[Lathe] 16" Von Wyck Machine Tool Co.

jkucukov

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Hello, I’m a new here and would like to learn more about my recent purchase, I bought a 16” Lathe made by Von Wyck Machine Tool Co. I found the lathe on a local listing and decided it was time for a new project, after seeing it in person it got me pretty excited :). Here is the lathe as we were off loading in to the shop. It was one heavy lathe, moved it with two 3 ton jacks, took the two of us nearly 3 hours.


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Little bit about the lathe, it was built September 5th 1911, it came with a 6 speed Turner Unidrive and a 3hp Baldor single phase motor (1140 rpm). It came with original gear cover along with a spare bracket and couple extra gears (seen on last photo).

So far the only bad is the drive gears are missing a few teeth, I plan on sourcing equivalent parts.

The plan is to clean/paint the machine, bring it to working order and see what potential it has.

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Can somebody tell me the purpose of these adjustment screws on top of the Babbitt bearings, how do you work them and how do you tell if the bearings need servicing?
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Also, can somebody tell me if the chuck and its 4 bolt adapter are screwed on the shaft? I’d like to replace the chuck with a Bison self-leveling jaw chuck and need to get an adapter plate, it would make my life easier if it the old chuck is mounted on a threaded back plate.
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What a great find! How deep into the restoration process are you planning to go? I like the lines of that lathe and if found to have reasonably sound mechanics, I might be inclined to do a total restoration on this one.

Based solely on the OD of the chuck adapter, I would bet a few dollars that it's a screw on. I would unbolt the chuck and see if I could confirm that by looking through the spindle bore.

Regarding those adjustment screws, I take it we're discussing the two slotted head (brass?) screws sitting inside the bearing cap bolts? I don't think I've encountered that arrangement before, with most all babbitt-bearing machines I've been around having some type of entry point for oil in this location. Either oil cups, a drip oiler, or something along these lines are what I'd expect to see here. My question would be that if these screws aren't somehow related to oiling the spindle bearings, then HOW does one keep oil supplied to those bearings? Interesting setup. Have you removed one of the screws to see what's on the other end, down in the hole, etc?
 
Not a lot of surviving Von Wyck lathes around. The company was short lived because Emil Von Wyck
committed suicide at his desk one day. But the lathes are very well made and were used primarily in
the automotive manufacturing business.

http://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/von-wyck-lathe-circa-1903.1877/

I no long have this lathe in my possession but I lived with it for 30 years so maybe I can help. But...
mine is an earlier 15x60 10 speed back-geared machine with change gears.

You need to do some more (and better) photos showing the front of the carriage with all the controls.
As well as the back gear set-up. You can lock the spindle by loosening the bolt on the bull gear and
sliding it over and tightening it. You leave the back-gear lever in place and the spindle will be locked
so you can unscrew the chuck. My spindle was 2 1/8x6. I have no idea if yours will be the same but
I'd hazard a guess that it might be. You can use a pry bar against the partially open jaws on the chuck
to unscrew it if its overly tight. Might take some muscle so a 3 foot pry bar wouldn't be too much.

You have two stud gears: 24 and 48. In the photo of the gear train yours has the 48 tooth stud gear
in place. For a finer feed you'll want the 24 tooth. Nice to have a quick-change gear box but I got
very used to the change gears.

My old green machine had ball bearing spindle bearings. Former owner said they were Ferguson tractor
bearings.

I count only 4 steps on your pullies. Mine had 5 so it was a 10 speed. Do some more photos!

Dutch
 
Pix of spindle. I had a set of 5NS collets adapted to the lathe. I made a collect adapter and had a 1.5" clutch collet holding
a piece of brass. You can see the grease seal and grease leaking out around the spindle.

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Cool old lathe. Your broken gear teeth could be brazed up and re-cut. There are some videos out there on the process. Mike
 
Nice old lathe. It will be interesting to see this restored. You have a good project ahead.
 
Thanks for all your reply guys, I appreciate it!

Ghostdncr, I didn't dare to peak down those bras looking adjustment screws that sit on top of the Babbitt bearings before I knew more about them. They seem to have a spring loaded collar, I will take some better photos of them. The assembly spins free and I didn't notice any shaft play by hand. But for sure there has to be an oiling access.

Dutch, thanks to you I joined the forum, I did see your post last week when I was doing research on the lathe before picking it up. If I didn't get your attention from this post I would have for sure sent you an email :)
This weekend I will get some better photos of the carriage & controls, I plan on diving into it this weekend. How do you measure 2 1/8x6 spindle thread? Does the chuck unscrew counterclock wise?

I do like the idea of having a leather belt coming from output shaft instead of having 4 V-belts.

The lathe has some battle scars that it accumulated over the years on the controls that I hope are not major and did not affect the gearing behind it. Anything on the lathe was so heavy, I needed help just getting the tailstock of the bed.
 
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I went to the shop today and attempted to remove the chuck, I tried following your steps but the bull gear keeps slipping out with the locking gear engaged while attempting to rotate the chuck ccw. I took some apron photos20170316_182024.jpg 20170316_184347.jpg 20170316_182031.jpg
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I also figured out the brass fittings on top of bearing end caps were in fact spring loaded oil access ports, and it looks like the bearings are brass 20170316_182749.jpg 20170316_182800.jpg
Could somebody tell me the oiling interval and the type of oil to use on these type of brass bearings?

I dissasembled the tool post and noticed the indexing feature is missing, are those hard to come by? I cant seem to find a brand on this tool post.
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also the part that slides in has two alen screws to level the base in place, does this seem it would be secure, it seems like a tight lateral fit.20170316_184501.jpg
 
Use 30w motor oil. Every time you fire it up give all the oil ports a squirt. At this stage of the game in the life of that lathe you can do very little to hurt it.

On the front of the apron you'll see small holes. Those are oil ports. Put the oil can nozzle up to those holes and let loose a couple pumps of the can. Your apron looks to be different only because yours has those feed adjustments in the lower left side. The round knurled knob in the center is the cone clutch. I took the apron off my lathe once because I had to cut a new keyway in the feed rod... all 8 feet of it. Wish I'd take pictures then. The cone clutch is cast iron about 8 inches in diameter. Ground surface and on mine was just beautiful finish. Not a flaw in the clutching surfaces.

Your lathe has MULTIPLE means of adjusting the FEED rod DIRECTION. When working close to the chuck you can get in trouble faster than you can react. Trust me:). The feed rod direction control is that doo-dad that does from right to left and has detents. Just at the 8 o'clock position from the half-nut control on the right side. But depending on how you have the OTHER controls fixated you can run things backwards and when you shift the apron direction to the right the carriage will go LEFT.

On the far left outboard spindle side where all the gears are.... That lever that goes up and down controls RIGHT and LEFT threading. In other words, it TOO controls the carriage direction when the half-nut is engaged. Threading is done off the leadscrew not the feed rod.

Below that are two gears stacked together. The larger one is driven by those directional gears. The outside smaller one is your STUD gear. Reading your threading chart it shows FOUR stud gears: 24, 48, 72 and 80. Its pretty self explanatory that you'd install a certain stud gear to get the desired thread. You also adjust the quick-change gear box to the appropriate position. I don't see a threading dial??
 
On your apron underneath the cross-slide control is a knob-like thing that pulls out and pushes in.

That is the cross-slide power feed control. For it to work you have to loosen the clutch so the power goes from the feed rod to the cross-slide. The cone clutch controls only the carriage movement right or left on the bed. The DIRECTION control for the cross-slide is that same right-left control for the carriage but when the clutch is dis-engaged it controls the power feed direction of the cross-slide. (hope I got that right!).
 
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