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Steve Lusardi -- lathe update

Steve, your test bar should be picked up tomorrow. Thank you.

I spent a long time with my lathe. Here's what I found.

  1. The lathe spindle itself does not seem to be bent (when turned and watched with a dial indicator).

  1. The three jaw chuck, when mounted on the Lo mount, simply does not point straight. This is clear if I mount it carefully and turn it while looking at a dial indicator tracking its outside circumference.

  2. There is a considerable amount of crud in the inside of the three jaw chuck, where it mates to the spindle. Such as, bits of swarf imbedded in the soft inside of the chuck. As well as irregular structure from impact of said swarf. Obviously, someone tried to mount a very dirty chuck once, to its detriment. I took a drill bit and carefully lifted that crud off using that drill bit as a scraper. I also very thouroughly cleaned the Lo spindle surface, which now looks great and checks out well dith dial indicator (0.001" or so)

  1. I then noted that I have a four jaw chuck, which I was reluctant to use before.

  2. When cleaned inside, and mounted, the four jaw chuck also was centered perfectly (unlike the three jaw).

  1. I mounted a piece of round stock (not a real test bar) and was able to center it, using a dial indicator.

While I have not tried cutting, due to everyone sleeping, I have high hopes that a large part of my problems related to cutting tapers instead of straight cuts, etc, is due to the bad three jaw chuck.

I will try my best to center a brand new piece of 1" 14L18 tomorrow and to cut it lightly, with results measured carefully. I am hoping that the result will show that the lathe is usable for my purposes, with a four jaw chuck. That would be great. But I was wrong often before.

If that proves to be the case, I will look at the three jaw more closely, to see if I can use a scraper or something to get it to better shape and clean up those ridges inside the mating surface.

Reply to
Ignoramus7855
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Which did not help much to improve the three jaw alignment, I forgot to say.

i

Reply to
Ignoramus7855

Iggy, set your lathe to the tpi of the spindle, mount the four-jaw, hold the three jaw in it with the threads outwards (or hold the mounted four-jaw with the three-jaw, same orientation). Indicate to make sure the body is square and centred, then clean up the three-jaw threads with a threading tool in the tool-post. I would probably turn the chuck by hand while doing this, so as not to change the depth of the threads and to stop before I hit the bottom.

Reply to
_

I had this problem with the Clausing 5914, which uses a L00 spindle.

Is your spindle L0 or is it L00? They look the same, so one must measure to really tell.

Before filing and scraping anything, clean the mating surfaces of the taper off with acetone, right down to the metal. Remove the key (it's held by a screw) to allow full access to clean all nooks and corners. This will remove the spooge and glued-on chips. With a fine flat file, very carefully and gently remove any ding dimple peaks. Reassemble.

Use the acetone on the female taper of the chuck as well.

Smear male taper with high-spot blue, install chuck on spindle, remove, and inspect under a bright light. Very gently file the ding peaks off with a 6" half-round file slid gently along the female taper in the chuck. Be very careful, as the material is cast iron and files all too easily.

It is not necessary to make the dings go away. Al that's necessary is to remove the peaks, so the remaining surfaces can mate properly. So the taper will always look a bit battered, but there is no harm in it.

I also found it necessary to completely disassemble and clean the 3-jaw chuck, which was full of spooge and packed glued chips. No filing was needed, only careful cleaning with pointed metal tools and a stainless-steel brush and solvent to get stuff out of corners and the jaw tracks. On reassembly, I used Mobil-1 synthetic grease, about $5 from an auto parts store.

I also did the 4-jaw chuck, although it turned out not to be really needed. The female taper was quite dirty, from deposits of airborne shop grit over the years. Likewise the dog drive plate. It's probably a good idea to keep rarely used chucks and plates in plastic bags or the like, to keep them reasonably clean.

Joe Gwinn

Reply to
Joseph Gwinn

I called Clausing a week ago, they said L0 for my machine.

The spindle part is actually perfectly, spotlessly clean now. (after much cleaning)

OK, will get that blue.

Yep.

I did that when I got the lathe, I disassembled both chucks and cleaned them up. I used CorrosionX for lubrication.

