Niles lathe rehab ...

FOMOGO said:
Winegrower, I'm just glad that it has a powered carriage, and cross slide. Might try to rig up a small winch under the bed with some pulley's to move the tail stock back and forth, as it is a beast to move manually.
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That would be a great step to install a winch, I hope you do that and document it.

I looked at an even bigger lathe we were considering, and the tailstock had a handle operating a rack and pinion scheme. That would almost be mandatory, I’d think.
 
Nice job moving that beast. There were a lot of large lathes produced with a rack and pinion for moving the tail stock. Might make a fun project to build a set-up like that for this lathe.

Nice looking '60 T-bird too !

Ted
 
Congratulations, nothing like a new family member.
Building a gear with a crank to engage the rack for moving the tailstock has been on my list for some time. Guess I haven't struggled enough yet.
You mentioned it had power feed on the carriage / cross feed, is that the belt driven shaft? My Summit has a motor on the carriage for rapid carriage and cross feed movement. Nice on heavy long bed lathes.

Greg
 
Yes it's pulley driven from the head stock end. Thinking about motorizing the lead screw from the tail stock end for threading. Not sure if that's been done on something this size. I have the change gears for it, so will see how it goes. The rapid on the carriage would be a great feature to have on a long machine. Mike
 
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Here's hoping you don't fall victim to the machinist's curse of always needing a little more capacity than you have.
 
Found a description of my lathe in a 1891 catalog. By1898, the tail stock had changed slightly, and the carriage drive had changed from pulley to gear, so that puts it somewhere between 1891 and 1897. Didn't have any luck on the US patent site searching the 1891 and up dates. Mike

1891
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1898
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Have been really busy with other work, but have managed to get some more cleaning work done. Finished up the ways, top of the carriage, and the spindle area. The spindle pulley's took a lot of time. First scrapping with a sharp putty knife to remove the major baked on crude, then went at it with the 9" Milwaukee with an 8" wire wheel. It's looking better, but still a long way to go. Someone had cut out a six inch section of the inner tail stock way at the head stock area with a torch, and none to neat of a job of it. I assume the did this for clearance for something. Shouldn't really affect anything. Cleaned it up with a 4 1/2" grinder, followed up with a 120 grit sanding disc. Starting on the face plate, and four jaw chuck next, as time allows. Mike

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OMG, if that Lathe could talk, it would tell you all the amazing parts that were turned on it. The last Machine Shop I worked at had a Leblonde with a 20' bed. That machine was a Beast. I ran it many times and I turned some long heavy shafts on it. All the lathes at that shop had Travadials on the tables and they were great to work with. The last couple of years I was there, the Leblonde was upgraded to a digital readout, but I trusted the Travadial more than the readout.
 
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