Buying a new lathe

[GaryK]

I had a bunch of drive dogs that I used on my old Atlas lathe and I kept them when I sold it.



The problem was, the legs are too short for my face place and I didn't want to buy a drive plate if I didn't have to.
So my solution was to just mill a slot in my face plate.



I didn't realize that the pins in a D1 back were screwed in. At least they are this face plate.
You can imagine the time I had pulling them straight out, huh? :angry:



Anyway, all is well and the slot works perfectly. I still have the standard slots to add weight for balance if I ever need it.

 

[darkzero]

Good job on the faceplate.

Yeah the cam pins are always threaded. That allows for adjusting height for proper lock up & the adjustment is held in place by the socket cap screw. They're also supposed to have play to allow the cams to lock on properly. They should be adjusted so the line or mark on the cam drive falls between the two arrows on the spindle. Generally the line on the pins can be used for a rough reference (lines up with the face) & then go from there. The first thing I do on anything mounting to the spindle is remove the pins, clean & deburr them, then adjust for proper lock up.

 

[darkzero]

I have always kept a piece of wood on the ways whenever I do any chuck changes or repairs to protect them incase of a mishap. Good thing too. I think I am going to make a wood cradle before I do much more lifting of the 4 jaw.

I've busted/damaged each wrist more than once and on some days, the 4J stirs-up aches & pains.

I forgot to mention earlier. Another advantage of a direct mount 4-jaw chuck, beside less overhang, is the lighter weight. The stock four jaw with the backplate was not fun moving around. Since the direct mount has no back plate reducing weight, it exposes the casting of the chuck which allows you to get a nice firm grip on it with your hands.

 

[tripletap3]

I forgot to mention earlier. Another advantage of a direct mount 4-jaw chuck, beside less overhang, is the lighter weight. The stock four jaw with the backplate was not fun moving around. Since the direct mount has no back plate reducing weight, it exposes the casting of the chuck which allows you to get a nice firm grip on it with your hands.

You beat me to it Will. I was going to ask that question about the advantage-disadvantage of a direct mount chuck. Thanks. The only thing I have owned on a lathe is a treaded spindle so all the D1 stuff is new to me.

 

[GaryK]

Finally got the 1/2"-13 tap in the mail so I can finish my base. It wouldn't flex enough to level the lathe so I had to add .050" of shims in one corner. No big deal.

It's done now. It really makes it more stable. It may not look like much but it's twice the footprint depth wise.

 

[GaryK]

Well after finally getting my lathe on it's base and level I can finally do some work.

The first thing I wanted to do is to adapt a grizzly 5C collet closer. That amounted making an threaded adapter for the spindle in the PM1236.

I got it all mounted and had to modify the cover by opening up the hole so that I could take it off without unscrewing the adapter I made. I also added
a small 1" hole for the pivot point on the closer.




To remove it I just have to remove the screw and pull it out.

It has some quirks I have to iron out, but it seems to work.



I had to angle the handle down since the pulleys were in the way.

 

[Ray C]

Nice! Collets are a good thing -do a lot of work with them since many jobs I get are on existing shafts that are fairly true but have no centering holes and/or I can't divot the sides to mount with a dog. Fortunately most are between 1" and 1-1/8" too... I get the odd one that's over 1-1/8 and need to fight with jawed chucks to hold it straight. Usually, I'm rebuilding the threads on outboard motor prop shafts after doing a build-up and re-thread or conversion to a different attachment method.

BTW: The PM bench is OK but, I think that lathe would benefit from being bolted to 500lbs of cast iron. That's my guess. When I have to make a long shaft from scratch, I get some noise marks going past the 18" mark and every bone in my body says it's from the light side moving a tiny bit. -Not a real problem worth crying over. Been thinking of beefing-up that bench but it's not as easy as I wish it were. Still thinking of the best way to do it but haven't thought long/hard enough. How bout you, any ideas?

 

[GaryK]

BTW: The PM bench is OK but, I think that lathe would benefit from being bolted to 500lbs of cast iron. That's my guess. When I have to make a long shaft from scratch, I get some noise marks going past the 18" mark and every bone in my body says it's from the light side moving a tiny bit. -Not a real problem worth crying over. Been thinking of beefing-up that bench but it's not as easy as I wish it were. Still thinking of the best way to do it but haven't thought long/hard enough. How bout you, any ideas?

If I really wanted to beef it up I would continue with that base up making a box with the upper part sandwiched between the stand boxes at each end and the chip tray.
Then bolt it to the floor. No shims required there ) You'd have to run into it with a car to move it!

 

[GaryK]

I have added a new addition to my lathe last night. I still have to Black Oxide part of it though.

I've added an permanent carriage lock. The problem in the start was the DRO scale cover was too close to the hole. What I did to move it was replace the two SHCS screws with pan head screws.
Then I slotted the two holes in the cover and carved out a section to clear the compound. This still kept the minimum clearance around the scale but gave me the room i needed. I drilled a hole for the bolt
off center and cut flats on the sides for the room I needed on the lock. See the pictures.




You might be thinking to yourself that I have gone crazy with all the red ball handles, huh? Well, I ordered 4 of them in two different sizes so used them. )

They do make great targets for the eye, and are very comfortable to the hand.

 

[sanddan]

Do you have a link for those knobs?

Thanks
Dan