Saving a lathe

Here's some miscellaneous notes put together by John Knox that may shed some light on what the serial number indicates. I was not able to find a service manual for your age machine. If you like, join the Sheldon Lathe group over on Yahoo and post what you have there and hopefully John will tune in and offer some help. He may have the service manual for this lathe you can purchase from him very cheaply. Ken
 

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Seems like some post on here have disappeared.
Am I missing something???
 
This lathe has Bronze bearings i the headstock.
How would I adjust the play in it????
Is there a retrofit for roller bearings????
 
I probably should have asked this before, but is this lathe worth rebuilding?????
As far as I know, not to many people here (Hawaii) even know what a lathe is.
Shipping to the states would be way to expensive.
Parts seem hard to find.
Even if I part it out, shipping for the parts would be expensive.
To me it seems like a waste to NOT get it going again.
I really don't need another lathe. I'm happy with my Atlas.
 
abunai said:
I probably should have asked this before, but is this lathe worth rebuilding?????
As far as I know, not to many people here (Hawaii) even know what a lathe is.
Shipping to the states would be way to expensive.
Parts seem hard to find.
Even if I part it out, shipping for the parts would be expensive.
To me it seems like a waste to NOT get it going again.
I really don't need another lathe. I'm happy with my Atlas.
Click to expand...
I guess it depends on how much time you have on your hands. It could be a long shot to get running again and it may not. There's no way to convert the headstock to Timken bearings like the newer one's have. There's nothing wrong with bronze bushings for headstock bearings as long as they are kept well oiled. The chances of finding a tailstock that would fit is slim to none. Nothing wrong with adapting one from another brand of lathe. I guess the first question would be, "What kind of shape is the bed in?" Is there wear in the bed? Any gouges or drag marks in the bed ways? If not, that's great. If there is any kind of wear or damage, may not be worth messing with. I suspect this came off of the military base there in Hawaii from WWII. I wouldn't throw it out just yet. To me, it looks like all of the drive system is there in place, just needs to be gone thru cleaned oiled new belts and be good as new. May need to replace the motor. Overall, it doesn't look that bad for a 75 something year old lathe. I say keep it! We can help guide you thru fixing it up. Always open for challenges. Ken
 
abunai said:
This lathe has Bronze bearings i the headstock.
How would I adjust the play in it????
Is there a retrofit for roller bearings????
Click to expand...

Welcome to the forum and Aloha! We lived in Enchanted Lakes for years - still miss the place. Typically you can adjust the bronze bearings in the headstock by using brass shim stock to raise or lower the bearings in relation to the spindle. Then tighten the bolts that hold the bearing caps until the spindle just spins freely AND has less than .002" vertical play - or whatever Sheldon published for max vertical play.

Often after shimming, one needs to scrape the bearings round to achieve a uniform, round, close fit with the spindle bearing surface. Not hard to do. I used a sharp, 4" mild steel knife blade to scrape the bearings on my old 1919 Dalton lathe. Use dykum blue to find out where the highs and low are in the bearing wear pattern. Just lightly scrape off the high spots until the spindle spins freely, and doesn't move up or down much.

Glenn
 
abunai said:
This lathe has Bronze bearings i the headstock.
How would I adjust the play in it????
Is there a retrofit for roller bearings????
Click to expand...
There is an advantage to bronze over roller. The roller are less smooth than bronze., so for preceision work the bronze would be preferred. Just my opinion. Not the gospel.
 
I'd try reworking the lathe I'd bet cleaning and oiling will be the most . Even replacing or fitting the bronze bearings isn't a bad or hard fix. Sheldon have always been heavy duty LATHES even more so then the same size south bends. More mass in the ass so to speak. I had a good variable speed Sheldon forty years ago I still kick my own ass for selling it. Keep it you won't be sorry.
 
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