Lee Alkureishi
05-29-2012, 4:15 PM
Hi all,
Continuing the trend of picking up gems from craigslist, today I found this for $50. I couldn't believe everything he was giving me with it, so I didn't even bother trying to haggle (unheard of for me!).
Here's what I got:
- Seneca Falls cast iron lathe bed, headstock and tailstock, all in perfect working order (no model number on this puppy though). I think it was originally a metal lathe.
- Shop made (or repurposed) wood lathe 4" tool rest
- Spindle adapter - not sure what size, but it's bigger than my 1" 8tpi so I'm guessin 1 1/8". The original spindle on the headstock is massive...
- Dunlap 1/3hp motor
- 2 link belts
- morse taper adapter (the original morse taper is huge. The adapter brings it down to a MT2, I think)
- A bunch of accessories - From left to right: spindle adapter, 2 faceplates, 3 drive centres, a point centre (what's that for?), no idea what the plate/screw is for, then a collet of some kind, a wingnut and a couple of washers. Haven't investigated what the wooden riser fits onto yet.
Needless to say:
1) I'm very excited
2) I have about 3,500 questions
I'll try to limit myself! Any advice is much appreciated.
- Are there any pitfalls to using a metal lathe such as this for wood turning? From what I read, the issues are only if you're planning to mix wood and metal turning on the same lathe (I'm not), and the making of the tool rest (1 already made, and it's fairly simply made so I'm sure others could easily be fabricated)
- I'm pretty sure the motor is underpowered at 1/3 hp. I'd like to upgrade the motor, and might start by fitting my 1.5hp DC treadmill motor, to see how that works (sorry to my other lathe!). If I decide to go the AC motor route, though, how much motor could a lathe like this take? It seems like it's the sturdiest lathe I've seen in person, so I'm thinking it could probably handle say a 2hp AC motor?
- The headstock has 11" swing on the inboard side. On the outboard side, I'm pretty sure it has a morse taper but none of the tapers I have (including the new ones) fit it. There are no threads on the outboard side, but there is a small threaded hole in the outboard spindle. I'm guessing this is to stop an outboard turning from flying off? That would be very nice! If that's the case, what would be the best way to support tools? An external floor-standing tool rest, or one mounted to the same bench the lathe is on?
- short of buying every kind of morse taper and trying them, is there a better way of figuring out what's hiding inside the outboard side of the headstock spindle?
- If outboard turning is not an option, is there any reason not to turn the headstock around 180 degrees and use it as a dedicated bowl lathe? Obviously, I'd need to properly secure the original tailstock end to stop it tipping.
- there are a few knobs on the top of the headstock, and on top and bottom of the tailstock - I've no idea what these are for! One of them has a threaded portion - I'm thinking I could screw a light fixture onto that, to help with hollowing... :)
- the live centre on the tailstock looks like it's removable with a morse taper, but I can't seem to auto-eject it. Don't want to force it and risk ruining the tailstock mechanism. Can anyone offer any suggestions, or tell me whether it's supposed to be fixed?
- lastly, if anyone can help ID the remaining accessories in the picture, I'd appreciate it!
Thanks in advance,
Lee
Edit: After googling a bit, I'm thinking this is probably a stripped-down Seneca Falls "Star No. 5" lathe, 12"x36", as seen here (mods, if links aren't allowed please remove):
http://vintagemachinery.org/photoindex/detail.aspx?id=8185
Continuing the trend of picking up gems from craigslist, today I found this for $50. I couldn't believe everything he was giving me with it, so I didn't even bother trying to haggle (unheard of for me!).
Here's what I got:
- Seneca Falls cast iron lathe bed, headstock and tailstock, all in perfect working order (no model number on this puppy though). I think it was originally a metal lathe.
- Shop made (or repurposed) wood lathe 4" tool rest
- Spindle adapter - not sure what size, but it's bigger than my 1" 8tpi so I'm guessin 1 1/8". The original spindle on the headstock is massive...
- Dunlap 1/3hp motor
- 2 link belts
- morse taper adapter (the original morse taper is huge. The adapter brings it down to a MT2, I think)
- A bunch of accessories - From left to right: spindle adapter, 2 faceplates, 3 drive centres, a point centre (what's that for?), no idea what the plate/screw is for, then a collet of some kind, a wingnut and a couple of washers. Haven't investigated what the wooden riser fits onto yet.
Needless to say:
1) I'm very excited
2) I have about 3,500 questions
I'll try to limit myself! Any advice is much appreciated.
- Are there any pitfalls to using a metal lathe such as this for wood turning? From what I read, the issues are only if you're planning to mix wood and metal turning on the same lathe (I'm not), and the making of the tool rest (1 already made, and it's fairly simply made so I'm sure others could easily be fabricated)
- I'm pretty sure the motor is underpowered at 1/3 hp. I'd like to upgrade the motor, and might start by fitting my 1.5hp DC treadmill motor, to see how that works (sorry to my other lathe!). If I decide to go the AC motor route, though, how much motor could a lathe like this take? It seems like it's the sturdiest lathe I've seen in person, so I'm thinking it could probably handle say a 2hp AC motor?
- The headstock has 11" swing on the inboard side. On the outboard side, I'm pretty sure it has a morse taper but none of the tapers I have (including the new ones) fit it. There are no threads on the outboard side, but there is a small threaded hole in the outboard spindle. I'm guessing this is to stop an outboard turning from flying off? That would be very nice! If that's the case, what would be the best way to support tools? An external floor-standing tool rest, or one mounted to the same bench the lathe is on?
- short of buying every kind of morse taper and trying them, is there a better way of figuring out what's hiding inside the outboard side of the headstock spindle?
- If outboard turning is not an option, is there any reason not to turn the headstock around 180 degrees and use it as a dedicated bowl lathe? Obviously, I'd need to properly secure the original tailstock end to stop it tipping.
- there are a few knobs on the top of the headstock, and on top and bottom of the tailstock - I've no idea what these are for! One of them has a threaded portion - I'm thinking I could screw a light fixture onto that, to help with hollowing... :)
- the live centre on the tailstock looks like it's removable with a morse taper, but I can't seem to auto-eject it. Don't want to force it and risk ruining the tailstock mechanism. Can anyone offer any suggestions, or tell me whether it's supposed to be fixed?
- lastly, if anyone can help ID the remaining accessories in the picture, I'd appreciate it!
Thanks in advance,
Lee
Edit: After googling a bit, I'm thinking this is probably a stripped-down Seneca Falls "Star No. 5" lathe, 12"x36", as seen here (mods, if links aren't allowed please remove):
http://vintagemachinery.org/photoindex/detail.aspx?id=8185