Brian Weick
03-26-2007, 7:01 AM
Oliver 20C lathe Restoration
I was asked to start a new thread on this project so I decided to start today. There will be several updates on this and I hope that my post will help those that plan to restore their older machinery.
The year it was manufactured, approximately 1909 serial # 890
I never got back to the site and updated the answer to my question last year. Well ,I did it and bit the bullet- she has been in my shop for over a year now. she can do 20" over the carriage and 24" over the bed up to 106" in length and 84" on the outboard end. pivot headstock and offset turning along with the tail stock. weight 4,480lbs - getting it into my shop-"priceless" and it actually was not that bad, I had 2 , 6000 lb floor jacks and she moved very nice , getting out of RIT was a lot of maneuvering however. I have converted the 4 step flat belt to an s&K dbl v belt assembly - very smooth! Also updated the electronics-3hp induction motor, yawsaka 10hp vfd digital readout with all the bells and whistles- reverse, slow start up and infinite speed control.0-2500rpms.
the headstock is being removed, possibly this week - it is being converted from Babbitt bearings (they have to go- to sloppy(grease) and to much maintenance- they work fine, but to much maintenance and mess as i said before) going with a sealed IDC ball bearing setup. The shaft will be milled down from 2-1/4" down to 2.165 on the entire 30" shaft. This will not affect the 1-7/8" inboard threads or the 2-1/4" outboard threads for plate attachments as they will stop the machining up to the outboard threads. This will keep the overall appearance of the headstock and have a very high and reliable tolerance with shaft movement and functionality. I was contemplating having the ears on the headstock cnc'ed down to accept a flat plate and pillow blocks but changes the whole look of the 1909 lathe- I have seen it done on an American lathe on OWWM - it's ok - but not the original appearance of the lathe drive assembly.
It has a plate attachment for the carriage for a 3-1/4hp porter cable router to do fluted columns or any other design desired. An indexing plate will be permanently fixed to the shaft and can be adjusted in 1 degree increments/w locking on the index plate instead of pin whole- I wanted an infinite capability- not 5 degree steps. The carriage has interchangeable carving tools to accommodate any cutting that is desired.
currently in the process of having a linkage between the carriage and the headstock to accommodate spiral flutes in 1' increments depending on the length of a wood columns. When this final step is done it is being resurfaced and repainted in a battleship Grey or Hunter green with yellow lettering on any raised lettering. It is a pleasure to do work on this lathe - very high end results ~which is what I was after.
The Restoration:
Step One: Dismantling the lathe right down to the carriage insert plate adjustment screws. I used a chemical paint remover to remove all the paint from the lathe and any parts. The inside of the bed ways was never painted and dry as a bone. There was some minor surface rust that I had to clean up with a twisted wire rope wheel before I primed everything that was getting paint. Everything that was getting a paint application was cleaned with a 11,000 rpm twisted wire rope wheel attachment. That worked very well on cleaning the metal down to the cast iron along with the chemicals to strip the paint. I have a lot of pictures of this whole project but I have to downsize the quality of the pictures to upload them. I have tried to paste them write in this thread as I have seen others do but I am unable- How do you do that?:confused: I will posting processes as they progress on here.
I was asked to start a new thread on this project so I decided to start today. There will be several updates on this and I hope that my post will help those that plan to restore their older machinery.
The year it was manufactured, approximately 1909 serial # 890
I never got back to the site and updated the answer to my question last year. Well ,I did it and bit the bullet- she has been in my shop for over a year now. she can do 20" over the carriage and 24" over the bed up to 106" in length and 84" on the outboard end. pivot headstock and offset turning along with the tail stock. weight 4,480lbs - getting it into my shop-"priceless" and it actually was not that bad, I had 2 , 6000 lb floor jacks and she moved very nice , getting out of RIT was a lot of maneuvering however. I have converted the 4 step flat belt to an s&K dbl v belt assembly - very smooth! Also updated the electronics-3hp induction motor, yawsaka 10hp vfd digital readout with all the bells and whistles- reverse, slow start up and infinite speed control.0-2500rpms.
the headstock is being removed, possibly this week - it is being converted from Babbitt bearings (they have to go- to sloppy(grease) and to much maintenance- they work fine, but to much maintenance and mess as i said before) going with a sealed IDC ball bearing setup. The shaft will be milled down from 2-1/4" down to 2.165 on the entire 30" shaft. This will not affect the 1-7/8" inboard threads or the 2-1/4" outboard threads for plate attachments as they will stop the machining up to the outboard threads. This will keep the overall appearance of the headstock and have a very high and reliable tolerance with shaft movement and functionality. I was contemplating having the ears on the headstock cnc'ed down to accept a flat plate and pillow blocks but changes the whole look of the 1909 lathe- I have seen it done on an American lathe on OWWM - it's ok - but not the original appearance of the lathe drive assembly.
It has a plate attachment for the carriage for a 3-1/4hp porter cable router to do fluted columns or any other design desired. An indexing plate will be permanently fixed to the shaft and can be adjusted in 1 degree increments/w locking on the index plate instead of pin whole- I wanted an infinite capability- not 5 degree steps. The carriage has interchangeable carving tools to accommodate any cutting that is desired.
currently in the process of having a linkage between the carriage and the headstock to accommodate spiral flutes in 1' increments depending on the length of a wood columns. When this final step is done it is being resurfaced and repainted in a battleship Grey or Hunter green with yellow lettering on any raised lettering. It is a pleasure to do work on this lathe - very high end results ~which is what I was after.
The Restoration:
Step One: Dismantling the lathe right down to the carriage insert plate adjustment screws. I used a chemical paint remover to remove all the paint from the lathe and any parts. The inside of the bed ways was never painted and dry as a bone. There was some minor surface rust that I had to clean up with a twisted wire rope wheel before I primed everything that was getting paint. Everything that was getting a paint application was cleaned with a 11,000 rpm twisted wire rope wheel attachment. That worked very well on cleaning the metal down to the cast iron along with the chemicals to strip the paint. I have a lot of pictures of this whole project but I have to downsize the quality of the pictures to upload them. I have tried to paste them write in this thread as I have seen others do but I am unable- How do you do that?:confused: I will posting processes as they progress on here.