Rebuilding a lathe question ...

[Ron Smith ... Richmond, VA]

A fellow I know has an old Powermatic lathe in his shop. He says the bearings need replaced, and the guy he got to come look at it said it would cost more to repair than it would to fix it. Does this seem reasonable? Even if I had to replace the motor, wouldn't this be less than a new one? I don't know anything about pricing these things, but if I could get a good deal on the lathe, maybe I could get it repaired and into my new shop I'm building. Any advice from you folks that know about these things? Anyone know who to contact for more information? Thanks in advance.

[Jim Engel]

Ron,

Go to the Old Woodworking Machinery Forum

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/oldwwmachines/?yguid=126994

I purchased an old Walker Turner lathe and got a lot of
help; I doubt I could have gotten it running otherwise.

Warning: It seems, according to these experts, that
for my lathe the bearings are not made any more, so
if one burns out my lathe becomes just so much junk
metal.

If you can get new ones, replacing bearings is not
an impossible job. The problem is that machines that
have been sitting around for fifty some years
can be hard to disassemble.

Let us know what you find out, I am really interested.

[Wes Bischel]

Ron,

Jim has sent you in the right direction with OWWM. Note that the "mother ship" is owwm.com and has a lot of good info like the following link:

http://files.owwm.com/PDF/Powermatic/PM45b.pdf

Make sure it is just the spindle bearings and not the adjustable sheaves that are going bad. If you are willing to do the bearing replacement yourself, the costs usually are not bad. I've done it on my TS and BS so that's proof it isn't rocket science. If you are looking for someone else to do it, I would pass on it - unless it is a good friend.

Good luck - nice find (if it works out)

Wes

[Keith Outten]

There is almost always a replacement bearing available or a substitute if you visit a bearing supply business. I have a Delta TS that is so old it isn't in their database. When I visited Dixie Bearing to obtain new bearings the salesman told be that the original bearing had been out of stock for 50 years but he had a substitute that worked perfectly. The new bearings were 10 bucks.

[Steven Wilson]

Take a look at the entire drive assembly. If the sheaves for the speed adjustment are shot then you'll want to look at puting a 3 phase motor on it and a VFD for controlling the speed. You would also want to look at a 3 step pully function for major speed range adjustments. If it's the main bearings on the headstock replacement bearings are available IIRC. The OWWM site is a great source of information on restoring this machine. No matter how much work you put into the machine it will still be worth a maximum of $700-$900 with somewhat limited capacity, although the setup in the picture looks like it's set up with fairly decent spindle capacity. A bowl lathe it's not, the headstock really wasn't designed for much bowl turning capacity. If bowls are your thing I would look at a different lathe.

[Ron Smith ... Richmond, VA]

No matter how much work you put into the machine it will still be worth a maximum of $700-$900 with somewhat limited capacity, although the setup in the picture looks like it's set up with fairly decent spindle capacity. A bowl lathe it's not, the headstock really wasn't designed for much bowl turning capacity. If bowls are your thing I would look at a different lathe.

I'm really looking for something to do larger bowls on ... so I'll probably keep looking. Thanks everyone for your knowledge and advise.

Ron