Help! I'm stuck!

[Neal McCormick]

On my free lathe (see prior posting) the centers in both the headstock and tailstock are frozen in place. I'm guessing that the culprit is rust but cannot tell for sure. I sprayed the centers with WD-40 last night and left them to set for a while. I'm looking for suggestions on how to remove them. Both centers have approx 1/8" holes just behind the spur (headstock) and the cup (tailstock). Can I insert a bar through the hole and drive the taper out? I'd appreciate any suggestions! Thanks!

[Don Kisela]

Neal,

The headstock of that lathe is hollow, so if you raise the pulley cover (just to the left of the headstock- should be held down by a couple of wing nuts) and use a long piece of metal as an "ejection bar". I use a long screwdriver, insert it in the hole until it bottoms out on the morse taper of the spur drive, and then tap it. Your taps may have to get more and more "convincing" if it is really stuck.
Tailstock I am not so sure about. I am thinking you could insert a screwdriver into the hole just behind the center and retract the entire center with the hand crank. The screwdriver would act as a lever to unstick the taper...
Good luck,
Don

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Neal,

Soak the crap out of both of them with penetrating oil. When I recieved my lathe the drive center was stuck as well. Took about 5 good soaking of penetrating oil and about 10 GOOD raps with the hammer on a knockout bar before I could get it loose.

[Raymond Overman]

Get a bigger hammer! :)

Good Luck.

[Neal McCormick]

Thanks Guys! You confirmed what I was thinking. It is truly GREAT to have such a reference point for a newbie.

[Kurt Aebi]

If your tailstock does not have a hollow shaft all the way through, you can get in touch with a machinist and get a set of "Drift Wedges" (not sure if that iw what they are called), basically theya re wedges that fit over the live (or dead) center , but not over the full diamater of the taper and when squeezed together will pry out the center. This worked very well on the old Dunlap (Sears) lathe that I just recently restored. It took 2 cans of Liquid Wrench to free up all the frozen parts, but when you get a lathe for free, it's more than worth the effort.

Make sure that after you get everything freed up that you really clean things up well, so that you can use the tapers again.

Here's a picture of the one I just did.

[Jack Savona]

Neal, after soaking the joint on the tailstock with WD40 or anti-rust oil (spray some through the hole in the tailstock handle, if you can), try cranking the tailstock shaft IN as far as you can; then crank it in a little more. Usually that very last crank in will automatically force the live center out. I use that procedure all the time with mine when I'm hollowing out a bowl so I don't get a punctured elbow.

Jack Savona

[Neal McCormick]

Both the centers came out quite easily. Both the spindles are hollow so I was able to use a dowel and a very light tap and they both popped free. The tail center point was missing before I started so I'll pick up a new one (a live center seems more logical to me but I cannot explain why) at Woodcraft this weekend between my youngest daughter's soccer tournament games. Sunday we're off to visit the eldest daughter at college (GO BUCKS!) after soccer so there will be no chance to try my hand at it. There were 8
mid/full-size chisels (5 Buck Bros and 3 Luna) and about a dozen small ones (all Leichtung), and 3 faceplates in a box with the lathe. 3 of the Buck chisels appear to have never been used - they still have what appears to be wax on the business ends. I'm thinking that I'll try my hand at just cutting various shapes (cylinder, taper, cove, bead, etc) for a while until I get some feel for the process. Most likely I will sign up for a class at Woodcraft while I'm there. So your comments were true - I've not spun a thing and already it's costing me!! Thanks again for you assistance. And I owe you some pics. Enjoy the weekend!

[John Hart]

My 2 cents. I love brake cleaner for cleaning my tools. Penetrating oil first, then brake cleaner.

[Neal McCormick]

Mind if I ask where in Cleveland you are? I'm on the east side.

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Neal, glad to hear that they came out easily. As they say, now you know.

Good luck on the downhill slide! It is a fun one! :)

[John Hart]

Mind if I ask where in Cleveland you are? I'm on the east side.

Hi Neal
I'm on the Euclid border...185th street area....quiet neighborhood, brick streets, big trees. I have family in Chesterland. Nice little town....great place for a lathe!!

[Kurt Aebi]

Neal,

Brian Clifford in the UK has a real good web-site with an e-book for beginners along with a couple of video clips of how to perform a few cuts, check it out.

here's the link: http://www.turningtools.co.uk/

He does sell stuff as well, so I hope I haven't violated our TOS with the link? Is is okay Ken?

[Randy Meijer]

Not exactly on topic; but since it was mentioned in this thread.....what the heck??

My Dad....long gone now.....always used to have a can of penetrating oil around for "problems." I don't see it in the stores much anymore and have gotten in the habit of using WD-40 as a substitute. Is there something special about penetrating oil that makes a better alternative or is WD-40 or something else just as effective??

(I'm not a real fan of WD-40 as it is hard to get it where you want it and not everywhere else as well.)

[John Hart]

Randy...you'll find penetrating oil or sprays of every kind at auto parts stores. In the section for loosening bolts and stuff. It won't leave as much oil behind and works faster than WD-40. (In my humble opinion):rolleyes:

[Randy Meijer]

Thanks, John!!

[Blake McCully]

WD0-40 is actually a degreaser. It really shouldn't be used to attempt to lubricate items. During my bicycling days, I used WD-40 to clean my chain before I lubricated it.

Many uninitiated will use it to "lubricate" their chain. After a few miles the chain usually seizes up due to lack of lubrication.

Just my $0.02.

[Bruce Smith]

Neal nice to see that you got them removed without too much difficulty. I was also glad to see that you used a hardwood dowel as a drift punch and not a screwdriver as someone suggested. A steel screwdriver could very well damage the morse taper of the center and or the morse taper in the head and or tail stock, its best to use something soft like you did or better still a brass drift. One usually has to remove the morse taper centres from the head stock in this fashion. However many tail stocks have a feature built into them where as when you back up the tail stock quill and it reaches the end of its travel it strikes against a bumper that applies pressure to the morse taper centre and releases it. I'm not sure if you model has this feature if it doesn't then seems you will have to use the drift punch method. Perhaps it wouldn't hurt to clean out the morse tapers with a little fine steel wool and some lubricant, do not use emery cloth or sand paper as this will remove metal and score the tapers. Make sure the tapers are clean of foreign matter and dry before inserting the centers in other words no lubricant whats so ever. Hope this helps, and you enjoy your lathe.

[Kurt Aebi]

Get yourself a small can of "3 In One" Oil and use that as your general purpose lubricating oil and leave the WD-40, LPS or other brand for keeping things from getting rusty when sitting around or for cleaning as Blake mentioned or for freeing up rusted parts. I always spray my lathe parts that are going to sit for a long time between uses (scroll chucks, drill chucks, etc) with a light coat of WD-40 before storing them in the tool box (I do have silicone dessicants in the tool box, but can't be too careful - these things cost quite a bunch of cash).

[Neal McCormick]

That website was very informative. I started reading it last night by candel light after the power went out. You've been a great help!

In case the active link gets removed, here is a copy that you can cut and paste into your browser (which I believe is within the T&C's).

h t t p://www.turningtools.co.uk (remove the spaces in h t t p)