Hendey Lathe Refurbish

Great progress!
-brino
 
There is not a lot to show today... I prepped the headstock for paint and throwed a little primer at it...

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I also finished painting the lead screw end support bracket and got it installed...

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Tomorrow I plan to put the first coat of paint on the headstock... the second coat on Monday. By Wednesday it will be dry enough to assemble the feed reversing clutch and get it bolted to the lathe bed.

I will have to figure out a way to do that... I can lift it by hand (barely), but not easily enough to set it in place while engaging the clutch with the shift fork on the bed...

I don't have a lift that will fit in my basement, so I may have to come up with a way to hang it from the floor joists overhead...

IDK... I'll figure it out...

-Bear
 
This morning I put the first coat of paint on the headstock. While it dries, I'll be working on other parts of the lathe.

These old Hendey lathes have a number of oil ports on every part of the machine. I haven't counted them, but there must be 40 or more. They have plugs in them that are 7/16 inch steel balls with threaded studs that screw into the ports.

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There were a few missing on this lathe, and they were all missing on my 12" Hendey, so I decided to figure out the easiest way to make 50 of them, give or take a few.

I ordered a bag of 100 7/16" steel balls from McMaster... they were advertised as being 'mild steel, easy to machine'... ummm... they are easily machined after you get under the case hardening.

I clamped them in a pair of vise grips and ground a flat on them to get through the hard layer.

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Then I stuck the flat to a magnet...

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And used the magnet to locate the ball in a 7/16 collet in the lathe...

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After tightening the collet, I removed the magnet, leaving the ball clamped in the collet with the flat facing the tailstock.

I then drilled most of the way through the ball with a .136 drill.

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I went ahead and did 6.

The stud on these is threaded 1/4-24 tpi... I needed 1/4-24 threaded rod, but could not find a source for it. However, M6 x 1.0 is extremely close to 1/4-24, so I bought a piece of M6 all thread.

I chucked the all thread in the collet chuck and turned both ends to .135...

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This allows the ball to slip on...

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I then cut both ends off to the correct length for the stud and turned the other end of the pieces to finish the stud.

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I have 6 almost finished...

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Now I just have to JB Weld the studs into the balls and let them cure.

This was a lot quicker and easier than trying to turn these out of a solid piece, IMO.

6 down, several dozen to go...

-Bear
 
This morning I put the first coat of paint on the headstock. While it dries, I'll be working on other parts of the lathe.

These old Hendey lathes have a number of oil ports on every part of the machine. I haven't counted them, but there must be 40 or more. They have plugs in them that are 7/16 inch steel balls with threaded studs that screw into the ports.

View attachment 349681

There were a few missing on this lathe, and they were all missing on my 12" Hendey, so I decided to figure out the easiest way to make 50 of them, give or take a few.

I ordered a bag of 100 7/16" steel balls from McMaster... they were advertised as being 'mild steel, easy to machine'... ummm... they are easily machined after you get under the case hardening.

I clamped them in a pair of vise grips and ground a flat on them to get through the hard layer.

View attachment 349691

Then I stuck the flat to a magnet...

View attachment 349692

And used the magnet to locate the ball in a 7/16 collet in the lathe...

View attachment 349693

After tightening the collet, I removed the magnet, leaving the ball clamped in the collet with the flat facing the tailstock.

I then drilled most of the way through the ball with a .136 drill.

View attachment 349694

View attachment 349695

I went ahead and did 6.

The stud on these is threaded 1/4-24 tpi... I needed 1/4-24 threaded rod, but could not find a source for it. However, M6 x 1.0 is extremely close to 1/4-24, so I bought a piece of M6 all thread.

I chucked the all thread in the collet chuck and turned both ends to .135...

View attachment 349696

This allows the ball to slip on...

View attachment 349697

I then cut both ends off to the correct length for the stud and turned the other end of the pieces to finish the stud.

View attachment 349698

I have 6 almost finished...

View attachment 349699

Now I just have to JB Weld the studs into the balls and let them cure.

This was a lot quicker and easier than trying to turn these out of a solid piece, IMO.

6 down, several dozen to go...

-Bear

The magnet trick was genius!
 
This morning I came home from work and bagan the final assembly of the feed reversing clutch...

