Seneca Falls 9" Lathe

I forgot to mention , these plain bearing machines are not meant to do speeds like newer lathes . The general consensus is they are 1200-1500 RPM MAX . I run my 1940's South Bend plain bearing lathe off a treadmill motor , I just keep track of my speeds.
animal12
 
I went out and got the red and green plastiguage with some brass shims. The plastiguage doesn’t even register with the shims off the lathe. So I’m sure the damage is too far gone on the front spindle caps

The rear spindle cap is perplexing me. I placed the plastiguage on and tightened until the spindle didn’t move. Not even a dent in the plastiguage, i don’t understand.

At this stage I’m just going to use it as a hobby lathe.
 
animal12 said:
I forgot to mention , these plain bearing machines are not meant to do speeds like newer lathes . The general consensus is they are 1200-1500 RPM MAX . I run my 1940's South Bend plain bearing lathe off a treadmill motor , I just keep track of my speeds.
animal12
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I think 1200 rpm is a bit too fast for a 9" Star lathe. The #27 sales catalog shows the spindle speeds of the 9" machine to be 18 to 366. I must admit I have been known to run mine a bit faster as in the 600-rpm range, but not for extended periods.

Here's a link to the #27 catalog on the Vintage Machinery website. The spindle speed information is on page 27.

 
So with a indicator on the spindle how much movement do ya measure on the spindle when doing the lift test ? Try putting the plastiguage under the spindle ? I know o is a project , but if ya have access to a better lathe ya could make new bearings .
. Is there heavy scoring on the bearing surface of the spindle itself ? I did a rpm test when I first got my Star but that was to many years back to remember what I found . For some reason I never came across that catalog that was posted above , thanks . I do own a hard copy of one of their catalogs & can't say I ever saw a speed mentioned . Funny thing about those Seneca catalogs is if ya put one next to a South Bend catalog from the same era the drawings of the lathes look like they were drawn by the same guy .
animal12
 
Th
animal12 said:
Theres some SB info on page 8 of this pdf
animal12
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Thanks heaps for the book, amazing read. I am getting 0.3mm of play in the spindle on my dial indicator when I deflect it. It makes turning really hard and threading almost impossible for decent accuracy. Tried threading today and when the carbide tip engages the workpiece it is deflecting it causing bad cuts.

I have thought about getting the spindle cap at the front machined smaller so I can start using shims.
 
Yes there is scoring inside the spindle caps and on the main doodle itself.
 
I wonder if ya could take the headstock to a machine shop & have a couple thou machined off the bearing caps & then have the headstock linebored ? Are both ends of the headstock scored up ? How bout the spindle ? DO ya have any pic's of those parts ?
animal12
 
animal12 said:
I wonder if ya could take the headstock to a machine shop & have a couple thou machined off the bearing caps & then have the headstock linebored ? Are both ends of the headstock scored up ? How bout the spindle ? DO ya have any pic's of those parts ?
animal12
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I think what you are saying is the only option at this stage. I don’t have pictures on my phone however both ends are scored up pretty bad with deep groove bands. Only issue is that machine shops aren’t cheap, learned this from machine my cars heads. However I will need to send it down one day.
 
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