"wow.... great looking machine! That is really awesome!
Jeff - (hint hint... risers for the Delta 46-460)
Jon, not sure if he'll do 'em again, you'd have to ask him...
"Mike..........
What an awesome, awesome work you have done on this and Jeff Nicols...........wow! I have a Grizzly 18" swing lathe with the features you have added to yours..........and I would not be honest if I did not tell you that I would exchange for one like yours any day [I think?
]
That is a workhorse of a lathe, and the upgrade has you totally in turning nervanna!!! Great job on the sandblasting and paint as well. There should be some awesome turnings coming off that thing.................
Ride 'em cowboy!!!"
Roger, not so sure I'm willing to give her up. I'm hoping this is a lifetime lathe. But thanks for the offer.
"Great work by both! You would be the envy of all over on OWWM. A really professional looking restoration job. And Jeff, I think you could turn that into a full time business just building risers for people. I've seen a couple of riser jobs before and your work is better than all I've seen. Top notch bro!"
Brian, yeah, I had asked some questions over there, and had a lot of people asking for "finished" pics. I'll be posting this story over there...sans Jeff's name. He did this, in part, because I'm an SMC member. Not sure if he would have done it otherwise...And as for Jeff doing it full time...well, I think he has pretty full hands as it is.
David E Keller
"Congrats on getting her finished... Now, go get her dirty. The only truly happy lathe is a dirty lathe!"
David, I fully understand that, buuuuutttttt, I have to admit, I cringe when dust lands on it. Don't worry, though. I'll get her all messy in due time. Unfortunately, with my schedule over the next couple of weeks, I'm not even sure if I'll get a chance to saddle her up!
Rich Aldrich
"Mike - That's a great save! It sure looks nice. You can't beat a VFD on a lathe for out of balance control. The nice thing is that you know your lathe better than a lot of us do."
Rich, unfortunately, I know this lathe better than I care to. What I didn't mention was how, when taking the headstock apart for sandblasting, I had a heck of a time getting the innards out. When I did, I messed up the grease seal. So I ordered one from PM ($12+). I asked how to insert it, because it looked different than the original. The way the tech instructed me to put it in was backwards. I ended up ordering two more (juuuuuuust in case) but this time from Motion Industries (about
$2 a piece...same exact thing). When I was putting it all back together, I messed up, and put it back together before inserting it into the headstock.
So, I had to take it all apart again, ruining the grease seal, to put it back together in the PROPER order. Glad I ordered 2 from Motion Industries. Anyway, stuff like that...
And to everyone else that threw me "wow"s and "great job"s, thank you very much. I really do appreciate it.