Dispatches from the Land of Jack Planes

[Jonathan McCullough]

Well here's what I found over the past couple of weekends. A common brace with pretty good nickel plating--it's surprising how many have really good nickel plating still. There's an X-acto brand jeweler's-type fret saw. I've seen a lot of these in dovetail instructions and thought I'd pick this one up to see if it makes a big difference. Anything ANYTHING to make my dovetails better. A Miller's Falls type breast drill with level for $5. I've been seeing these go for crazy dollars lately and have no idea why. I wonder if it isn't oddball collectors or the same people who think that all they need to make a log cabin is some land, an axe, a boatbuilder's slick, and one of these . . . . at any rate it has nice movement and still has its side handle, which is bonus in my book, and there have been some jobs lately that are too big for an eggbeater, a brace could do it but, what would a breast drill be like? Now I'll know. The old Monkey Wards lathe isn't strictly neander, but is so rudimentary that I will include it here anyway. I've been quite the 50-cent socket chisel magnet lately, and have been meaning to learn how to turn some handles, and this teeny little thing should be able to do just that. The spindle was warped (0.010" runout) because the step pulley on the headstock is exposed and probably got dinged around in transit or in the trunk of someone's car. So with George Wilson's sensible and generous advice I have some bearings on order and will fashion a new 1/2" spindle. And what's that I see? Another jack plane? I swear I will fix all these up and put them in the classifieds whenever someone asks "should I get a hand plane? What kind?" This kind is a Craftsman, I'm thinking a Sargent "MADE IN USA" casting with plastic knob and handle. Not lovely perhaps as some of today's premium cocobolo offerings or what have you, but has good heft and machining, and should shine up to be a pretty good user. I have an unlovely-though-beloved Craftsman/Sargent #6 and it always seems to be on my bench. http://i575.photobucket.com/albums/ss199/Jonathryn/haul%20of%20the%20day/September32010.jpg

[john brenton]

was an old two speed breast drill and I've used it once...and that was to see how it worked. The side handle broke off and the female threads in there didn't match up to anything I had lying around.

Either way, I've never looked at something and thought...."if only there was a way...AH the breast drill!!"

[Jim Koepke]

Looks like you had good luck hunting today. My rust hunting was a bust. Got up early because for a couple of weeks someone having an estate sale told me there were lots of woodworking tools. There were almost none and nothing I wanted. She said her nephew came by a couple of weeks ago and must of taken them.

There was one weird tool that another guy bought, an electric coping saw. It was like a short blade version of a regular coping saw, but had a motor on the handle. It was made by Dremel.

He paid two bucks for it. I told him that it should be good to get him at least a dozen drinks in a bar just by showing people he had one.

jim

[george wilson]

Now that I see what you want to make the spindle for,I am more informed. Can you find bronze bushings to fit it? I'm not a bronze bushing expert,but I know that some require finish reaming after installation. I hope yours do not. It will be tricky to ream them in a true line to each other.

To ream them inline,you need what is called an electric motor reamer. They are long enough to span the width of a motor's housing,leaving you with enough reamer shaft sticking out of the end of the motor opposite the end you are reaming to keep the reamer pretty well centered. After reaming one end,you reverse the reamer and ream the other bushing.

I have several such reamers. Hopefully 1 is within the 1/2" range(they are expansion type reamers). If you need a loan,let me know.PM me if you do,so I won't miss seeing the message.

Be sure to drill an oil hole in each after the bushings are installed.

Do you have a metal lathe? You really need one to get the threads on the spindle truly concentric with the axis of the spindle.

On such a small lathe,I'd GUESS that a #1 or a #0 Morse taper would be made in the hole. I do not have these reamers. I only keep what I need for my larger metal lathes or wood lathe(an Oliver).

I hope the bed of that lathe is stiff enough for wood turning. You might have to resort to using cutting techniques and not use scraping type cutting to avoid chatter. I can't be sure. Some of these early light home hobby type machines were a bit optimistic.


P.S. Some wood,and even metal lathes actually used cast iron bearings cut right out of the casting itself. Some old South Bends were made that way,even in larger sizes,like 14" or 16" swing. The Myford ML 10 used bored out cast iron. They had to be carefully oiled often,because when they wore,there was no easy way to fix the lathe. Are you sure that lathe used bronze bushings? I had a little wood lathe that ran on cast iron bored from the solid casting. Probably about the same vintage as yours,but about 2/3 as large.

[Jonathan McCullough]

Hey George,

You know I found a local bearing distributor, and the guy who helped me looked like he'd have been unfazed if I'd brought in a flying saucer part. I just ordered a set of four Oilite bronze bearings (one on either side of the two flip-top oil caps = 4 sleeve bearings), as well as a thrust bearing to keep everything together. My plan is to chamfer the edges and seat them with a 1/2" bolt and some washers. If that doesn't work I'll put the headstock in the oven at, say, 200 degrees, and try again, with the spindle inside the bearings as the whole thing cools.

