14X54 American Pacemaker

More scraping, sanding, applying filler today.
I got the electrical switches removed as I'm making my way around to the front of the headstock.
After the second coat of primer I got the first color top coat on the inside of the bed.

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Wowwee that's a big lathe! Very cool, I'll be watching this one progress. I don't like all the sanding and filler stuff either, and I'm a wood worker. That is one of the reasons I didn't fill my south bend when I restored it, it came out fine with a heavy prime coat on the real rough castings and two good coats brushed on the rest. To each their own, I don't think that there really is a right or wrong way to do it. Just do it!
 
Man, you don't mess around. It usually takes me about six weeks before I'm ready to do any painting. That's going to be some sweet old iron when you get done. Thanks for rescuing her!
 
Before I go any further, let me address what I am doing to this lathe. I am NOT restoring this lathe. The ways and all the wearing surfaces are what they are and I will make no attempt to bring them back to new.

I AM going to disassemble this lathe as far as I have to, to insure that all the mechanical parts are sound, cleaned, well lubricated, and that the lathe will function as designed. I will clean and lubricate everything and give the machine a new coat of paint. I refer to the whole process as "Freshening Up"

Now that you know what I am actually doing, let me tell you what I got done in the last few days.
The weekend had a full social calendar of events but I did manage to sneak a few hours here and there and continue scraping and sanding. With just a very small area remaining to be scraped, all of the green paint is gone. I got a coat of primer on the outside of the bed. I scored a Dynabrade D/A sander that hooks up to a vacuum that catches 95% of the dust it creates and it works great. The only paper I have for it is 180 grit so I still have to do a fair amount of hand sanding but the D/A does a great job of getting it ready for primer.

I pulled off the end covers and all the access covers. I have taken anything that will fit to work with me and put in our big blast cabinet and sand blasted them. I have about 2 more days of sanding and then I will be ready to prime the rest of the machine. I sometimes have to reel myself in and remember that this is just a machine tool and not a show car that will be judged on the concours. I'm really eager to start tearing into the saddle and apron but I have to stay focused on getting the bulk of the machine cleaned and painted first, I hope to have it done by the end of next weekend.

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There's not much going on at work so I took a 1/2 day off today and made some serious progress.
I finished sanding the bulk of the lathe and have the first coat of primer on it. If the primer is cured tomorrow I hope to get a second coat on it.

Looking forward the saddle is next. It weighs about 250#s and I'm not sure if I want to work on it on the floor but every table I have that is sturdy enough to hold it is occupied with some other project of some sort so I may have to do some re-arranging.
 
The headstock and bed are done. The two big end covers on the headstock end are the last of the big pieces to get sanded and painted. I have many other small parts in various stages of primer or paint spewn all over the shop.

Today I hope to get the saddle torn down and start cleaning it. There are many oil galleries and passages that will need to be flushed and cleaned. I also want to do a good inspection of the cross feed screw.

This should be one of the first real good weather days we have had since last fall so I know there will be some domestic chores competing with shop time so I'll just have to see how much I can get done.

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Wow, this thing is really coming along nice! I am enjoying following along with your progress, thanks for the pics and updates.
P.S. That monarch in the back ground aint to shabby looking either!
 
P.S. That monarch in the back ground aint to shabby looking either!

The Monarch was the small lathe I bought to replace the South Bend

I bet that tail stock will give you popeye arms. ahahahaha

Actually the tailstock has a hand crank to move it back and forth, I'm too old for Popeye arms.


I'm still making progress. I finished sanding the last two biggest castings today and got a coat of primer on them.
The oil sight glasses were shot and I had to find something to replace them with, I bought some clear thin wall hose and slit it length wise and used it for the sight glass. Most all of the ball oillers on this lathe have seen better days so I am replacing them all, I found direct replacements at McMaster-Carr and they showed up today. I ordered drive screws to re-install all of the instruction and name plates that I removed but I got the wrong size and had to re-order, they should be here tomorrow.

I installed all of the covers that I had painted and got some more parts primed and ready for paint. I started working on getting the saddle cleaned up tonight but it looks like it is going to take some time to get 60 years of grime off the casting and get all of the oil passages cleaned up.

I'd like to think that I can finish this in 2 more weeks but I don't want to be too overly optimistic, I just need to stay focused and not get distracted.

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I spent some time on the saddle today. I got the cross feed screw, and the way wipers removed and started cleaning the crud. There was really a lot of gunk in all of the oil grooves and I was able to remove all the plugs in the oil passages.

I spent the better part of my time trying to figure out the best method to clean everything. Rubber gloves, a strong solvent, and a stiff nylon bristle brush seems to do the best, followed by hand sanding. I had a tough day at work today and basically ran out of steam tonight. I'll give it a good hit the next 2 days as I want to get the saddle done before my son goes back to school on Saturday so he can help me muscle the saddle back on the ways.

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