building a base for my dad's lathe

Folks -

I've been working on a mobile base for my dad's Homecraft Delta Milwaukee Rockwell 36" lathe, circa 1950ish. The headstock has indexing, which is a nice feature.... My dad used it in patternmaking for microfilm camera bodies. I turned his cremation urn on it.

I'm going to clean the lathe up and polish the ways, but I am not going to repaint it or anything. The bearings all still feel smooth and have oil cups for lubrication. My dad had it set up with a 4 speed jackshaft and a

1/3 hp motor. I'll keep the motor for now and then bump up to something a *little* larger.

Pop had the lathe mounted to a bench with the motor and jackshaft behind the headstock. I don't have the luxury of that kind of room, so I am mounting the powertrain more or less vertically. Getting everything set so that the belts all tighten on rotation is taking some doing, but hasn't produced much scrapwood...

I am going to set the lathe base up with casters for moving, other than that it sits flat on a base. I'll set the tailstock column up as storage for tools and may mount a disc on the outboard end of the headstock for a bastardized version of "scary sharp" touch up for chisels.

Pics to follow you know where.

John Moorhead

Reply to
John Moorhead
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Looking forward to the pics John. I recently picked up an old lathe that looks like the description of your Dads. An elderly fellow was having to sell all of his ww tools that had spinning sharpie parts due to his eyesight failing. He was near tears as we loaded the lathe into my truck. I am looking forward to the pics, at abpw, I assume? Regards, ken

Reply to
Ken M.

Do yourself a favor, if you're still able, and make sure you elevate the bed on some blocks (1" big enough) so that you can get one of those crevice tools underneath for cleanup. You can also do dust collection there between the ways, but I prefer bottom and behind them.

Reply to
George

"John Moorhead" wrote in news:Tqcwc.5661$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr27.news.prodigy.com:

Hi John; ShopNotes #10 had a article on a heavy duty Lathe Stand and ShopNotes #67 had another article on a lathe stand for a Mini Lathe suitable for an extended bed and designed to be portable...nice looking designs...don't know wether you would be interested, just thought I'd mention it.

GJP

Reply to
GJP

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