Daemon4x4 - 4x4 & Off Road Technical Board

abecketts wrote:

a lathe I guess?

Yup. One of those: "I'm not going to do anything with it other than connect it up" type jobs, which ended up with loads of little bits being done to it before I got it up and running. Haven't stripped and repainted or anything, but it's amazing just how many little niggles can need sorting on a 60 or so year old piece of kit to get it usable, and then general servicing, cleaning etc.

Perfection needs no introduction or moral boost.

Got some practice in with it today. To say that I haven't done any form of turning for a good while would be an understatement, so started off with a simple task.

Btw, just on a tangent, ne'er give an eight year old a walkie talkie so that they can talk to you whilst you're in the workshop. Ran the bloody tool into the chuck due to someone, (aforementioned bairn), thinking that he needed to press the page button every two seconds, just as I was working a few mil away from the chuck. Coupled with an arseways round apron handwheel movement, next thing I know there's a clunk and the chuck stops dead. Talk about the height of distraction.

Anyhows, back on track, started off with a pair of these:



and ended up with these:



Side by side of the pre and post turned bits:




They're oil cups for the headstock. Just need to dig something suitable out to make caps from now, to finish them off. They're to go in the place of the two brass studs in the headstock in this pic:

Looks neat and shiny...I just have no idea what they do...Feed oil to moving parts??

Popeye wrote:

Work peices look good as does the lathe, i'd love one a bit bigger than the model making one i have

It's not too bad a lathe. It's a 3-1/2" across the bed. It's a bit rough around the edges and could do with some minor enhancements, (and still needs some fettling, the tailstock especially), but it seems to be a generally decent thing, in not too bad nick. It only had one owner from new before I came across it, so it was quite handy for the fact that there was some tooling and the like with it too, and the gears and such hadn't disappeared due to it changing owners several times, as tends to be a problem with the older stuff.

Popeye wrote:

one does tend to shat when the tool hits the jaws (also when the peice comes loose in the jaws)

Ain't that the truth. That's one of the reasons why I went with leather belt rather than V-belt drive too. Not so much for running into the chuck, (as I hope not to be doing that frequently ), but for the fact that it will slip earlier than a V-belt would. Enough grip to do what's required of it, but will complain quickly if it gets pushed too far. I'd rather take more shallow, steady cuts and the like than trouncing the spindle or headstock casting to death with heavy work, at the lathes limit.

Tonka wrote:

Looks neat and shiny...I just have no idea what they do...Feed oil to moving parts??

Yup. They're wick oilers, for oiling the headstock spindle. Just waiting to get my hands on a piece of wick, and then they'll be getting fitted.

meooo wrote:

Wedge a couple of corks, or greaseproof paper in the top

I've made a couple of push fit caps for the top. Hadn't done them when I took that pic though. Quite chuffed with how well they've turned out, to say they're pretty much my first pieces after a quite notable period of not using a lathe, (must be over twenty years).

Ooh, if you do happen to find those Ian, I'll definitely buy those off you. Can never have too many oilers, and half my kit seems to be in dire need of some.

Got the wicks fitted to these oilers today, and popped them on the lathe. Didn't thread the bottom of the oilers as the remnants of thread in the headstock were minimal at best, so did the bottoms as a smooth, snug fit, then ran a thin line of 60/40 solder around the bottom so that they'd tap in and stay put without putting pressure on the casting.



The lids are just a smooth, snug fit too. Thought it would become a tad tiresome unscrewing them every time I wanted to top the oil up, so just did them as a finger tight fit.

ok mate, sorry i only found one, and it aint got a wick in it, if it's any use let me have your address and i'll get it off to ya, i know i had two and buggered if i can remember wether or not i used the other for summat, only possibility would have been the big scale R/C battleship, i know i made an oiler for the four drive shafts out of an old mamod steam boiler so it wasn't used on that, but there were other shaft driven things in it like pumps etc so quite possible i used it on one of those,
anyway if i do come accross the other i'll send it on as well,

Aye! soon as i have your address i'll get it posted, i had a nice little jiffy bag arrive which would have done to send it in but before i knew it the missis had  torn it apart so she could shread the address label in her new cross cutter with bin and built in CD shreading device!!   she loves feeding stuff into it.