Clausing 5900 bed twist.? Or not

[Bob Korves]

Umm what did I miss? that's not an Atlas..
good job on the cleanup Tim, I bet there's lots of life left in that bad boy

My mistake. In his footer to his posts it says 618 lathe. The lathe in question is obviously not a 618. Must be an earlier acquisition.

 

[Tim9]

Yes Bob.... my first lathe I purchased was a 618. Good little lathe that got my foot in the door.
This is my Clausing 12” lathe. A real lathe.
Eeler1...it really did look rough. When I got it I just sprayed it down with liquid wrench and used a stainless soft bristle toothbrush to loosen the surface rust. Wiped it down.... sprayed with lanolin/ mineral spirits and stored in a shed covered with tarp for 2 years.
The guy I bought it from said he was using it until the motor started making noise. I was really worried about the delrin vari-drive bushing and sheeve. The green delrin was intact and the sheeve was in good shape. I replaced the bushing for good measure and replaced both bearing in the motor. Have replaced both belts and made most all adjustments per the manual.
After pulling lathe out of storage I used a razor blade and WD-40 to clean all the bed ways, compound and cross feed carriage.
The razor blade and some Scotch-brite really cleaned up everything nicely. There was no deep pitting... only some surface discoloring.
I really lucked out with this lathe. It has cleaned up nicely. There’s not much wear on the bed or the acme screws. It’s actually a late model 5900.... built @1971.
It’s in great shape compared to my South Bend lathes.
I really have to soon sell one of my SB 9” lathes. I have 2 South Bend 4-1/2 foot bed model A lathes.... need to get rid of one of them.

Anyway.... I made a small test cut yesterday. Cut a small 3/4” test bar.... @ 6” long extended out of 3-jaw chuck....4140 steel. After cutting it was within .001 of an inch. Considering I haven’t adjusted carriage shims yet nor have I finished letting the bed settle as per Bob’s recommendation.... I think I’m really going to enjoy using this Clausing 5903 lathe.

 

[Tim9]

Thanks mmcmdl. The 5903 is a nice lathe. I kind of thought about replacing my single phase motor with a 3-phase motor but after replacing all my hydraulic seals and getting the Vari-drive working as designed.... I’m ok with it. Longer bed would be nice but for that odd job I run into needing a longer bed... I still have my 36” between centers South Bend 9” model A lathe. So I’m okay..
Next project will be getting the Burke Millrite out of storage and giving it a one over. It’s a three phase and I’ll be putting a VFD on it. All in all things are shaping up.

 

[mmcmdl]

My VFD arrived today . I'm going to wire up the Atlas 3996 first so I can sell it to make some room . I still need to bring things up from both basements into the garage . If the VFD works correctly I'll be needing 2 more . I keep asking myself " how hard can it be " to wire these things up ? ( then I remember the story about the color blind bomb technician ) You have a nice lathe there , mine was running when I pulled it out of work , so I'm guessing it will fire right up if I can figure out the VFD .

 

[chips&more]

Nice lathe! I would remove those razor blades and do as Bob suggested and let it settle in. And make sure you are not referencing from worn areas with the level and getting false findings...Dave

 

[Tim9]

I have made sure that the level reads same from multiple locations.. the bed really doesn’t have much wear. The crossfeed screw has no noticeable wear and crossfeed nut only slightly worn.
I will take out razor blades soon and relevel the lathe feet.