For the spindle, I'm thinking drill rod will be dead on and that the bearings would, if anything, be a little (0.0005) tight. I do have an old Atlas 10" but it's not under power yet (I know I know), but I could chuck up a hand reamer and find a way to attach the headstock to the toolpost . . . Don't laugh but I've actually milled working parts by hand in steel this way for my mitre box. It's, uh, a little slow. But the metal lathe is for precision, and the reamer is a hand reamer so, should work, no? If not I might take you up on the loan of a motor reamer. Never heard of one before, and thanks for the offer.

The LH threads are on the left-hand side of the spindle, and in conjunction with the thrust bearing and cone pulley are merely to keep the spindle from sliding out of the bearings while under power; a great degree of precision is not required there thankfully. The nose of the spindle wasn't actually threaded, it merely has a flat filed out for a set screw bored through the wood lathe center. But I might make a more conventional spindle with 0 MT and a threaded nose for a faceplate and a chuck.

I too hope it's rigid enough. It's cast iron but not like the Atlas, naturally. I suspect the engineer expected Joe Homeowner to augment it with a heavy base. Next woodworking project anyone?

You know I've heard of cast iron bearings; it doesn't even really need cutting oil to drill it as I understand. But it seems odd that SB would make something that would be so susceptible to damage. Seems like it would chip. Oh well, babbit to the rescue!

Jim, did you ever see those electric hammers they're selling? No really, electric hammers! They market it as being something to use in tight quarters where you can't swing a hammer. But maybe that's a good example of a situation where someone should not use a nail? Maybe?

[Jim Koepke]

My plan is to chamfer the edges and seat them with a 1/2" bolt and some washers. If that doesn't work I'll put the headstock in the oven at, say, 200 degrees, and try again, with the spindle inside the bearings as the whole thing cools.

You might also try leaving them in the freezer overnight and take them out one at a time and work fast.

When I worked in a manufacturing facility years ago, there were flywheel bolts that were an interference fit. They would get a bath in liquid nitrogen for a few minutes before they were installed into the flywheels.


Jim, did you ever see those electric hammers they're selling? No really, electric hammers! They market it as being something to use in tight quarters where you can't swing a hammer. But maybe that's a good example of a situation where someone should not use a nail? Maybe?

I think there was a thread on those here a couple of years ago. Not something I would invest in.

jim

[george wilson]

I was going to suggest that some of these cheap home owner lathes just had a set screw in their noses,and were not threaded. What are you going to do for a thrust bearing? If you put a face plate on it,or even cut towards the headstock,you need a thrust bearing to prevent friction between the spindle and the front edge of the headstock. The old configuration most likely didn't have it,or had a bronze washer behind the spindle which you dripped oil on. I guess you can shrink the bearings in,but not sure that 200º is going to do it. At the physics machine shop at William and Mary College,they run liquid nitrogen through tight fitting things to shrink them.

At least,try heat and freezing.

They had an OLD south Bend 16" lathe in the maintenance dept. in Col. Wmsburg. The mechanics asked me to figure out why the lathe wouldn't cut well. I looked around,and put a crow bar under the chuck. It would lift 1/8" !!! It had an integral bearing,and who ever had operated it for years never oiled it. They junked the lathe. No way to fix it. Actually,I COULD have fixed it via a complicated setup of the headstock on the milling machine,but they didn't ask me. Just bought a real poor lathe,a KENT(BAD BAD BAD!!!) to replace it. I'd have bored out the headstock and made bronze bearings to fill in. But,then,the bed was also worn.

[Jonathan McCullough]

Jim:
Things I am afraid of: Molten Lava, objects glowing with comic book-style radioactivity, hydrofluoric acid, and liquid nitrogen.

George:
Here's a breakout of the headstock assembly. It's an odd arrangement that doesn't resemble any other lathe I've ever seen. Looking at it in parts I now realize that I need another thrust bearing on the left hand side. Should be interesting if it all comes together into something that actually works. I just want to do small parts like handles with it, so I don't think I will engineer it to the Nth degree. Maybe if I like turning it'll be a good learner lathe and I can turn it over to another enterprising young lad.



John: About the breast drill, you know I think that some eggbeaters were engineered more for mechanic mechanics than woodworking mechanics. I think the beefier castings on the Miller's Falls No. 5 was more for small holes in sheet metal and stuff, whereas the No. 2 was more for wood working. So these 2-speed breast drills may have been for larger (1/4"-1/2") holes in wood, or maybe for the slow, heavy-feed pressure of drilling holes in metal. Like maybe in a locomotive engineer's breakdown toolbox? Just guessing. Worth a try anyhow.

[george wilson]

So,you actually HAVE the old spindle? I guess if you do,then you know if it takes bronze bushings. If I'd seen that earlier it would have saved some typing.

I take it there is something wrong with the old spindle so you want to replace it.

[Jonathan McCullough]

Yeah, I did another measurement of the runout and it's .050 inches. The spindle's bowed in the middle from being dropped on the cone pulley somewhere along the line. The nose/center flops up and down; I never ran it like that, it seemed like a good way to get hurt. The spindle also scored with more rings than Saturn, as are the bearings. So replacement bearings and spindle would be in order.