New(old) lathe - with some complications

[Olaf Vogel]

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

[Steve Schlumpf]

Olaf - sounds like you picked up quite the beast! Can't help you with much but I do know that Oneway offers threaded adapters for their chucks that will fit your lathe. http://www.oneway.ca/chucks/adaptors.htm

[charlie knighton]

congratulations, i do not have any answers but would like to see it when you reasimalate it, thanks for sharing

[Rob Cunningham]

If you have any machine shops near you, they could most likely bore and ream the spindles for a Morse taper. The downside is that you would have to do some dis-assembly. It would be a good opportunity to replace the spindle bearings if necessary.

[Olaf Vogel]

Having the spindles bored out is attractive. I assume it works as is, so I'll try it that way first and then see if I need to spend the effort.

It is quite the beast, about 2000 lbs total weight, 8.5' long, 32" max diameter, about 6' center to center (apparently cut down from about 20' (yikes!).

It was sold by an old pattern maker who worked for the firm that made it. Apparently they made locomotive parts since the steam age, but shut down around 1970's after being acquired by Ingersol Rand. So I don't really know how old it is, very few markings.

Here's a couple of pics from where I picked it up.
176644
176645
176646

I can post more once I get it put together.

Olaf

[James Combs]

Love the tranny! Reminds me of an old truck I use to have or drive, don't remember which but do remember the shifter.
Looking forward to seeing what comes off this "beast".

[Bernie Weishapl]

Now that is a beast. Congrats.

[Olaf Vogel]

I managed to finish assembling it late last night. My back is not happy. The motor and mount is about 180 lbs. The headstock well over 200 and I couldn't lift it til I look off the 60 lb spindle. Other than the weight, there were no major issues. Still have some parts soaking to get the rust off (they're coming out really nice and clean).

Cleaned the Babbit bearings, some scouring, but with new oil it turns smoothly. Adjustments were easy and there's no detectable wiggle.

So I fired it up and started buffing up the parts. But started blowing breakers. The motor is drawing more amps than my circuit can handle.

However, while I was buffing the rust off, with sandpaper on the axle, there seemed to be very little torque. Nothing like what I'd need for turning large diameters. The spindle and motor seemed to turning smoothly with little resistance. So I'm guessing its either drive-train losses (tranny / belts) or lack of amps to the motor (it was cycling fast, slow in a rhythm - that was weird)

The belts are worn and I'll replace them anyway, but I doubt that would add a lot of drag. However changing the tension made a big difference, so maybe its still too tight. This was 1 am and my enthusiasm was rapidly declining.

Will disconnect the motor and belts, spin the tranny by hand and see how much drag there is. I'm reluctant to open the it up. My mechanical skills arn't that good, so might not be able to put it back together. I have no idea on the state of the internals or what to do for it. Nor do I know who might be able to service it - auto mechanic?