Member postings for James Jenkins 1

Is the round base not an added piece of granite or alike with a hole in it? I assume put there to protect it? Otherwise the cast piece looks the same form as the other tailstocks.

James

The damage to the tailstock area is worse than I had thought. You're not going to scrape that out.

Whilst I agree that having a perfectly flat and aligned bed isn't essential on a plain lathe, for accurate, consistant and timely work it's nice to have. If I'm honest though I wouldn't spend the time on this bed getting it to that state.

I think the view that you should use the lathe and see where you go from there is good advice. You might find it does all you wan it to do, or else you'll out grow it but know what you want in the future.

James

Thanks so much for the input everyone, all really helpful. The concrete in the workshop is very poor and I can imagine it breaking up if I tried to drill down to put bolts in. Also I want to have the flexibility to move things around if I need to.

Has anyone got any experience on the effect of rubber or vibration abosorbing feet has on surface quality? I'm guess it's an improvement over unbolted steel on concrete or hard metal/hard plastic feet on concrete?

James

As I say it looks amazing - huge congratulations on that.

Sounds like the next steps are to get it working as well as it looks. Try a couple of the things above (straight edge, micrometer) and see how far out the bed is - they'll give you an idea. If you look at Jan Sverre Haugjord's youtube channel you'll get lots of advice on checking a bed and then scraping it in. Rust pits aren't always a bed killer (they can be!), but so long as you have enough areas contacing the tail stock (20 ppi) some hollows won't matter.

That looks a smart lathe from here. Although you cannot really tell from photos, the bed doesn't look in bad condition. Have you taken any readings from it? Using a micrometer or a jig and test indicator?

Plain lathes don't get quite the wear that a screw cutting lathes do on the bed.

Do you have a straight edge? You can get a feel for major wear using a straight edge and a 1 thou shim.

Obviously you would need a surface plate to assess properly or scrape - but these can be purchased reasonably from ebay, but condiiton is everything. I have a new inspection grade one that I know is right and then a couple of smaller ones from ebay for layout and workshop use.

But as I say the lathe looks a good starting place to me.

James

Looking forward to seeing the photos - create an albumn, add them to it and then you can post them by clicking on the camera icon.

Bed regrinding is offered by a number of companies - look for ones offering it for Myford lathes. I wouldn't want to take too much off though.

Chuck wise I would say you have a couple of options. Best one would be to make a back plate for the lathe, but this would require a screw cutting lathe. Then you can buy a good quality new or old chuck and mount it.

Alternatively you can buy 8mm clock/watch makers chucks that should fit in the headstock. These will have a more limited use, as you cannot put anything much up the headstock, but is an easy solution.

I'm the last person in the world to say this, as I like to rescue every lost cause, but there is the gentleman on ebay offering quite nice ones of these with chucks etc for £400 (the person I bought mine from). So you might just want add up what it is going to cost to get this up and running and whether by the time you have had it ground etc etc I'm just mentioning it and would fully appreciate it and respect you if you said you wanted to repair this lathe.

James

This is early on in the process, you can see the areas of blue. I now have good coverage, with more than 20ppi. I shall work on the other faces etc and then double check. At the moment I have a wobble in the feet, which I want to solve, or else I will pull the bed out of shape when bolting it down.

Hi Simon, thanks so much for your message. Slowly is the answer. It is all stripped (apart from the tailstock) and 1st couple of coats of paint applied. I have scraped in the top, but still awaiting the funds to buy a bevel edged camelback straight edge, to allow me to get into the reference edges on the inside of the bed. It's on the list!

I'd love to see photos of yours too. I'll see if I can dig on out of the scraped top face.

James

Hmmm... I was going to say I wonder if the seller is a member as I have just found a reply in my ebay inbox after a month, but he sent it 20mins before I posted the above.

Mind reader perhaps?

Anyway good to hear it might be resolved.

Hello,

I have got to move my workshop around and I am wondering about the benefits or otherwise of using adjustable feet.

My workshop has a crappy uneven concreate floor (my big regret is that I didn't know enough at the time to lay a new floor when I took it on).

The machines I will be moving and installing are:

Deckel FP1
Big Twin Head Pollard Drill Press
Alba 10" Shaper
Clarkson Tool & Cutter Grinder

All of these are on the original cast iron stands or bases and 'full height' machines.

The advantages in my mind are:

1/ Being able to level the machine easily.

2/ Ensuring that the machine doesn't have any rock, due to uneven floor.

3/ Being able to leave a small gap under the base to put a pry bar in to move.

My concerns are:

1/ It might 'walk' - particularly the shaper?

