Member postings for Bob Jordan

Hi Ben,

Yes I agree with everything said by Quenton but personally I would rather reconsider keeping this lathe for 2 reasons, Firstly it was obviously cherished by your father as it appears to be in good condition despite it's age & secondly if you sell it it will probably only fetch a few hundred pounds even though it is still more than capable of producing very accurate work & if you look after it as your father has done then its use will give you many hours of pleasure for years to come.

Kind regards,

Bob J

Hi Frank,

If as you say your student lathe has not seen a lot of use over the years then the spindle bearings should be OK.

I would start by firstly removing the chuck, cleaning all mating surfaces on the spindle nose and chuck and dressing off any bruising etc., Refit the chuck in the correct manner. ( You have not stated what fitting type you have, i.e. screwed locking ring or the more modern camlock.) Please note that camlock chucks should always be fitted in their original orientation by aligning the reference marks on both spindle & chuck.

Now as Dennis said grip a long bar in the chuck & check for any appreciable deflection in the spindle. Hopefully there will be none. If there is play emanating from the spindle bearings then this will be a very costly repair because these are Gammet bearings that have a fixed preload & are not adjustable.

Hopefully the headstock assembly will be found to be OK & you can then start looking for any slack in the slide assemblies.

Bob J