Olaf Vogel
01-06-2011, 11:35 AM
About a week ago I brought home a Christmas to myself:) a old pattern making lathe. As far as I can tell, it was made by Canadian Machinery Corp. A lot bigger than my old Delta, this will finally allow me to create some large bowls and hollow vessels.
Overall its in really good mechanical shape, some surface rust on parts. These are sitting in a bucket of Evaporust right now and cleaning up nicely. The bed has already been stripped and repainted. The other parts are soaking in oil until I can disassemble, clean and polish them up properly.
As I dig through the many buckets of accessories that came with the lathe, there were a few surprises. And I did run into a few solutions that are unknown to me. (its likely over 40 years old, so solutions obviously changed over time). The previous owner is very old and conversation was difficult, so I couldn't ask many questions.
Minor Problems
1 - Dead Center: The head and tail 0stock do NOT have a morse taper (and are solid). Both have internal 3/4 x 8 TPI threads. Included is a large collection of drive spurs as well as "dead" centers. I guess that works, although I've not used them yet.
Does anyone know of a solution where I could either find a Live center that screws in, or a way to convert this to a morse taper? I'm guessing I'd have to convert the tail stock center.
2 - There's no adjustable chuck with it. The outside thread is 1.5" x 8 TPI. The only one I've found so far is the Barracuda4 at PennState. Does anyone have experience with this one?
3 - Given the solid spindle, vacuum chucking is out. Is it possible to get this drilled out? Or would a new spindle have to be custom made?
Good surprises:
- a huge stack of face plates (10+) ranging in size from 4" to 16" dia.
- tons of drive spurs etc.
- a huge "drill" bit holder presumably for auger bits
- 5 tool rests, ranging size from 4" to 20" - all with a 1.5" base
- an adapter that allows me to use my existing 1" chucks, face plates etc.
Everything on lathe is huge and incredibly heavy. Not sure if I'll get used to moving a 100 lb tail stock if I'm only doing small stuff. The tool rest banjo weighs about 70 lbs. Hence, I might keep my Delta for doing small stuff. (Or I'll build up some really good muscles...)
I did try out the lathe before buying it and had no major problems. Hopefully I can get it call cleaned, painted, lubed and assembled for next week. I'm excite to start playing with it!
Olaf
Overall its in really good mechanical shape, some surface rust on parts. These are sitting in a bucket of Evaporust right now and cleaning up nicely. The bed has already been stripped and repainted. The other parts are soaking in oil until I can disassemble, clean and polish them up properly.
As I dig through the many buckets of accessories that came with the lathe, there were a few surprises. And I did run into a few solutions that are unknown to me. (its likely over 40 years old, so solutions obviously changed over time). The previous owner is very old and conversation was difficult, so I couldn't ask many questions.
Minor Problems
1 - Dead Center: The head and tail 0stock do NOT have a morse taper (and are solid). Both have internal 3/4 x 8 TPI threads. Included is a large collection of drive spurs as well as "dead" centers. I guess that works, although I've not used them yet.
Does anyone know of a solution where I could either find a Live center that screws in, or a way to convert this to a morse taper? I'm guessing I'd have to convert the tail stock center.
2 - There's no adjustable chuck with it. The outside thread is 1.5" x 8 TPI. The only one I've found so far is the Barracuda4 at PennState. Does anyone have experience with this one?
3 - Given the solid spindle, vacuum chucking is out. Is it possible to get this drilled out? Or would a new spindle have to be custom made?
Good surprises:
- a huge stack of face plates (10+) ranging in size from 4" to 16" dia.
- tons of drive spurs etc.
- a huge "drill" bit holder presumably for auger bits
- 5 tool rests, ranging size from 4" to 20" - all with a 1.5" base
- an adapter that allows me to use my existing 1" chucks, face plates etc.
Everything on lathe is huge and incredibly heavy. Not sure if I'll get used to moving a 100 lb tail stock if I'm only doing small stuff. The tool rest banjo weighs about 70 lbs. Hence, I might keep my Delta for doing small stuff. (Or I'll build up some really good muscles...)
I did try out the lathe before buying it and had no major problems. Hopefully I can get it call cleaned, painted, lubed and assembled for next week. I'm excite to start playing with it!
Olaf