2/ Will it increase vibration - mainly with the mill and shaper.

I'd be really interested in your thoughts on this and wether the special vibration feet are good idea - the main selling point seems to be noise, which isn't really any issue in this context.

If you have any brands you have used and found good please do let me know.

Many thanks,

James

Hi all,

Thanks so much for your feedback on this. I have now got a copy of the article - which is a great read.

Annoyingly the seller offered to replace the top slide, as it had several deep hack saw marks on it. I returned it and they sent back one that didn't fit, I returned this one and they said that none of the replacements would fit either so all they could do was return the one I originally had. I moaned a bit, as the hacksaw marks were not shown in the original listing - something admitted they were worried about and had 'meant to mention'.

Anyway a month has gone by and the the original hasn't been returned. So I have a lathe with no top slide, which on a plain lathe makes it pretty useless. The seller still has items listed, but hasn't replied my two messages.

All very frustrating.

James

Edited By James Jenkins 1 on 03/08/2023 19:09:36

A huge thanks for all your input on these. I think the take away is to maybe just double check for binding where the two tapers meet, address this issue with a very light stoning if needs be, but then await trials and testing to see if there are actually any serious issues.

This is what I will do.

Thanks again,

James

Morning all,

Thanks so much for your messages - really helpful.

I will check out the book suggested - it looks very interesting.

I should have said, the readings above were with oil in the bearings.

Please see images of actual bearings below - these are after stoning.

Am I right in thinking the correct way of testing the axial load is with the tail stock? It's not a very beefy tailstock, is there a better way?

James

Edited By James Jenkins 1 on 13/06/2023 09:36:18

Edited By James Jenkins 1 on 13/06/2023 09:36:52

Thanks so much for your input everyone, looks like caution is the way forward.

I stoned down the bearings and mandrel, which has improved the feeling of 'grinding' I was getting. There is still a small difference in resistance around the rotation (i.e. one half of the turn feels lighter than the other half).

Refitting the lock screws also improved the radial play dramatically. I was getting 1 to 1 1/2 tenths just trying to lift the spindle by hand, so I am guessing with a 6" rod it would be closer to 2 or 3 (that's a guess). What would be a good radial play setting for these bearings?

Thanks,

James

Morning all,

I am currently in the process of restoring the little George Adams 2 1/2" lathe that I recently purchased. Most parts seem in good condition and I am hopeful that I can turn it into a really accurate lathe for precision work.

The head stock cone bearings (look to be press fitted into the casting) and mandrel are both hardened and in overall good condition. I have blued the mandrel and I am getting good contact with the internal surface.

However, on the outer edges (that form a type of thrust bearing surface) there is some wear and galling, on both the bearing and mandrel and even a lip where it has worn in. This is causing some slight stiffness and roughness in half the headstock rotation.

Image below, but not my lathe, and actually showing the other end of the mandrel, but gives an indication of where I mean on the chuck end, which is broadly the same, but a feature of the mandrel.

Can you please help me with the following.

1/ Would it be possible to have just these surfaces reground?

2/ Would they be able to do this with the bearings in situ, or would they move them from the head stock? If they have to remove them from the headstock, will the other bearing surfaces realign again one re-fitted?

3/ Any suggestions on who to approach?

4/ Before I took the headstock off the lathe I measured the 8mm collet holder that sits in the main bore and got about 0.0001" run out. I also measured the amount of upward movement the mandrel could achieve within the bearings and this was about 0.001". This was without any adjustment - just as the lathe came. On this type of lathe, where I am looking to achieve as much accuracy as possible, how much movement should there be to allow for oil and heat expansion.

All and any other thoughts very welcome.

Many thanks,

James

The lathe has now arrived and, apart from a bit of hacksaw damage to the top slide which I wasn't expecting, I am very, very pleased with it. It seems really carefully machined and initial measurements suggest as a lathe that was well built and, although used, cared for. The ideal subject for a first rebuild and restoration I would suggest.

If anyone has any accessories or parts for these that they are willing to part with please do let me know.

Likewise just another call out if anyone has a copy of the September 1985 Engineering in Miniature article.

I'm going to be doing a complete strip down restoration, so I'll post up occasional updates and images as I progress.

James

Ah, the quote was from the 2 2/1" lathe, but I wonder if the website is getting confused between the two?

I should have said, I would love to get a small tool post grinder and milling spindle for it, to allow slotting and cylindrical grinding. There is a dividing head plate that has been built into the headstock from brass plate - a craftsman's addition by the look of it, but hopefully well done. I just need to make a new pin assembly.

James

How interesting. I wonder how accurate that is? I had thought that centres were restored by grinding.