I think I know already, but what would you do with this 101.07301?

[kadams4458]

the large ones even china made are up around 1000 bucks. If you really wanted to put in some work, I suppose it could be any manner of machine tool that needs traversable table. Belt sander or grinder or even some kinda manual scraper deal. But that to me would be doing it for the joy of doing it, not cause it's needed. But it's bout ready made for centers for inspection and lay out or what ever you could find use for

Definitely interesting. I will continue my quest to keep it a lathe until it is obvious that it would be far beyond cost effective to do so, but I can see some good possibilities now.

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I can't offer any help, so my apologies, but I have to say - I cannot possibly fathom why someone would destroy a machine tool like that. My only machine tool is a lathe virtually identical to that one, and it pains me greatly to see the shape yours is in. Whoever did that needs a few thou turned off of their face...

I kind of think that someone may have been attempting to turn it in to a wood lathe. Whatever they were doing, I don't think I will ever understand it, but that's okay. I don't think I would want to go too far down that rabbit hole.

If I can find a headstock, or just another busted up lathe with a salvageable headstock and a few other bits, then I might be able to bring this thing back to life. To that end, I have placed a want ad locally. Who knows, I may get lucky. If nothing else, I have some parts here that I can learn scraping on.

 

[chuckorlando]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Craftsman-A...054?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item233e09b976

 

[JimDawson]

Looks like someone had a metal lathe and wanted a wood lathe so they converted it. What a waste.

 

[kadams4458]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Craftsman-A...054?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item233e09b976

Sigh. I wish mine were a 12" model, but sadly, it is merely a 6". That said, I have done research on fleabay. Though no headstocks are current listed for sale, two have been listed in the past three months, so they do appear occasionally. The two example fetched $100 and $150, respectively. I hear stories of folks buying entire 618's for that price, but I'll be darned if they seem to sell for that little in these parts. (The two posted locally that are operable have owners asking $1200 and $2500. Uhm. What?)

What I find most troubling is the number of used spindles and other headstock components routinely available. One has to wonder if sellers aren't just dismantling good headstocks to turn a higher profit, and simply discarding the headstock castings that I so badly need. It seems a 618 is worth more in parts than assembled these days.

 

[wa5cab]

kadams (please sign posts).

In all fairness, almost any mechanical assembly made years ago and still fairly popular today is worth much more as parts than complete. Spindles and many other parts wear out. So usable replacements are in some demand. Headstocks, not so much. It usually isn't worth the time to write an ad and list such parts. But what you should do is find a few sellers with a number of 618 or 101.21400 or 101.7301 parts listed and write and ask whether they still have the headstock casting. If they do, most will be quite happy to sell it to you. Just bear in mind that the spindle and a few other parts are not the same in the 618 and 101.21400 as they are in the 101.7301. So if you upgrade to Timken, you will have to buy a few other parts as well. I'm not suggesting that you can do better work with a 618 than with a 101.07301 if both are in equivalent condition. You might base your decision upon the condition of the spindle that you have.

Robert D.

 

[Round in circles]

That's an interesting use for a clapped out metal work lathe.

With a wood work lathe like that you could turn splinters to your hearts content.

I like the fact that the cross slide is still almost there a simple " T" piece bolted to the former tool post would make the tool rest .

You could also modify the cross slide arrangement so that you could use the face plate to drive a wood router bit across the face of wood held to the cross slide to make grooves in it

Perhaps run up a new face plate that will also take a centre screw for bowl turning .

 

[kd4gij]

Looks like some one made a wood turning lathe at some point in it's life.

 

[kadams4458]

kadams (please sign posts).

In all fairness, almost any mechanical assembly made years ago and still fairly popular today is worth much more as parts than complete. Spindles and many other parts wear out. So usable replacements are in some demand. Headstocks, not so much. It usually isn't worth the time to write an ad and list such parts. But what you should do is find a few sellers with a number of 618 or 101.21400 or 101.7301 parts listed and write and ask whether they still have the headstock casting. If they do, most will be quite happy to sell it to you. Just bear in mind that the spindle and a few other parts are not the same in the 618 and 101.21400 as they are in the 101.7301. So if you upgrade to Timken, you will have to buy a few other parts as well. I'm not suggesting that you can do better work with a 618 than with a 101.07301 if both are in equivalent condition. You might base your decision upon the condition of the spindle that you have.

Robert D.

My apologies for forgetting to sign. Ordinarily I set my signature up when I join a forum, but when I signed up here it was via my smart phone, and the website doesn't play too nice with my phone for some reason. I had meant to create my signature when I sat down at a real computer, but it completely slipped my mind. It's all fixed now, though!

Contacting a seller with multiple pieces listed is a great idea. For some reason, my mind hadn't generated that possibility. I am going to give that a shot as soon as I figure out whether any of my existing parts can be saved.

Thank you for the heads up on the headstock differences. My spindle is pretty trashed, as is the stacked pulley, and of course all of the other parts are completely missing. I will post up some photos of the parts I have and see if the fine members of this forum can tell me whether they are worth bothering with.

Thanks again for the great idea!

 

[kadams4458]

So the total of parts left in the headstock are the spindle, pulley, a thrust bearing, and a locking collar, and the two plain bearings. The business end of the spindle isn't too bad, but the rest of it? Well, it's ugly. The sleeve in the pulley? Yeah, that's ugly, too. Ditto goes for the collar. Oddly, the little thrust bearing isn't too bad, but I don't recall ever seeing one of those as part of the original assembly. (Edit: I just found a good pictorial on removing the spindle of a plain bearing 618, and there is a thrust bearing. I am a little smarter today than I was yesterday!)

Amazingly, the keyways in the spindle are fine. Unfortunately, I haven't found much in the way of information on the plain bearing headstock assembly. I don't know what parts are even missing. I don't know what areas of the spindle are critical bearing surfaces besides the obvious two where the spindle attaches at the headstock casting. I don't know a lot of things, and that's the problem.

 

[kadams4458]

Apparently the pulley and the small gear are supposed to be one piece. Can someone verify that for me, please?