Project: My "Big Nards" - Nardini Nodus 1760 Lathe

Yesterday, I finished up my tool-less toolpost mount. Now every adjustment on the lathe (except for the chuck and tool holders) is tool-free!

I made a snug T-nut, ordered a 5/8 setup stud, and turned a bushing.
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I used red loctite to secure the stud.
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And Bob's your uncle!
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I want to take a moment to share with you where so much of the magic happens. No, it's not the boudoir, but it is under a blanket. A Russian-made flaxen fire blanket! Such mystery, such provocation! Such unfinished walls!
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It's a HF parts washer, complete with genuine 1990's contingency stickers. I've owned this thing for awhile, like since I was 20. It gets a solid green light for HF tools.
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What's the big deal, anyway? Well, it's one of my most heavily used tools, and people like photos. Let's look under the hood:
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Okay, no surprises there. But if you've never seen the inside of a parts washer, now you have.

Here's the tip of the month: Buy only washing solvent for cleaning parts, never fuel. Fuel is full of rank stinky toxic junk because it's end of pipeline cut. It doesn't need to be pure for any reason. Cleaning solvent, aka stoddard solvent, is highly refined compared to kerosene, white gas, lamp oil, or whatever cockamaime hillbilly stuff your grandpa used. It's made for workers to hand wash parts with, so it is low odor, dries clean, and is generally pure straight chain hydrocarbon chains with around 8 to 12 carbons, no branching, no cyclics, no heteroatoms. Because of that, it is very low toxicity, with the 8-hour exposure limit way up around 600 ppm. For a 12 carbon chain, that equates to like 3 grams per cubic meter. With a vapor pressure around 5 mm Hg, it only evaporates when heated. Washed parts dry in the sunlight and leave no oily residue. The capacity for 5 gallons of solvent is unreal, I've cleaned numerous junkyard transmissions, engines, pumps, gearboxes, on and on, and still don't notice much degradation in performance. It lasts for several years, and disposes as waste oil. So it really pays for itself in the long run.

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I have always hated using my parts washer because of the stink of kerosene that I used. So much so that I stopped using it.
Thanks for giving me an alternative!
 
Buy only washing solvent for cleaning parts, never fuel.

I have always hated using my parts washer because of the stink of kerosene that I used.
About 6 years ago I started using low odour Varsol for my parts washer. Far less toxic, almost no fumes, very high flash point, and, before Covid, cheaper than the old Varsol. Works as good or better at dissolving grease.

Use Washing solvent if you can find it. But you can as an alternative get the low odour Varsol at Can tire if you need it $8.50/gal ;) . Look up the MSDS for it. Very much better than kerosene or old Varsol.
 
About 6 years ago I started using low odour Varsol for my parts washer. Far less toxic, almost no fumes, very high flash point, and, before Covid, cheaper than the old Varsol. Works as good or better at dissolving grease.

Use Washing solvent if you can find it. But you can as an alternative get the low odour Varsol at Can tire if you need it $8.50/gal ;) . Look up the MSDS for it. Very much better than kerosene or old Varsol.
Thanks!
This stuff right?
 
That's good stuff there. It might be a tiny bit lighter than parts cleaner, but that is a pure product. Light fraction distillates bands very closely to Stoddard. It might smell a little more like petroleum naphtha. Not a bad price for a retail outlet and loony dollars.
 
The Nardini has a precision feed stop system for long and cross traverse. The carriage stop hits a plunger that, through a series of tuned linkages, kicks out the drive. The cross feed is the same drive system with a similar plunger linked to the same kickout system. So, having the carriage stop is an important part of that system, and mine was broke. It looks like a decent brazing job as far as strength, but the part is twisted and the dimensions grew where the joint had gap- in other words, it's junk because it does not align with the ways any more.

I started with a 2"x3" chunk of hot rolled A36. It came from a metal recycler in Texas. I checked them out with the spy in the sky, looks to me like they were pouring it on site. Had no idea what to expect, other than the A36 performance specification (which is fine for this use). I did not know how it would machine or how uniform it would be.

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It's hip to be square, so said Huey Lewis, and the Tower of Power was backing the man up, so it's hard to disagree.

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You only get one picture of the mill work, because I don't think about my camera while I'm working. The steel machined wonderfully, it was very nice to work with.

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Quick and dirty blue job!

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And... close enough!

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