The Super Adept Is Back On The Menu

Hi There

You can’t keep a good engineer down.

A while back, probably about 2 years ago, I posted that I had purchased a brand new Myford ML10 that was about 50 years old. A month later, I had my second leg amputated. My “family basically made me sell the lathe before I got to use it”.

For the last two weeks I have been helping someone to build a Stuart V10 using Facebook Messenger and have thoroughly enjoyed it. His name is also Dave and he is a goldsmith by trade. An engineer, he is not but he is learning fast.

Our next project together will probably be a Stuart Victoria.

i have not ignored engineering having read Model Engineer and Workshop online.

I have also been looking for drawings for the original Stuart 10V as well but no luck. This is the one with a single column and an angled pillar similar to some of the larger Stuart verticals.

I now think I can build one of these using half of the Stuart A frame and an angled column.

So, onto the Super Adept. Having got the workshop bug again, I looked at lathes on Ebay. The smaller ones like the Unimat SL and Unimat 3 go for silly money. Anything I could afford was collection only and might as well have been in the Arctic for all the good they would do me.

Then I saw a Super Adept for £40 or best offer. I offered £90 not expecting them to accept but they did. So, for a £100 I am the proud owner of a nice little super adept. It looks complete including the 4 Jaw chuck.

No countershaft or motor which I hope is a good thing as it may not have been used much. I thought the drive would not be a major problem as I could pick up an old treadle sewing machine table on Facebook Market Place. Then it clicked, silly old fool, I don’t have any legs to work a treadle.

So, electric motor it will have to be. I doubt I will find an original Adept or similar countershaft but I will look out on Ebay for one while I clean and paint the lathe.

I originally thought blue but then thought maybe green. It will possibly end up Myford grey.

I think a timing belt drive from motor to countershaft and possibly a genuine Adept pulley (headstock or countershaft) to match the existing one or possibly a couple of Unimat SL pulleys from RDG. Concentricity won’t be important because they will need boring out to suit which shoulld true them up.

I will post a photo when it arrives but it probably won’t be tomorrow as I am in hospital to have my second cataract done. Only been waiting for two years.

?

Roy

Yes, I agree. Well put.

Super Adept Thread 2023 By David-Clark 1

Curious title thread. He was really struggling the last I heard

Yes, struggling but surviving. Having cataract surgery today.

Both legs gone, pacemaker been working for two years now.

I feel like the 6 million dollar man. But lom like I escaped from Belsen.

Look like. They took my glasses away halfway through the last post.

Second eye now done.

Back home and Adept has arrived. I will try and look at it tomorrow.

First operation dismantle and true up the foot flat and square to the bed.

I think I have a pair of 3, 2, 1 blocks in the shed.

So, if I put them under the Vee ways with the lathe upside down, I can run a clock over the foot and use a Dremel grinder to remove the high spots until I get it flat.

It does not have to be perfect, just flat enough to mount on a piece of wood.

Then check headstock bearings.

If they are fine, paint it.

Just added photos as purchased from Ebay.

Thread makes more sense now that the opening post is visible

Welcome back … and good luck with the project, David

MichaelG.

Having recently received new glasses afetr the secind catarct, things are so much brighter, and more visible.

You now have an interesting project, and by the end will have a useable little machine.

If it is any help, when i had a Super Adept, I used a large O ring as drive belt,

Bringing it up to what you want, and then making things on it will provide SUCH satisfaction..

Go for it!

Howard

Welcome back David. Thread makes more sense now. Best thing I ever had done was cataracts. You don't realise how bad your eyes are till you've had the operation.

Roy

Thank you everyone. Hopefully I will be around for a long while. Doing machining through a third party over Messenger brings back hundreds of good memories.

Yes, I know the Super Adept will annoy some people but I have to use what I have, or can afford.

I have a shed full of tools (no machines) which I have not been able to get into which I hope to get help sorting out.

I have a spare bedroom about 9ft x 7ft (estimated) that I can use as an indoor workshop so space is not really a problem.

I just need to get it tidied up. My son, lazy little sod, uses it as a dumping ground.

Hi David, many people moan about far eastern lathes, but my one has done a lot of very good work, so I wouldn't worry to much about your Super Adept, and I'm sure you will make good use of it.

Regards Nick.

Welcome back to the nuthouse

I think you get the lazarus-engineer award for August

Thank you everyone.

I have examined the little Adept and it seems to be in good condition.

Bearings are tight but turn ok. Still original paint so not just squashed up. Same with cross slides, tight but screws never been adjusted.

Headstock centre very clean, looks unused. Tailstock discoloured but looks ok.

Bed has a few scratches but they look like original finish to me.

I don’t like the overhanging top slide, looks a week point. I have ideas for better tool posts.

It is slightly smaller then what I thought but will do what I want.

I have a Stuart single oscillator kit in the spare room and am keeping my eyes open for a Reeves Trojan which I think will be a suitable size for the small lathe. I also would like to build Edgar T Westbury’s oscillating engine from 1967.

I have Edgar’s original tracing for this engine but it is in the shed so may have got water damage.

I also have an original Edgar T Westbury design of oscillating engine which I have never seen published before but again it is in the shed and may have water damage. The other engine I fancy building is from an old Model Engineer article by Terry Aspin (Chuck).? It is a very small gas engine.

Oh well, I can dream. They can’t take that away from me.

I will have to rethink the Unimat pulley idea, the Super Adept pulleys look much smaller.
Are silicone O rings more flexible than normal ones? I always used normal O rings on my Unimats but seem to remember they were quite hard.

This is the PDF version of the interesting article by Andrew Webster, on lathes.co.uk [whose link appears to be broken]
**LINK**

http://www.bedroom-workshop.com/shaper-perfectoliterature/1.760861AdeptLathesbreaklink.pdf

MichaelG.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 09/08/2023 19:47:04

I don't want to rain on your parade but I think you will be very disappointed with your purchase. I say this because, when barely in my teens in the early 1960's, I was desperate to have a lathe, any lathe, and saved all my pocket and paper round money as there was no one in the house where I was brought up either able or willing to help me. At last I saw an advert in M.E. for a machine that I just had enough money for. When it arrived I could believe what a load of rubbish it was. A toy that was totally useless to all intents and purposes. Maybe it was my youthful ignorance and over enthusiastic eagerness to own a 'lathe' but I will never forget the experience of receiving this British made rubbish and gave the thing away to a friend who's father was an instructor in a works training school and he couldn't make anything of it either. I sincerely hope you have better luck.

Edited By Chris Crew on 09/08/2023 21:20:49

You might look at a 12v motor run off an old car battery with speed controller to do without countershaft.

About ten years ago I dithered about getting an Adept at our club show tool shop and it had gone by the time I made up my mind. However I think it is perfectly capable when used for smaller projects like up to G1 locos.

Thank you Michael.

Chris, I knew what I was buying. Yes, not a precision lathe but it will do what I want. Over 45 years machining experience means I know how to get the best out of it.

Bazyle, I am considering that option. Possibly a stepper motor with a timing pulley drive.

Not decided yet, depends what comes up on Ebay in the next couple of weeks, not really started looking yet.