown brand

Good luck. Thats a pretty big chuck you got there

Cheers Phil

 

[matas]

Re: Restauration of a lathe of unknown brand

Freshly killed, I mean... cleaned....



BTW, what kind of lubrication would you guys recommend for the chuck? I was thinking along the line of PTFE for everything (chuck, spindle, leadscrews), what do you guys think?

BTW, as you can see on the picture, this chuck is 3 jaw, 11cm (4,3 inches) with 4 mounting holes on the back place and reverse chuck key. Anybody seen something like that? All the chucks I came across on the internet with 4 screws were 4 jaws, and I havent seen a single one with reverse type key.

Also, the dead center taper is MT1, or so I gathered from the info on the net. The quill(next to dead center) has heavy damage on the outside and on the inside.

 

[rafe]

Re: Restauration of a lathe of unknown brand

Looks like you are making great progress with your lathe. I'm sure your hard work will be worth the machine you end up with ! Regards

 

[GarageGuy]

Re: Restauration of a lathe of unknown brand

Your project looks great! A couple of things:

1). NEVER use gasoline as a solvent. EVER! Use something safer like kerosene that works just as well but isn't nearly as volatile. If you throw a lit match into a pan of kerosene, it goes out. If you create a small static spark anywhere around gasoline, it goes WHOMP! Very dangerous.

2). I like good old fashioned non-detergent motor oil as a lubricant. On freshly cleaned metal, a thin film will prevent rust for quite awhile.

Keep up the good work, your lathe is going to be very nice!

GG

 

[tertiaryjim]

Re: Restauration of a lathe of unknown brand

Those chucks need a high pressure lubricant.
Not all PTFE greases will work.
I think a high quality graphite grease would work well because the cast is porous and the parts have a slow surface speed when operated.
I've also used the common lithium based greases with no problems.
The jaws must be removed and cleaned as well as the scrolls fairly often, depending on use and type of material machined, so the good quality but lesser expensive stuff is a better choice.

Nice to see your progress.

 

[matas]

Re: Restauration of a lathe of unknown brand

I've hit a snag, trying to remove bronze bushings from headstock. I want to remove them to clean up old grease and to not damage them when i'm removing old paint.

They are slit, and have threads on both protruding sides. I've keept the headstock in the fridge over night, but all i've managed to do with it is get the locknuts off of them. I've sprayed them with WD40.

The fact is, i don't know if they're threaded into the headstock or are the threads only for locknuts. I've measured threads on both sides, and i don't think the bushings are tapered. There is no setscrew for them anywhere on the headstock.

Any ideas?

 

[stevejw]

Re: Restauration of a lathe of unknown brand

I've hit a snag, trying to remove bronze bushings from headstock. I want to remove them to clean up old grease and to not damage them when i'm removing old paint.

They are slit, and have threads on both protruding sides. I've keept the headstock in the fridge over night, but all i've managed to do with it is get the locknuts off of them. I've sprayed them with WD40.

The fact is, i don't know if they're threaded into the headstock or are the threads only for locknuts. I've measured threads on both sides, and i don't think the bushings are tapered. There is no setscrew for them anywhere on the headstock.

Any ideas?

View attachment 78867View attachment 78868View attachment 78869

I think you will find they are tapered bushes .You should be able to work out which side is the larger & put the lock nut back on that side & use it to pull the bush out .Should only need to start to move then it will fall out .

 

[matas]

Thanks, I will try that.
I've noticed a recess around one side of the bushings, i presume that's the side they're supposed to go out.
Will try the locknut technique

 

[mattthemuppet2]

Great find and it looks like you're making good progress. Personally, unless you absolutely have to remove the spindle bushings I would leave them in place. The risk of screening something up (damaging them, messing up the spindle alignment etc) is a lot higher than the benefit of cleaning them out of the headstock.