C. B. Rogers lathe restoration

[Bill Levitt]

New member here with a C. B. Rogers lathe to restore. "CB" has been sitting outside in the weather for years. I purchased this lathe knowing it will be a project. The headstock and tailstock have been freed up and are functional. The bed will be cleaned and polished. All normally painted surfaces will be blasted and painted. The big challenge will be powering the headstock. Any suggestions are most welcome. Photo attached.
Thanks,
Bill Levitt

[Steve Schlumpf]

Bill - Welcome to the Creek!

I think the word 'Project' might be kinda mild for the challenges you have ahead of you! I have not heard of this lathe before but anything that is still around after all these years must have been made well to begin with! As far as powering your new lathe - the original looks like it used one of those overhead belt drives - so you can try to duplicate a belt system or modify things and go with a new style motor and EVS. Really depends on you and what you what to turn and how true to the original lathe you wish to remain!

Lots of luck with your project!

[Jeff Bower]

Bill, look up Matt Hutchinson here...he has an old lathe like this that he has set up very nicely...Look forward to seeing more pics as you go along.

[alex carey]

Looks like once you get it cleaned up and working it could be a hell of a lathe.
Here is a picture of how somebody else powered their lathe that is slightly similar to yours.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Welcome Bill to SMC. Definitely looks like a project for sure. Looks like one my grandfather had that I wish I had now. It was power with flat belts overhead. Not sure how you would go about it but Matt would probably be a big help.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Bill if you want to just use it, rather than bringing it back to the original setup, (with overhead driveshaft and flat leather belts) than I would take the step-pulley and have a machine shop cut grooves in it for a multi-V belt (also known as serpentine belts).
then build a support for a motor on the backside and use a EVS motor on it, and start turning, you could do the grooves on into two places so you'd have more speed control and better HP use.
Good luck and have fun doing the cleanup and refurbishing ;-))