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Everything went together easily and works pretty smooth, so I went ahead and set the headstock casting on the lathe and bolted it down... I didn't have any way to lift it and set it on except just muscle it myself. I removed the shift fork first, to keep from damaging it, then eased the headstock onto the bed gently. I then lifted the outboard end of the casting with my left hand while I reached between the casting and the bed with my right and reinstalled the shift fork. Then it was just a matter of lining the fork up with the sleeve and gently setting the headstock down... not difficult at all!

After bolting it down, I spent some time adjusting the feed clutch linkage, then moved on to fitting the spindle...

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The spindle bearings are cone shaped... 4 degrees per side taper, IIRC. To prevent the spindle from being pushed into this taper and locking it up, there is a thrust washer between the inboard end of the spindle and the bearing (right behind the chuck).

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One of the common issues with these Hendey lathes is that the face of the bearing wears faster than the taper, allowing the spindle to lock in the taper under the pressure of using the tailstock or a heavy cut. This lathe has that problem.

The fix for this is to install the spindle, pushing it into the bearing (without the thrust washer), measure the gap where the thrust washer should be...

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... add .007" to the gap width, and shim between the spindle and thrust washer to get that thickness. For example, the gap on my lathe measures 0.181"... add 0.007", so I need a 0.188" washer. The original washer is 0.180", so I need to add 0.008" shim.

Rather than shimming, though, I discovered that McMaster sells a thrust washer that is very close to the correct size. I will have to put it on the surface grinder and remove around 0.020" to get the correct thickness, but thats not a problem. I like that idea better than trying to shim it.

-Bear
 
The thrust washer was delivered yesterday, so this morning I began working on fitting it to the spindle. The OD of the washer was the perfect size to fit the recess in the spindle bearing, but the ID was too small. I chucked it up in the lathe and used a 1 inch carbide boring bar with a TPG 321 insert and began cutting... or trying to... this washer is HARD! I finally managed to find the right speed and feed to machine it... it would machine, and leave a good finish, but was wearing the inserts pretty fast. I removed 0.060" from the ID and acheived an easy 'tap fit' on the spindle.

The washer is supposed to be a snug fit on the spindle... it is not supposed to turn on the spindle while running. There is also supposed to be a pin in the spindle that engages a notch in the washer to keep the washer fixed to the spindle (more on that later).

That presented a problem... how to cut a 1/8" notch on the ID of a washer that is extremely hard... I finally managed to 'rough' the notch in with a cutoff wheel in my Dremel, then finished it with a diamond needle file... by hand... not easy.

I managed it, though... then put the washer on the surface grinder and ground 0.021" off the face...

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It looks rough, but isn't... that is the way it came from McMaster... with a stoned finish.

Next, I began working on the spindle. The previously mentioned pin had, at some point, sheared off and left the end in the spindle. Rather than trying to remove it, I drilled and reamed a new 1/8" hole and fitted a new pin in place with a drop of loctite.

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Then I carefully tapped the thrust washer into position on the spindle and slid it into the headstock. It turns smoothly now, without locking in the taper.

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I also machined a spacer for the cross slide lead screw...

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When I bought the lathe, there was a stack of washers on the shaft to fill that space. I turned that out of 6061, and put an index mark on it for dial reading purposes.

-Bear
 
Today, I've been working on the headstock again. I started out cleaning all of the parts that rotate on / with the spindle. After scrubbing them in the parts cleaner tank and drying them, I began working on figuring out how to hold the step pulley in the South Bend. I ended up turning 2 pieces of aluminum to fit the inner bore on each end of the pulley. One mounts in the chuck and the pulley slips over it... the other fits in the other end of the pulley and the tailstock center pushes all of it together.

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I used sandpaper and scotchbrite to clean all of the rust and old paint off.

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It looks a lot better now.

After test fitting all of the parts to the spindle individually, I spent a couple of hours reassembling the spindle in the headstock casting. I was prepared to have to do this several times to get it right, but somehow managed to get it all together on the first try!

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Everything is working as it should, with no slop or play in anything.

The outer bearing cap looks like crap...

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I'm debating... do I want to try TIG brazing the holes up and re-establishing them, and taking a skim cut on the OD to make it look better, or see if I can machine a new one? Getting the threads to fit would be the hard part...

IDK... I may work on that later, if I can find a suitable piece of brass cheap enough to make an attempt.

-Bear
 
I think I would just clean up the cap, and turn the buggered up hole into a slot.

You have done a great job, in a short time. Makes me feel bad that I am still working on my SB16", after several years.
 
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