I agree, yes. Thanks Joe.

Reply to
Ignoramus17663

You can cross check with a ruler as well.

Is it a flawless cone, or are there dimples?

Mine has dimples, from people installing the chuck without wiping the chips off first.

Joe Gwinn

Reply to
Joseph Gwinn

It is flawless. I believe that it is hardened, and the inside of the chuck is not hardened, so all dimples go on the chuck. Which is great. I am grateful for this.

The more I think about it, the more I believe that this lathe is a solid performer to serve me well.

I have started to perform some final cleanup of it. Drained all oil from the headstock, then added detergent car oil in there, lifted off all crud, from the walls and bottom, drained that, wiped the inside free of that oil and clear, and put in new Mobil DTE 24.

Next, time to learn threading, to get coolant in the coolant tank, learn to center tailstock etc.

I was reluctant to invest much time into this lathe, before ascertaining that it could actually be usable.

To answer Wes's question, yes the ways have visible wear, bt the effect on the cuts is moderate.

i

Reply to
Ignoramus17663

Is that the round top Colchester 13x36?

I told you you would like it.

I loved mine

Gunner

"First Law of Leftist Debate The more you present a leftist with factual evidence that is counter to his preconceived world view and the more difficult it becomes for him to refute it without losing face the chance of him calling you a racist, bigot, homophobe approaches infinity.

This is despite the thread you are in having not mentioned race or sexual preference in any way that is relevant to the subject." Grey Ghost

Reply to
Gunner Asch

I totally love it. I hope that it will love me back.

I am going to try to come up with some lathe projects.

Let's see...

i
Reply to
Ignoramus17663

[ ... ]

Only one problem with this. It would work with a threaded spindle, but his spindle nose is *not* threaded, only tapered with a key. (It should be called "L-0" not "Lo"). It is one step larger than my L-00.

There are threads -- but they are on the OD of the socket on the back of the chuck, and a threaded collar screws onto this to draw up the chuck good and tight to the taper.

I guess that he might be able to turn the ID of the tapered socket clean, but it is tricky to set it up accurately enough, and I'm not sure that his compound has enough travel to do it all in one setup. (The nose taper is too steep for the usual taper attachment.)

Enjoy, DoN.

Reply to
DoN. Nichols

Did you get the taper attachment?

Gunner

"First Law of Leftist Debate The more you present a leftist with factual evidence that is counter to his preconceived world view and the more difficult it becomes for him to refute it without losing face the chance of him calling you a racist, bigot, homophobe approaches infinity.

This is despite the thread you are in having not mentioned race or sexual preference in any way that is relevant to the subject." Grey Ghost

Reply to
Gunner Asch

The first thing you do, is make up a handful of shear pins. Start out with 16P nails and simply turn them down to the proper diameter and length. IRRC its .375 long and .125 in diameter

You WILL screw up and shear off those pins when you are first learning the lathe..generally by under estimating the length of time it takes to turn something so you turn your back on the machine for a few minutes.

I may..may have an extra spindle nose adapter for IRRC...3MT or 4MT

Gunner

"First Law of Leftist Debate The more you present a leftist with factual evidence that is counter to his preconceived world view and the more difficult it becomes for him to refute it without losing face the chance of him calling you a racist, bigot, homophobe approaches infinity.

This is despite the thread you are in having not mentioned race or sexual preference in any way that is relevant to the subject." Grey Ghost

Reply to
Gunner Asch

No, I wish I did, but I did not.

i

Reply to
Ignoramus17663

Bummer..I gave mine away today. Really. I wish Id known you needed one.

Gunner

"First Law of Leftist Debate The more you present a leftist with factual evidence that is counter to his preconceived world view and the more difficult it becomes for him to refute it without losing face the chance of him calling you a racist, bigot, homophobe approaches infinity.

This is despite the thread you are in having not mentioned race or sexual preference in any way that is relevant to the subject." Grey Ghost

Reply to
Gunner Asch

Gunner, If you can find one, I have an MT3 test bar he can use. Steve

Reply to
Steve Lusardi

Don't wear long sleeves carelessly around it or it will give you the hug of your life.

Wes

Reply to
Wes

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