Seneca Falls 9" Lathe

Any time , there is so little known about these lathes any info we have needs to be spread around or documented on forums like these .
You may want to spend some time over here on the Practical Machinist Forums . I did a quick search for Seneca falls star lathe & came up with these , probably get more / different ones if ya did the same search but left the " star "out .
https://www.practicalmachinist.com/forum/search/1306934/?q=seneca+falls+star+lathe&o=relevance I know theres folks there that still have these lathes . If you post there I'd post on the Antique Machinery & History . I bet in the last 10 years I've seen maybe 10 Seneca Falls lathe for sale . I seem to recall reading that the South Bend 9" lathes were manufactured in your neck of the woods under the Hercules brand .
Lots of experience there & some real nice guys .
I'll answer anything i can

animal
 
animal12 said:
Have fun with your new machine . Mine was owned by a uncle that used it in his gun smithing business .
safety glasses
animal
Click to expand...
Hey Animal12, I’m hoping you can help if you can please. I’m up to the point of rebuilding the spindle and getting a new chuck. On the main spindle, do you know what gaskets I should be using. Currently I’m getting 0.3mm deflection which I feel is an extreme amount and can hear movement of the spindle internally when I deflect. I’m wondering if I use thinner gaskets will it eliminate this. The rear bearing is not the greatest either. If I tights the 2 screws on the rear bearing shells or the cover it seizes the spindle. Any info would be amazing thank you.
 
There are no gaskets between the headstock body and the bearing caps. There should have been a stack of shims the same shape as the bearing cap. They are removed one (or more) at a time to maintain the proper clearance as the bearing material wears. The best was to determine how many shims are needed is to get some Plasitgauge at a local auto parts store.


Tear off a piece and put it on top of the spindle shaft. Replace the bearing cap and torque to the proper spec. Remove the cap and use the gauge on the package to determine the clearance. Add shims and repeat the process until you get the spindle to rotate freely without vertical play.

In all likelihood you'll have to make your own shims or find some from an antique auto parts store. Here's an example of some used on a model T. This set is .003" thick.

Model T Connecting rod shim set, 3027

Model T Ford Connecting rod shim set Year: 1909-1927, 3027
www.modeltford.com www.modeltford.com

There are other thicknesses available. If I remember correctly, they were originally available as thin as .0005". I used a set of 1927-1951 GM rod shims for my 1916 Seneca Falls lathe.

www.ebay.com

NOS GM Connecting Rod Shims 3692517 For 1927-51 | eBay

There are NOS Connecting Rod Bearing Shim Set. Item number 3692517. They fit Al Chevrolet 1927 thru 1951. I have 6 set of 2 in each envelope. All envelopes are still sealed but two were open for pictures.
www.ebay.com
 
projectnut said:
There are no gaskets between the headstock body and the bearing caps. There should have been a stack of shims the same shape as the bearing cap. They are removed one (or more) at a time to maintain the proper clearance as the bearing material wears. The best was to determine how many shims are needed is to get some Plasitgauge at a local auto parts store.


Tear off a piece and put it on top of the spindle shaft. Replace the bearing cap and torque to the proper spec. Remove the cap and use the gauge on the package to determine the clearance. Add shims and repeat the process until you get the spindle to rotate freely without vertical play.

In all likelihood you'll have to make your own shims or find some from an antique auto parts store. Here's an example of some used on a model T. This set is .003" thick.

Model T Connecting rod shim set, 3027

Model T Ford Connecting rod shim set Year: 1909-1927, 3027
www.modeltford.com www.modeltford.com

There are other thicknesses available. If I remember correctly, they were originally available as thin as .0005". I used a set of 1927-1951 GM rod shims for my 1916 Seneca Falls lathe.

www.ebay.com

NOS GM Connecting Rod Shims 3692517 For 1927-51 | eBay

There are NOS Connecting Rod Bearing Shim Set. Item number 3692517. They fit Al Chevrolet 1927 thru 1951. I have 6 set of 2 in each envelope. All envelopes are still sealed but two were open for pictures.
www.ebay.com
Click to expand...
From what I recall, cigarette package cellophane is about .0005” thickness, notebook paper is about .0035” , and so on. Can be used for shim material since it is trapped between two surfaces, (static).
 
Theres some good advise offered here . Your headstock is larger than the one on my lathe . Heres a tube on doing the spindle adjustment for a South Bend lathe
. If theres a machine tool shop in your area they should have shim stock or I bought this from Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00065UX3I/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 though it's doubled in price since I got my pack . It would probably be handy to have some shim stock thinner than 0.001 for the fine tuning . Like mentioned get some plastigauge & be prepared to R & R the bearing caps many times till you get the results your after . You also want to make sure that your using a quality spindle oil . You have to have some gap between the spindle & the plain bearings cause there needs to a place for the oil to be the oil is what the spindle really runs on . On my lathe the left side bearing assembly had a threaded washer like piece that was used to adjust the endplay in the spindle . I'm thinking you may want the end play adjustment set before you start dialing in the spindle clearance . Im not sure just how long paper would last if used for a shim when I took my headstock apart the cap mating surfaces were soaked in oil . I can't recall what the clearance's were for my South Bend . I suggest you join the Practical Machinist forum & ask in the antique forum https://www.practicalmachinist.com/forum/categories/antique-machinery-and-history.19/ . Free to join thousands of years experience there & there several folks that either own or owned a Seneca Falls lathe . Just don't mention any hobby brands or if you beg for forgiveness . Heres a tube where a guy makes a new spindle bearing , I haven't watched the whole video but it looks from what I did see there might be some good info there . Not sure this was any help , hopefully it is .
animal12
 
Thanks heaps everyone, you have been a wealth of information that’s for sure. Had no idea plastiguage even existed..

Regarding the clearance of the spindle and spindle cap, what should I be looking for size wise as a rough idea.
 
From what I've read .001-.002 seems to be the zone . Did ya watch the video of the guy doing his South Bend lathe ? Do the lift test till you get something in this range . Like i said make sure ya have good spindle oil . Once ya have it in this range run the lathe & keep a real close eye on the temp of yer bearing caps . They should not be getting HOT , in the warm to touch seems to be the consensus . I suppose that if ya want it to have tighter clearance ya could decrease the shims .by .0005 , I believe that the thinest shim stock out there these days . If ya do decide to do so like i said keep a eye on yer bearing cap temps . If ya don't have a multi channel temp meter theres a bunch like this one on line , be nice if ya had access to a nice one to check the calibration of these cheap imports .
good luck
animal12
 
When I adjusted mine I kinda just went by what seemed right. If it gets hot it’s definitely too tight, one or two thousandths is probably right. I used plastigauge on engine rebuilds but never thought of using it here.

I enjoyed my Star lathe, got to leave it right where it was setup when we sold the house. Hopefully the new owner aand his daughters make good use of it.

John
 
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